Question

Describe one incident from personal experience that you believe demonstratrates the existence of microaggression or contemporary racism.

Answer 1

Microaggression or contemporary racism are common verbal, behavioral or environmental ways of showing prejudice, fueling stereotypes for minority groups.

I am a female Indian, my sister works in the United States. A few years back I went to visit her in the States. All over it was a great experience. The people were nice and helpful. I went for a haircut where I was having a conversation with the hairdresser when she told me in a shocked tone " Your English is surprisingly very good, I was not expecting that"

I wondered why it was a surprise for her. This turned out to be a very common occurrence. When I read about microaggression, later on, I realized what this incident was.

Personally, this did not offend me in any way and I shrugged it off as people's lack of knowledge or curiosity.

One form of microaggression that has caused me to think more about it. It is a subtle way of sexism that occurs every day. My male classmates had started these microaggressive ways since a very young age. Statements such as teasing a boy by calling him a girl is one example of many.

These incidences are very obvious and clearly visible signs of microaggressions existing in our society as a whole. Be it internationally or nationally, these microaggressive behaviors fuel into a bigger issue that needs to be at least brought into awareness to make a change.

Knowledge is the first step towards attitude change.

(Please mention word limit)