"Ancient Chinese Secret"
Posted on 05/12/2015 11:04:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Apparently, just being in certain rooms is a microaggression.
According to a new report released by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, just “walking into or sitting in” a classroom full of white people is a microaggression in itself.
“Students of color reported feeling uncomfortable and unwelcomed just walking into or sitting in the classroom, especially if they were the only person of color, or one of a few,” stated the report, which designated the experience a microaggression.
“People do not necessarily say I do not belong, but I feel as if I do not when I am in a classroom and I am the one non-White person,” said one student, identified as a Latina female, who is quoted in the report.
The report, titled “Racial Microaggressions,” was based on an online survey of more than 4,800 students of color during the 2011–12 academic year, and it found more than 800 examples of such microaggressions on campus. Now, that may seem like a lot — but it’s important to recognize that this high number could signify the prevalence of a tendency to assume that almost anything is racist rather than the prevalence of racism itself.
Don’t get me wrong — some of the examples are totally unacceptable and definitely racist. One Asian student reported having “been told to go back to running a Laundromat,” and a multiracial student reported that she once “overheard other White students discussing admissions and laughing about how the only reason stupid Mexicans could get into this school was due to affirmative action.”
Those things are definitely racist and offensive. There’s no doubt about that.
But a lot of the report’s “most commonly described” racial microaggressions could also be interpreted as having nothing to do with racism at all. “Being the only student of color in the classroom” was on that list, as was “being discouraged during meetings with one’s academic advisor” (one student determined that her adviser had questioned her choice of major only because “she realized I was African American,” and therefore, “in her mind, I wasn’t able to successfully complete the major”); “being dismissed or ignored by the instructor before or after class” (an African-American male stated, “when I raise my hand, I am often not called upon”); “receiving hostile reactions to participation in the classroom discussion” (one student said she has “witnessed and felt that when a minority student tries to correct [a] comment . . . they are then viewed as angry or defensive when in reality they are simply trying to inform others of what is true”); and “being excluded from participating in a group project” (one student says he keeps quiet in these situations because “I feel as though what I have to say often doesn’t matter to the rest of the group members.”)
But don’t advisers question students’ major choices all the time? Isn’t that actually their entire job? Hasn’t every participation-eager student had a professor that he feels doesn’t call on him enough? Isn’t it possible that people who act annoyed or upset about being publicly corrected are just upset about being publicly corrected in general rather than because they were corrected by a minority student specifically? Doesn’t the group-project example sound more like the kind of general shyness/self-doubt/social anxiety that anyone can experience rather than a sign of institutional racism?
Despite the fact that so many of these “microaggressions” are designated as such based on questionable assumptions, the study still recommends that the school take drastic measures to stop them: requiring that all students complete a “General Education requirement about race, White privilege, and inequality in the United States” as well as “both a non-Western culture and a US people of color cultural course”; fundamentally altering the curriculum to ensure that a third of all college 101 classes “include diversity and inclusion”; providing workshops, trainings, campaigns, and brochures “to help students identify when racial microaggressions are occurring”; creating a “slogan or language” — such as the phrase “Racism Alert” — to use when they identify one; and developing a “mechanism for students to report perceived racial microaggressions.”
Call me cynical, but I have a lot of doubts about these suggestions. First of all, I could see college students mocking a phrase like “Racism Alert!” rather than taking it seriously, which could just create further discomfort for everyone involved. Furthermore, what material specifically is the report suggesting that the school eliminate in order to make room for this kind of widespread anti-microaggression curriculum?
Some of these policies could even create tangible disadvantages for minority students. For example, picking the right major is a crucial decision, and experienced advisers definitely have the ability to help students pick one that’s going to benefit them most — but putting advisers at risk of being branded racists forever in a campus-reporting system for offering this kind of advice to students of color might discourage them from doing so.
No doubt, racism and sexism exist. But it’s important to carefully examine problems before jumping to do something to try and solve them just so you can say that you’re trying — especially when some of the ideas run the risk of making things worse.
