What are microaggressions?
Microaggressions are a subtle form of discrimination. It often goes unnoticed by the people who it does not target but is harmful to the people it does target. Microaggressions target minorities or marginalized groups. Whether the aggressions are racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist or etc, they are often based in prejudices deeply embedded in society such as “Women should stay at home and take care of the kids while men go to work and earn money.”. Some stereotypes and prejudices are so normalized that if someone points them out, they are considered “oversensitive” or “reacting too much”.
Examples of microaggressions :
Sexual orientation related :
•Assuming that all lesbians are more masculine or that all gay men are more feminine
Gender related :
•Calling a transgender person their dead name (their birth name) or using their dead pronouns is highly disrespectful and harmful. Trans people already go through a lot in the process of coming out and transitioning and the basis to be respectful to them is using their correct pronouns and name.
•Addressing crowds with gendered terms such as “ladies and gentlemen” can make genderqueer people (genderqueer is an umbrella term for many gender non-conforming identities.) feel excluded and forgotten.
•Advertising children toys using gender roles stereotypes. For example, a fake oven will be advertised as a girl’s toy. Such microaggressions are harmful because it will normalize these gender role stereotypes to the children.
Disability related :
•Otherizing disabled people will lead society to believe in stupid stereotypes about them. It is separating them from society and reinforcing the prejudice that they are inferior to human beings.
Race related :
•Assuming that BIPOC people are more likely to commit crimes than white people is unjustified and highly harmful to the BIPOC community because it leads them to be arrested for no reason or just out of suspicion.
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