The Student Room Group

Are microaggressions actually a thing?

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Original post by alow
No, it's a load of crap made up by people who are too weak to cope with the real world.


Hey I have depression so I think I'm quite emotionally weak, but I don't believe in microaggressions. :frown:
Can I get some examples of micro aggressions please?
Don't really understand the term.

People being passive aggressive like not wanting to sit next to black people/other on a bus I understand but migroagressions?
Original post by LittleMissMay
What people accuse others of is a legitimate thing, that being prejudice. I don't think it's paranoia or imagined, many times when someone feels people are being racist covertly. There are too many instances of indirect racism, like not sitting next to someone, or following them around the shop, or constantly asking for reassurance that they understand something, or going to a random person and expecting them to be an encyclopaedia of their culture, like asking a black guy to show you a dance move you're not even sure he knows, or asking a Chinese person to help you with math etc.

The way the word is used however can be over used or improperly used or unnecessarily used, sure.


Full on abuse is obviously deplorable but doesn't all this micro-aggression stuff go into the very large folder of "annoying stuff you should learn to deal with". If someone doesn't want to sit next to you on the tube then that's their decision, there isn't much you can do about it.

I mean I have some mental health problems and I've had stuff said to me by friends, family and even mental health professionals which has annoyed me and shown a real lack of understanding for my condition but in the end I bite my lip and get on with life. Stuff is going to annoy you and it seems pretty maniacal to try and totally sanitise the world so that nothing offends you.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 23
Original post by BWV1007
Hey I have depression so I think I'm quite emotionally weak, but I don't believe in microaggressions. :frown:


Then you're clearly not the type of person I was talking about.
Original post by KingBradly
Full on abuse is obviously deplorable but doesn't all this micro-aggression stuff go into the very large folder of "annoying stuff you should learn to deal with". If someone doesn't want to sit next to you on the tube then that's their decision, there isn't much you can do about it.

I mean I have some mental health problems and I've had stuff said to me by friends, family and even mental health professionals which has annoyed me and shown a real lack of understanding for my condition but in the end I bite my lip and get on with life. Stuff is going to annoy you and it seems pretty maniacal to try and totally sanitise the world so that nothing offends you.


Yea I know, which is why I told OP it's not used as a way to say, "hey you're oppressing me!" I've never heard that before, I've never heard it used in that context. Just used as a way to sound smart while lamenting or mentioning that someone did something lowkey racist. Implicit racism is bad because it still shows racist attitudes but I'm the type of person when I'm like, look. As long as you don't touch me or bar me from entering a place or following me around or withholding information like trying to bamboozle/fool me while house-hunting or something that actually will affect me because you're being discriminatory...then cool. Don't be attracted to me, don't wanna sit next to me, don't wanna be my friend, what the **** ever :lolwut: Microaggression if anything is used mockingly by the people using it. They know the people are being silly but can they not discuss it? :s-smilie:
Original post by StrawbAri
Can I get some examples of micro aggressions please?
Don't really understand the term.

People being passive aggressive like not wanting to sit next to black people/other on a bus I understand but migroagressions?


It's the same thing. :colonhash:
Microaggression is just an umbrella word for passive aggression.
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse
I completely agree with this.

Language is amazing in that you can create an entire system and conceptual framework that seems logical; you can create an entire SJW universe of terms that, logically speaking, fit together quite well. Their internal consistency connotes verisimilitude; that it all fits together in a seemingly logical way makes it seem like it has a basis in reality.

But this is just the superficial appearance of actualite. And thus everything that happens to the SJWs seems to fit according to the conceptual framework they've created and everything can be explained in terms of words they've made up; it creates a feedback loop of confirmation bias.

This is why if you were to go to an SJW safe space meeting, they'd just be babbling in this jargon-y language about the ills of the university and how everything is racist and such like. To them, it makes complete sense. To the outsider, it seems like they've lost the plot.


