Posted on 05/15/2015 8:02:09 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
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. A lot of the report’s “most commonly described” racial microaggressions could also be interpreted as having nothing to do with racism at all. 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.”
More P.C. Culture Petition: ‘Walk Only’ Signs in Pedestrian Areas Are Insensitive to Disabled People Raven Symone Verbally Abused for Wanting Rosa Parks on $20 Bill Instead of Harriet Tubman University Launches Insult-Reporting System That Records Offenders’ Social Security Numbers 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.
You got it & many whities go along with this & cowtow to these ignorant knuckledraggers.
“Yes, the room was FULL of White people... and they we all breathing!”
“Some even made eye contact with me!”
“Oh, the horrors!”
Question: When is the last time we landed on the moon?
"And groups of blacks kicking the crap out of a white person in a park could be call microaggression as well.
Blacks forcing whites out of their cars to steal them could be called microaggression as well."
You are both wrong!
These are not examples of micro-aggression.
These are macro-aggression!
And on the other hand, you could hand deliver a job offer toy many blacks who are unqualified for it anyway, and they would likely never show up for real work.
You could give each black $1 Million dollars......they would soon be back for more. They will never be happy.
That is the sad truth of the matter.
I have 30 years of experience traveling for work and for fun, 35 countries so far, the vast majority of them have basically no white population. I stand out, I am blonde, I am 6’1...i absolutely and positively stand out everywhere I go. I am constantly targeted by very aggressive salesmen on the street, I am constantly targetting by panhandlers, and homeless, in a sea of thousands of people in a marketplace I stand out, am noticed, and attract non stop attention almost (but not quite) like a slightly above average woman does simply by walking alone into a bar. I am under no illusions that in most places I go, that not a single person would bat an eye were I to be robbed and beaten and or stabbed, and if my flayed body would end up in the street that a signficant portion of the population at large would feel some satisfaction that some evil caucasion got his just deserts. Despite all that, I just walk the streets projecting the attitude that I belong, and I never run into problems, and thus am able to enjoy everything despite a continuous flow of “microaggression” around me
If this minority @$$h0l3 wasn't such a self centered, narcissistic jerk, she would have done her best to make herself likable to the "intolerant" room. Prove her worth, if you will. As if a room full of white people being "intolerant" was even a remote possibility in this day and age. It would have been a vomit-inducing asskissing contest of epic proportions to see which whitey displays their political correctness the most.
Who is the real racist here? Why do we even put up with this anymore?
Getting fed up with this crap, too.
When does assertion of rights progress to baseless whining?
And if I say I'm fed up with being told that my simply being white is racist, is that racist...or is it just more damned whining from a bunch of whiners that are being called out for their constant damned whining?
Hmmmm. So I wonder what a Tuskeegee Institute graduation is considered.
Microagression that must be what I feel when I go into the DMV, the only white person there.
I don’t recall any “whites only” signs on those rooms full of white rocket scientists back in the late 1950s - early 60s. Now there are many well qualified minority and female rocket scientists in there. The opportunity is there for all who will work to earn it.
you never heard this kinda BS before Obammie.
Based on the above examination, I come up with a diagnosis of "butt-hurt."
I might add that subjects "identified as . . . Latina female" are statistically at high risk for Chronic Butt-Hurt.
I don’t buy this garbage. I remember sitting on the lawn to listen to a concert in a major city. The lawn was filled with probably 1,000 white people except for two couples of blacks which I could clearly see. Perhaps there were more. A friend with me told me at the time that obviously the blacks did not have any worries being surrounded by whites. If the situation were reversed, a few whites surrounded by mostly all blacks, the whites would probably be a bit concerned, particularly now.
They need their own country.
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