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University Report: A Room Full of White People Is a Microaggression
National Review ^ | 5/12/15

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: blackkk; fascism; microaggression; whiteprivilege
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To: Last Dakotan

But the government says that diversity is our strength. Mission control could have been so much better with LBGT and islamic enrichment.


61 posted on 05/16/2015 12:32:08 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: Altura Ct.
"University Report: A Room Full of White People Is a Microaggression ..."

.... Well then .... wouldn't the same therefore be true .... about a Room Full of Black People? Or Asian People .... Or Latinos ..... Or a room full of (Fill in any group of people).

.... Hey ... two can play this game folks. Fight Back ...... Prevent Idiocracy before it's too late.

62 posted on 05/16/2015 12:52:45 AM PDT by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
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To: Altura Ct.
"microaggression"; he has no idea.. I would say it "could be" macroagression..

If he could read my mind.. he would be afraid.. VERY afraid..


63 posted on 05/16/2015 1:18:08 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Ouchthatonehurt

Best post so far... but your only #16...


64 posted on 05/16/2015 1:23:10 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Last Dakotan

Breaks my heart to see the contempt for what we were... thanks for the poignant illustration.


65 posted on 05/16/2015 1:26:16 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: dsrtsage

So where were you in Zurich of 2001? A man and his montecristo is surely a limited affair.


66 posted on 05/16/2015 1:39:26 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Shadow44

“Whoever came up with the moronic concept of “microaggression” should be flogged in public, every week”

With a frozen Tuna,


67 posted on 05/16/2015 2:16:35 AM PDT by BigCinBigD (...Was that okay?)
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To: Altura Ct.

So now we have to think about what thier thinking before we act


68 posted on 05/16/2015 3:06:00 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Empty head empty suit = arrogant little bastard)
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To: Shadow44

A roomful of black people is a macroaggression...


69 posted on 05/16/2015 3:22:32 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Intolerant in NJ

Or go to a black college.


70 posted on 05/16/2015 3:38:47 AM PDT by MagnoliaB
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To: Last Dakotan

That picture strikes me as odd in that no one is smoking.
Not one?


71 posted on 05/16/2015 3:44:59 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: Last Dakotan

Look at all the skinny ties!


72 posted on 05/16/2015 3:45:12 AM PDT by PLMerite ("The issue is never the issue. The issue is the Revolution.")
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To: Altura Ct.

The important thing for people on our side to get into their thick heads is that IT WILL NEVER END.

South Africa is now about 90% black, yet they have Affirmative Action - for blacks! It DOES NOT end with these people. Gay marriage is now supported by a slim majority of Americans, not because they dream of having a wonderful time in bed with a same-sex partner (no, it still disgusts them), but because they want gays to go away and SHUT UP. But they will not - they are now leveraging off of their victories in their ‘marriage’ fight to move into schools for recruitment, and even laying the groundwork to start normalizing pedophilia.

Activists LIVE FOR THE FIGHT, that is what defines them. They NEVER go away. Blacks and women got full equality some time in the 1970s, but did their organizations fold? Of course not....now it’s ‘micro-aggression’. It will NEVER END.

The real question is whether our side can understand that and is up to fighting them every day...if not, we simply lose.


73 posted on 05/16/2015 4:00:40 AM PDT by BobL (REPUBLICANS - Fight for the WHITE VOTE...and you will win (see my home page))
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To: Altura Ct.

How soon now before acadumbia crazy-stupids itself out of business?


74 posted on 05/16/2015 4:03:05 AM PDT by Amagi (Lenin: "Socialized Medicine is the Keystone to the Arch of the Socialist State.")
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To: Altura Ct.
Everything bad that happens to me is... because racism!

Gettin a little worn out

75 posted on 05/16/2015 4:05:20 AM PDT by Cooter (Radicals always try to force crises because in a crisis, everyone must choose sides. - J. Goldberg)
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To: doc1019

I will take micro aggression of whites over the violent, hate filled MACRO aggression of blacks that saddles you with a lifelong physical disability


76 posted on 05/16/2015 4:12:00 AM PDT by Josa
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To: jmacusa
A New York City subway car full of feral black males is micro-aggression.
Nope, that is MACROaggression.
77 posted on 05/16/2015 4:13:59 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ($$$$$ Don't Defund the Government...Defund Obama and his illegal policies $$$$$)
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To: Altura Ct.

Seeing that blacks only make up 13% of the population, I guess everything is microagression to them, and they deserve reparations and monthly stipends./S


78 posted on 05/16/2015 4:32:05 AM PDT by MacMattico
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To: Altura Ct.

Just part of the professional race hustler’s methodology that allows 13% of the population to maintain power over the rest of us.


79 posted on 05/16/2015 4:37:05 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: Altura Ct.

microaggression = incessant whining. Look at me! I’m a wimp.


80 posted on 05/16/2015 6:07:54 AM PDT by sergeantdave
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