Yep, exactly. And the foundation can no longer be questioned because it has long since been taken as axiom. To them it's like questioning if the earth is round (or an oblate spheroid or whatever the f#%$). Except of course it is more like questioning whether the earth is flat to a bunch of people who have never known any perspective on it beyond their tribe. What's worse is when their myths become validated by being included in academic discourse.
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse
I mean, by sitting next to them rather than the white person, to try to not be racist and so they don't feel like someone is being racist to them, am I actually patronising them and thus being racist? That's the dilemma


That's too much psychology to break down for me personally but.

I wouldn't see it as racist and I've also never seen people complain about that, they'd be more than happy.
They would call it microaggression if you did the opposite which was be lowkey racist. Like not saying, "oh hell no I ain't sitting next to a n word or paki or terrorist or jew, etc!"

It's microaggression to quietly exhibit those thoughts by just avoiding them. It's gonna hurt some feelings sure but not mine personally, I don't give a **** but I don't wanna sit cramped up anyway.

The whole writing monkey on the banana isn't microaggressive, for example. That's just downright bullying it's just not violent.
People think if it's not violent or angry yelling it's not racist :colonhash:
Original post by KingBradly
Yep, exactly. And the foundation can no longer be questioned because it has long since been taken as axiom. To them it's like questioning if the earth is round (or an oblate spheroid or whatever the f#%$). Except of course it is more like questioning whether the earth is flat to a bunch of people who have never known any perspective on it beyond their tribe. What's worse is when their myths become validated by being included in academic discourse.


Precisely. It takes on a pseudo-substantive air because these undergraduates become masters students and then PhD students, and then go into academia. And they are dealing with academics who have very similar views to theirs.

I don't think it's a philistine position to say that a lot of academic output really is meaningless terminological disputation; various academics firing salvos back and forth (or patting each other on the back) and building layer upon layer of constructed meaning that has no basis in reality.

I was trying to find some material about the lives of homosexual people in the middle ages, and one of the most substantial collections I could find in the library was this long essay of "queer theory" talking about whether the thematic historiography of homosexual-related research in medieval blah blah blah ad infinitum. It was total ********, and it seems like such a waste of time that they could be doing genuine historical research that tells us more about the lives people lived back then. Instead it becomes this feedback loop of meta-references to their own work and their own theory, and theories about theories and critique of theories on theories.

I do know there's a place for that in academia, to have wasters sitting around thinking about black holes and philosophy and things with no practical application at all. But in certain areas particularly those dominated by leftists (like "queer theory" and gender theory, linguistics and others) it seems like they've blasted off planet earth and there's little in the way of academic substance, it's just wordplay and laymen and university administration are too intimidated by the seemingly complex nature of the subject to question whether there's anything of value going on.

I think it's that academic world that many of these young SJWs are being drawn into. Actually reminds me a bit of the Sokal Affair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair
Original post by LittleMissMay
That's too much psychology to break down for me personally but.

I wouldn't see it as racist and I've also never seen people complain about that, they'd be more than happy.
They would call it microaggression if you did the opposite which was be lowkey racist. Like not saying, "oh hell no I ain't sitting next to a n word or paki or terrorist or jew, etc!"

It's microaggression to quietly exhibit those thoughts by just avoiding them. It's gonna hurt some feelings sure but not mine personally, I don't give a **** but I don't wanna sit cramped up anyway.

The whole writing monkey on the banana isn't microaggressive, for example. That's just downright bullying it's just not violent.
People think if it's not violent or angry yelling it's not racist :colonhash:


It does seem like a bit of a nebulous term though, which quite ironically can be used passive aggressively to condemn people for being racist, sexist etc when they aren't at all.
Original post by LittleMissMay

It's microaggression to quietly exhibit those thoughts by just avoiding them. It's gonna hurt some feelings sure but not mine personally, I don't give a **** but I don't wanna sit cramped up anyway.