The idiotic conclusion of this is: whites need to be segregated from everyone else, because they are bad, AKA, reverse Jim Crow.
Poor babies, not everyone is trying to make them feel special. Just like homos, they want to be the center of attention and worship.
How about if they were all naked?
I would love to go one day without reading about homosexuals, transgenders, blacks, latinos, one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eaters not complaining about some sort of discrimination!!!!!
MAKE IT STOP!!!!
I would rather suffer micro-aggression than macro-aggression...
Oh, for the Sake of Pete
I was a female student in engineering back when it meant there were times I was the only female in the smaller classes, and female enrollment was 10% at best.
Being the only female in the class could feel isolating, and there was a tendency for the only girls to group up.
However, saying “I’m the only one, I’m oppressed” as a mentality would mean either:
A. it becomes male only because women feel they can’t be in that area, at the same time undermining the “women are just as good” because they think they can’t be a singleton in a group or setting
B. women are segregated into female only classes and groups, undermining professional development later
C. women not really interested and/or qualified are dumped into the classes, undermining the perception of women as capable and qualified because most present are only for the “diversity”.
Then his wife goes and blows it!
“We need more Calgon!”
A minority feeling uncomfortable is worse than a minority punching an elderly white women in the back of the head.
I’ve noticed women at tech conferences being treated like, or just acting like, “queen for the day” as well.
True discrimination as a female engineer: 20 years ago, constantly being mistaken as the secretary instead of the engineer seeking quotes, which I learned to handle by up front discussing the budget I had for the project
Legitimate sex based discrimination: for the love of god, don’t throw up in the clean room, and if your morning sickness is that bad, you’re getting reassigned until it is over
False discrimination: You’re the only one in the room while taking pride to break into male only spaces, dressing to get attention GETS attention, being asked for a perspective because you’re different from the rest (especially when liberals say we have to have this).
I was one of four females in the freshmen mechanical engineering courses, one of whom was engaged, another already married. My husband considers marrying me the equivalent to winning the lottery - he didn’t just find a girlfriend, she was an engineer, too!
I know it wont make you smile
I plan to be here for a while
Gotta vote in the next election.
Got those Old White Guy Blues
From my head down to my shoes
gettin’ harder and harder for me to figure.
Thought I did everything right
But you hate me just cause Im white.
Seems the Old White Guy...He's the new Nig-ga.
Sheesh! The perpetually offended have become incerdibly thin-skinned. Any thinner, and they'll leave snail trails wherever they go from serum leakage.
I understand your point, my point is the article is biased to races other than white, I have been in situations where I was the only White or one of a small minority of Whites in a room and somehow I managed. It’s interesting how your situation in higher education is being flipped on it’s ear today but we don’t hear about young men unable to deal with it. I believe it’s character and fortitude, as you had, that makes the difference in succeeding.
White people being killed is the only solution to this suffering for Black, Brown and Yellow racists/communists. They really mean it...they hate the sight and sound of whitey.
waaa waaaaa... waaa waaaa...
What a bunch of little chicken poop cry babies this nation is turning out,, all courtesy of mindless agenda driven idiots running universities..
Should we close down the (very liberal) city? Just imagine how many smaller areas within Portland's city limits have no blacks at all!!
3 percent of Mesa AZ is black. 2 percent of Albuquerque NM is black. 2 percent of El Paso TX s black.
Liberal bastion Seattle is only 4.8 percent black. I guess they must now close every Starbucks.
I also rarely see any airport in America with more than 2-4 percent black passengers (although usually at least half of the employees are black). Close all the airports and cancel all flights!!!
(Maybe we shouldn't discuss the disparity in libraries.)
(6 percent of metropolitan Detroit is white.)
I had a similar experience the first time I boarded a bus when I was living in the north end of Toronto. Coming from a homogeneous rural town in northern Ontario, I always chalked it up to culture shock. Now I know better. Maybe some reparations might help?
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