Microaggressions - Be Careful What You Say!

a reply to: Winstonian

Regressive insanity.

Microaggression: “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color.”

WTF? @ underlined part. Surely intent would be a critical factor if this garbage is to be even remotely considered?

I think you are right. It's an excuse to unjustly label any straight white male you disagree with in an attempt to shut them up or make them feel guilty.

That has to be the worst attempt to troll I've encountered on here and that's really an accomplishment on ATS. Where did i say shes spoken English for a year? It's been about a decade. What everyone else understood and you evidently missed is the accent loss in less than a year

Now, go back and re read the OP. It is clearly not aimed at Americans/native English speakers. So, when viewed in that manner and contrary to your unnecessary keyboard vomit, I can hardly think of a more relevant example. Can you or are you a member of the "need to be offended" bandwagon?

Also, just to head it off before anything else is said, your thinly veiled allusion was not lost on me. What you're implying there isn't a micro aggression. It's a bigoted and plain old racist.... Well, flat out aggressive act. At the absolute best, a passive aggressive remark with at the very least a subconscious-level intent to offend.

?That, my friend, is why I used the example I did.

a reply to: theantediluvian

originally posted by: Winstonian
a reply to: onequestion

I would be happy to have you come on mine sometime, you seem like an interesting dude!

Intresting dude?

Are you saying women can not be intresting too?

a reply to: Winstonian

I'm embracing my inner racist and memorizing all the noxious micro aggression terms and sayings such that I can gleefully and publicly offend as many as possible.

After all, if you think about it, this crap is really all about "some" people insisting on the right to be offended to continue to justify their own racial animus. There's absolutely no winning with these people, EVER!

i only say what my wife tells me im allowed to say. Its just safer that way.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: In4ormant

I'm not judging but that's an oddly specific metaphor.

Just giving them a heads up before the run into me.on the street.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
i only say what my wife tells me im allowed to say. Its just safer that way.

Your term wife might offend someone. What are you trying to say?

"I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...
let's erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.
'Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other."

2pac - Changes

www.azlyrics.com...

Frankly, anyone coming out with this microagression bs is merely advertising their inability to get along with their fellow human.

It's a useful way of immediately categorising people into those you can happily share a bit of planet Earth with and those you would happily never ever cross paths with.

At least that's the way I see it, there's so much real hurt and stuff in the world, so much real prejudice that this stuff strikes me as insulting to those who have been on the wrong end of proper bad stuff.

a reply to: FamCore

its unfortunate that who tupac was spoke louder than the philosopher he was becoming. maybe another 10 years and we would have seen quite a man emerge. who knows....but its sad the way things turned out.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

well-said. He had the passion and the understanding to be a true leader. But his own hate and the scars he carried contributed to his own downfall (getting beaten by NYPD for j-walking was one of the first major turning points for him and the focus of his art). He also didn't surround himself with the best of folks (Suge Knight, convicted felon with a reputation for sketchy business dealings, and even Snoop Dogg who had just beat a murder charge but was still openly affiliated with the Crips street gang). He also took it personally when Delores Tucker and Bob Dole and other politicians singled him out and he felt particularly "targeted" as a result of that. Really his disgust for society in general helped him to earn a lot of enemies, probably more than any other Music Artist at that time.

Songs like Changes, Dear Mama, Brenda's Got a Baby, those are the songs with especially important messages that still resonate today.

a reply to: Winstonian

You know, I have generally found that it is best to err on the side of caution and just be as intentionally blunt as possible in most of life's situations. Why ever be accused of microagressions when you can master the art of macroagressions? Sort of a cultural and verbal disproportionate response, if you will. Instead of "you speak English quite well", I prefer the "It's called 'English', Pablo... do you speak it?" approach.

Then again,



...and I don't hide that fact or deny it. I embrace who I am, and I think everyone should embrace who they really are, too.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

what a great song. the theme song of my 20's.

I agree...be yourself. if it offends others who are being themselves, well at least everyone has remained true to who they are. And that would make for a nice change in America.

a reply to: Magnivea

Where did i say shes spoken English for a year?