You do also get into a dilemma area sometimes because someone who doesn't think about these things might just randomly sit down next to the white person, but for a black person who has suffered real discrimination, it's almost like they will be extra sensitive (like when you have sunburned skin, if someone even just touches you it hurts) and think the person is being racist even when they're not. It's a difficult issue

The whole writing monkey on the banana isn't microaggressive, for example. That's just downright bullying it's just not violent.
People think if it's not violent or angry yelling it's not racist :colonhash:


I agree with you there. If it was really written by a malicious person it is downright racist and bullying.
Original post by KingBradly
It does seem like a bit of a nebulous term though, which quite ironically can be used passive aggressively to condemn people for being racist, sexist etc when they aren't at all.


They very well could be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
I actually just don't see how someone could be microaggressive as a homophobe :lolwut: Maybe passive aggressive as a sexist...like..."here lemme help ya with that, honey," to a random woman pulling her luggage or something lol if you get the right (or wrong) woman haha, she'll say, "hey dickhead, I got it! :angry:"

I really need an example of microaggression through homophobia though...

But definitely I get microaggression as racism. Because people are way more wary about being overtly racist because well it's illegal, thankfully. So they still exhibit their racist ideas through indirect behaviour which is annoying yes but still not a care of mine as long as my personal space and personal life aren't being affected by it.

I do agree it's rather hypercritical *and hypocritical!* to pay attention to microaggression about micro stuff like that lol but in certain situations like people's senses and awareness are heightened especially if you're the only minority around.
@KingBradly just letting you know I meant hypercritical but decided to add in hypocritical if you didn't see the edit in time :tongue:
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse
You do also get into a dilemma area sometimes because someone who doesn't think about these things might just randomly sit down next to the white person, but for a black person who has suffered real discrimination, it's almost like they will be extra sensitive (like when you have sunburned skin, if someone even just touches you it hurts) and think the person is being racist even when they're not. It's a difficult issue



I agree with you there. If it was really written by a malicious person it is downright racist and bullying.


Well people feel it's condescending if you do something just to show you're not racist. It's more of a joke though when people of colour see a white person being extra friendly like saying hi in the lift to a random black family :rofl:
it's like..."yea...hi...:lolwut:."
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse
I mean, by sitting next to them rather than the white person, to try to not be racist and so they don't feel like someone is being racist to them, am I actually patronising them and thus being racist? That's the dilemma


It really isn't. A dilemma I mean.

I sit where I want on a train, if it is a choice between sitting next to a babe or.a black dude, that choice is a no brainer.

Who cares if he thinks it is a case of "micro aggression " or not? :biggrin:
Original post by LittleMissMay
They very well could be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
I actually just don't see how someone could be microaggressive as a homophobe :lolwut: Maybe passive aggressive as a sexist...like..."here lemme help ya with that, honey," to a random woman pulling her luggage or something lol if you get the right (or wrong) woman haha, she'll say, "hey dickhead, I got it! :angry:"

I really need an example of microaggression through homophobia though...

But definitely I get microaggression as racism. Because people are way more wary about being overtly racist because well it's illegal, thankfully. So they still exhibit their racist ideas through indirect behaviour which is annoying yes but still not a care of mine as long as my personal space and personal life aren't being affected by it.

I do agree it's rather hypercritical *and hypocritical!* to pay attention to microaggression about micro stuff like that lol but in certain situations like people's senses and awareness are heightened especially if you're the only minority around.


Hmm yeh I see what you're saying.

One thing, do you think asking a woman if she wants help is sexist?
Original post by KingBradly
Hmm yeh I see what you're saying.

One thing, do you think asking a woman if she wants help is sexist?


Lol no, I'm not that silly. I just know there are women who might, that's the only time I can see sexist microaggression. If a were a feminist (or just in a bad mood that day lol), and a male asked me for help carrying something, I'd say, "hmmm, how microaggressive of you, implying I'm weak just because I'm a female. Well you can **** right off." lol

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