Sunday, May 31, 2020

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions


    When Will it End


Microaggression is defined  as brief everyday indignities; verbal, behavioral, or environmental; communicated intentionally or unintentionally; containing an insulting message; often causes serve psychological stress and harm; reflect views of inferiority/ superiority and inclusion/exclusions; and happen outside the level of awareness of well-intentioned individuals (Laureate Education, 2011).

I can remember a time when my family and I were looking for seats at the airport while waiting for our flight. We sat down leaving a seat between us and an older Caucasian couple. The lady frowned at us as we sat down. She then sucked her teeth and the couple got up and moved to another area. The nonverbal message she gave off was that we could not sit near her because of the color of our skin. In a crowded airport we just wanted to be as comfortable as everyone else while we awaited our flight. To think we have to continuously go through events like this in 2020 is tiring.

As I look at events happening in the world right now it is heart breaking how much hate is in this world. I also think with Covid-19 already creating trauma in our everyday lives we cannot show love as we once were able to comfort one another.  The racism we are feeling is creating hatred in many. I saw a quote that said racism never ended it is just being filmed now. I often feel overwhelmed by all that is going on right now and have a hard time speaking on these matters. I think of my family where I have some law enforcement relatives and some first responders and we are genuinely good people we go out of our way to help others but not only are we scrutinized by the color of our skin but also our careers.

I came across a video that features a woman by the name of Jane Elliott who brings awareness to racism in America. This video to me shows how some people are not willing to change.


References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu


1 comment:

  1. Hi Sharita,

    Your video was a great. It demonstrated how some white people really can not understand what African American go through on a daily basis. Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete