🔼: [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]], [[Communication]], [[💡 Language|Language]] ##### Microaggressions Microaggressions are subtle, often casual ways that various biases and [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]] reveal themselves in our everyday lives. They happen when we're not yet mindful of our internalized biases (blind spots), and they unintentionally or unknowingly perpetuate the biases they spring out of. The "micro" refers not to the size of the impact, but the size of the aggression. It can be as small as a passing comment: - "Man up" / "Boys don't cry" - "That's so gay." - Telling random women to smile. To someone who hasn't recognized their biases, having them pointed out can lead to a couple different possibilities. They may feel attacked or shamed (of course, they might actually be getting attacked or shamed) or embarrassed. They might also not recognize why they're important and feel like we're making something out of nothing. Both make sense, though [[🔑 There are no bad Parts]] and having a bias doesn't make us bad people. They arise out of [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]], not out of any kind of personal or moral failure – it's a cultural and systemic problem that is decontextualized from their origins. They're normal. However, microagressions *do* have a significant negative impact on people. They are how [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]] and forms of oppressions covertly spread through cultures and communities. - Safety - Opportunities - Livelihood - Personhood They may even have an adverse impact on psychological and physiological health Again, this is not a moral failure. We who carry these biases are also victims of these biases, we did not give our informed consent to have them and we did not set out to harm others. [^1]: Gina Torino "How Racism and Microaggressions Lead to Worse Health." Center for Health Journalism. USC (2017)