This is what I was responding to:

She's extremely articulate and her English is better than most Americans with only a hint of accent after spending only 6 months in the UK and another few in the US. If someone says something along the lines of "your English is so good" or "you are so articulate" it makes her entire god damned day

I'm not sure how I was supposed to intuit that she's been speaking English for a decade from that but it does little to change the point that I was making.

Now, go back and re read the OP. It is clearly not aimed at Americans/native English speakers. So, when viewed in that manner and contrary to your unnecessary keyboard vomit, I can hardly think of a more relevant example. Can you or are you a member of the "need to be offended" bandwagon?

Is that so? From the OP:

Here are a couple of examples of what these people consider "microaggressions":

"I think the best person should get the job."
"Where are you really from?"
"You speak great English."
"You are so articulate."

Here's the doc from the video from which the statements were taken. Right at the top, in the theme column:

Alien in own land: When Asian Americans and Latino Americans are assumed to be foreign-born

So yeah, you're wrong and your indignant tone makes you look all the more foolish.

Also, just to head it off before anything else is said, your thinly veiled allusion was not lost on me. What you're implying there isn't a micro aggression. It's a bigoted and plain old racist.... Well, flat out aggressive act. At the absolute best, a passive aggressive remark with at the very least a subconscious-level intent to offend.

I didn't think it was all that thinly veiled but I'm glad that you agree. It's going to be interesting how you try to extricate yourself from the corner you've just painted yourself into by conceded that if those comments were made to a native born American (and therefore a native English speaker) that they would in fact be "bigoted and plain old racist."

I'm a white, male, heterosexual, conservative, veteran. When it comes to microagressions, I'm Rambo.

a reply to: JIMC5499

"Are you an alcoholic or have you managed to stay away from the stuff?"

"I hear so many of you people turn to the drink and beat your wives. I think that's terrible."

"You own a gun? Well remind me not to get on your bad side!"

"How many people did you kill? You seem really well adjusted considering."

"Is it hard to kill the little ones?"

"Be honest, how many kids did you have 'over there' ?"

"You were in the Navy? Is it true that a lot of the guys would turn 'homo' when y'all were at sea?"

"Hell yeah man, did you kill a lot of ragheads?"

"You must be really good at taking orders."

"Man you vets got it soooo easy, don't you get like free healthcare for life?"

"I took the civil service exam and I did real good and all but you know, vets get all the jobs because they automatically get a bunch of extra points. It's complete bulls#."

"It's refreshing! You don't seem like a bigot at all. I don't even think of you as a conservative."

"You're a conservative? Yeah man, I hate gays too."

"You're a lot smarter than the other conservatives I know — what a bunch of crazy aholes — how can you stand it?"

"I'm just surprised that you care about poor people at all, I thought people like you hated poor people."

Any of those might be insignificant (or very well might not be) on its own but imagine that's the crap that you heard all the time. Then imagine that your neighbors were a little suspicious of you because you know, "he might have PTSD" and "remember that vet that killed his whole family last year?" That people wondered if you were really qualified for your job or if you got some "unfair advantage" and "stole" that job? That if they saw you in a nice car, they assumed you were a drug dealer. That if people saw you when the elevator doors opened, they waited for the next elevator.. just because "you never know." That people held you responsible for your entire race, your gender, vets, whatever?

This stuff isn't that hard to understand.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I've heard almost all of them and still do. I also consider the source and blow it off.
When I went to college at age 37 we had just gone into Iraq for the second time. I was told that I was unwelcome by some student groups and some of my instructors just because I was a veteran. I didn't curl up in a ball and cry. I didn't go running to the Dean of Students crying that the others are being mean to me. I just blew it off and went about getting my degree.

a reply to: theantediluvian

that is an interesting change of context.

well played.

a reply to: theantediluvian

How is it insulting or dumb to ask the question, "no, I mean where are you from originally?"?

It's often asked of black people since they very obviously don't originate from your part of the world. But you might equally ask it of anyone in America, since very few people originated from there.

I probably wouldn't ask it myself, but that's because I'm generally not overburdened with curiosity about people.