Siúil a Rúin
when the colors fade
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 14,044
- MBTI Type
- ISFP
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- 496
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
This is a concept that I encountered in a multi-cultural counseling course in which we studied racism on a deep level. It also applies to sexism and all other forms of societal power imbalances. Reasonable people readily reject the overt forms of racism and sexism in which bodily harm and violation occurs at the hands of individuals we readily reject morally. Another dimension to these social issues are the countless incidences of microaggressions. Taken individually these are insignificant and easily dismissed, but the issue is that for the oppressed demographic they occur countless times on a daily basis, so these are like the river that erodes the landscape into the grand canyon. Because these individually lack the catastrophic nature of overt oppression, they are more easily accepted and practiced by ourselves and others we respect. When an individual from an oppressed demographic speaks out against any one microaggression, they are seen as being overly sensitive and fixating on minutia. Microaggression have a cumulative effect that makes it possible for more overt forms of aggression to take place. How should these incidences be approached when encountered in ourselves and others?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression
http://www.microaggressions.com
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression
http://www.microaggressions.com
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life