Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

       Work is such a large part of our lives that it is “everyday life”.  Situations that caused me to question people’s intent and to realize that unintentional microaggressive acts are common and acceptable at work every day.  One such act took place after a white colleague fell and became injured while shopping during her lunch break.  A different white colleague said to me, “Oh, she’s just going after disability.  Isn’t that what people like her do”?  She was perpetuating classism and buying into the myth that there is a culture of poverty because of where the first employee grew up (Gorski, 2007).  I found this to be confusing and questioned the intent because these colleagues are in the same job classification, the injured employee has many more years’ experience, and both are extremely intelligent evidenced by their photographic memories.  I now realize the comments reflect vying for power and a superiority attitude (Laureate, 2010).  What I have learned in this course thus far has taught me that I should have made the second colleague aware of the implications of her statements and not have accepted it as an everyday occurrence.  A similar situation occurred when my supervisor made a comment about an employee of color, stating “she’s just using the system, aren’t they all like that”?  Again, this statement indicates a superior attitude, racism, and discrimination due to negative stereotyping (Teaching Tolerance, n.d.).

          The effects of microaggression I have observed in my present place of employment is that a cumulative effect and disempowerment.  The women of color or from a different class than the dominant group do not point out the aggressions and silently “move on”.  Their acceptance and “harmony” in the work place seem to take precedence over their feelings of being slighted and demeaned (Laureate, 2010). Although the comments were not made directly to the women, there is subtle attitude that not everyone is fully accepted into dominant group which pervades the office.  Awareness, self-reflection, and breaking away the “norm” or “in-crowd” are steps we should all take to strive to break the “-isms” cycle.  The onus of responsibility for change (Gorski, 2007) is on all of us.

My experiences this week have made me keenly aware of the heart-wrenching plight of marginalized people.  Aside from the “office politics”, my job involves listening to and reading complaints, many of which are prompted by microaggressive behavior as well as behavior related to the “-isms”.  I hear people say, “My relative was made to feel like a second class citizen because he/she speaks a different language”; “I was singled out because of my color”.   I hear the loss of dignity and helplessness.  My passion to re-enter the early childhood field is renewed and strengthened.  Our job to identify patterns of behavior and to supplant the beliefs and assumptions that undergird the behavior (Margles, 2010) begins at the beginning when attitudes are forming as studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice (Teaching Tolerance, n.d.). 

References

Gorski, P. C. (2007). The question of class. Education Digest, 73(2), 30–33. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27177336&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Microaggressions in Everyday Life [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism's distortions. Our Schools/Our Selves, 19(3), 137–149. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=51372248&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Teaching Tolerance. (n.d.). Test yourself for hidden bias. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias