Microaggression--A New Form of Prejudice and Racial Discrimination in Modern Time

                                by Shaoping Moss

Overt racial discrimination has evolved over a long stretch of time—from slavery, segregation, federal government law like the Chinese Exclusion Act to racial profiling and senseless police killing of blacks, as well as the recent racial tensions on college campuses across the country. But the more common form many people have experienced in daily life is micro-aggression. This new concept is analyzed by Derald Wing Sue, a Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University. He has written several books on this critical racist mechanism.  One book is called Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation and another, Microaggressions and Marginality: Manifestation, Dynamics, and Impact.

Microaggression is a newly brought to light form of prejudice and racial discrimination in modern times.  It is pervasive everywhere in American society.  It is often a hidden mechanism that is used to discriminate against those powerless people like minorities, women, and older employees. This practice is especially common at the workplace.  For example, when you get a new boss who decides it’s time to get rid of the older, more expensive workers you may suddenly get a bad performance review; then you know you are in deep trouble. If you stand up to defend yourself you will begin to suffer from a series of microaggressions. You are excluded from important meetings and group activities.  Your favorite project and responsibilities are taken away and you are reassigned to unpleasant duties. You are denied promotion but a white person who is less capable and experienced is promoted. Soon you would feel marginalized and unwelcome. Eventually you couldn’t stand the toxic working environment any more and quit your job unwillingly. Because microaggression is seldom outright and overt discrimination, but usually non-violent and often subtle, covert, gradual and cumulative, it is hard to prove and difficult to fight.  

Most people who have experienced microaggressions in everyday life have just sucked it up and remained silent, using denial or self-blame or other negative strategies to cope with it. They have thus suffered damaging effect from this kind of discrimination and prejudice psychologically and physically. Therefore, as Prof. Sue points out, a lot of research data demonstrates that microaggressions are even more hurtful and harmful than overt instances of racism. As the result we should not only fight against the macroaggressions (or overt aggression) toward those of a different race, culture, or gender, like police killing blacks, but also against microaggression, the less obvious form of prejudice and racial discrimination in daily life.