The Discussion Post should be written in complete sentence form with punctuation, proper grammar and correct spelling.
Please answer the questions with at least five complete sentences for each question. The respond to two other students’ posts.
- Explain and define, what is a microagression.
- Have you experience an microaggression? Give details.
Respond 1
- Explain and define, what is a microaggression.
Simply put, microaggression is when someone passes on their own personal implicit biases towards another person through subtle non-verbal and/or verbal remarks, insults, or messages. Often, people may not realize they are passing on a micro-aggressive comment because they are naive to the impact their words or actions come across to the other party. Other times, someone may intentionally say things that are considered micro-aggressive because they are trying to show power, status, or more and this is simply not okay. Some examples of a micro-aggressive comments include the following:
-How much money do you actually have?
-How did you really get this high level position?
-You are actually really intelligent for being a woman in this industry.
All in all, microaggressions can be based on a person’s gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, race, etc, and can be very impactful to the receiving end of the comment. Educating and being aware of the comments that come out of our own mouths can help decrease the spread of hurtful remarks, even without knowing it. - Have you experience an microaggression? Give details.
As a young woman going into the Financial Advising world, I have experienced a couple micro-aggressive comments in the past and expect to hear more when I go full time in my role (unfortunately that is the nature of the business). My first related microaggression in this regard was about a year ago. I was in my college finance class, and we were about halfway through the semester when people started having trouble with a specific topic. I was sitting by a fellow classmate, and he knew I was understanding the material as I was doing well on assignments, quizzes, and tests. When receiving an “A” on my test that was handed to me, the student next to me said “Wow, how is the only girl in class understanding this stuff but we can’t”. He said it in a joking way and laughed after saying it so I just let it brush off my back, but I was a bit taken back by the bluntness of the comment. To be frank, it just motivated me to keep doing my thing by doing great in the class. Although I was motivated, it did get under my skin because it’s the assumptions that just because I am a girl, I don’t know how to work with numbers. I do not think the classmate sitting next to me meant it ill-intentioned, but it was a micro-aggressive comment that could have been avoided if he knew better.
Respond 2
- Microaggressions are considered actions or statements that negatively target a persons personal identity based on their membership to a particular group. These points of commentary or actions commonly involve prejudice attitudes. Becuase society has been built around so many stereotypes, it is common for people to subconciously perform microaggressions. Microaggressions can occur in many different circumstances including the workplace, sports teams, and the classroom. These impacts marginalized groups that are different from what is considered the majority in the community.
Examples:
You speak English pretty well.
Can I touch your hair?
You don’t act like your black. - Yes I have experienced microagressions as a Puerto Rican who is bilingual. People will frequently tell me that “I speak english well”. This is aggressive in nature because it is insinuating that I should act or speak a certain way. As a person with brown skin and curly hair I have also had people compare their sun tans to my natural skintone. This is a microagression because it is humorizing my genetics. As a minority many of my physical features have been highlighted with microagressions because they are clearly different from the majority of my peers.
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