Research backs students view that microaggressions matter
SANDY BANKS
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BRIAN DAVIDSON Getty Images
STUDENTS CELEBRATE the resignation of University of Missouri President Timothy M. Wolfe; he stepped down amid criticism of his handling of racial issues.
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MEL MELCON Los Angeles Times
RINI SAMPATH, right, president of USCs student body, drew national attention to the microaggression issue after she was the target of a racial slur.
When I attended college in the 70s, microaggression wasnt a thing.
Back then at Ohio State, we were always protesting something
racial discrimination, sexism, the Vietnam War and there were plenty of ways to offend.
I learned to overlook lame comments from professors amazed that I could hold my own with white classmates. I willed myself not to be hurt when I took a seat in class and the white girl next to me rolled her eyes and moved across the room.
We absorbed the inane and retaliated only against the most grievous insults not with administrative muscle but with our brothers: brawny black guys who relished kicking butt.
I suppose things are better now; there are forums and committees and official sanctions for everything from inappropriate Halloween costumes to ugly name-calling, condemned these days as h**e speech.
Minority students dont feel the need to be invisible or pretend they dont hear slurs directed their way, as my friends and I often did.
Theyre fighting back and going beyond obvious t***sgressions to challenge slights and snubs even the puny and inadvertent that challenge their sense of belonging.
People are going to dismiss us
because they say its political correctness gone too far, USC student body President Rini Sam-path told Times reporters this week for a story on the rising profile of microaggression.
Sampath drew national attention to the issue in September after someone loudly insulted her Indian heritage in a frat house catcall. Every day, she said, students walk into a room and someone makes fun of their accent or [they get] kicked out of parties, and we have to take those things seriously.
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Over the last decade, researchers indeed have begun to take those things seriously.
More than 5,000 studies suggest that even minor slights can take a toll on students performance and mental health. And that doesnt apply just to minorities.
Take James Vaughn, a self-described 50+ year old white, politically independent v**er who leans fiscally conservative and lives in Orange County.
He emailed me a few months ago and shared a perspective I hadnt heard before.
He too was a college student in the 70s, and spent a semester studying in Nairobi, Kenya one of three w***e A******ns among hundreds of black African students.
He still remembers the sting of petty snubs:
Clerks ignoring me to help black customers first. Cafeteria workers consistently giving more food to the [black] students behind and in front of me in line. People stopping their conversations to silently look at me while I passed by, as if questioning why I was there. Refusing to share a sidewalk as we passed each other, so that I had to step off into the mud.
When Vaughn mustered the nerve to complain to a university dean about a security guard at the computer lab who ALWAYS demanded to see my student ID even though I knew her by name and was in and out of the lab several times a day, the guard simply shrugged and told the dean They all look alike to me.
Vaughn tried to slough it off.
It would sound childish to say that other people were getting more food than me in the cafeteria, he said. But these little things built up and created some resentment.
They also taught him what being the other felt like and how even insignificant social slights can conspire to disenfranchise an outsider.
If I was so frustrated after just six weeks of this, how would I feel after months, years and generations of this? he said.
When a line is so obviously crossed and nothing is done or it doesnt seem to be treated seriously, then I completely understand the outbursts of anger.
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Vaughn understands why some people consider the concept of microaggression a mere contrivance of the thin-skinned.
White America doesnt have the experience of the buildup of subtle r****m, so they dont know why something that to them seems small is really actually a big deal, he said.
It isnt the act itself, but the accumulation over time that creates frustration, anger and a sense of helplessness.
And its not just about race or g****r or ethnicity or sexual orientation. Its about being continually reminded that youre different, assigned to the outskirts of whats considered mainstream.
When I read the comment that led to the resignation of the Claremont Mc-Kenna Dean Mary Spell-man, a single word caught my eye: Spellman had emailed a Latina student and promised to work with those who dont fit our CMC mold.
Our mold. Something that belongs to us. Some place that sees you as misfit or intruder.
That phrase doesnt make Spellman a r****t; it does reflect a mindset thats apt to alienate young people trying to find their footing in that world.
So how do we get through this gridlock of reproach and recrimination?
I asked Vaughn, who works as a consultant for a nonprofit that helps members of Congress better relate to and understand their constituents. If he can do that, surely he can help mediate this.
But he sees challenges on both sides.
He can imagine the unease of minority students, trying to forthrightly address an unintended slight at the moment it occurs without coming across as thin-skinned, strident or making a mountain out of a molehill.
And he understands the angst of well-meaning w****s, mentally rehearsing and parsing their words, afraid theyll say something that inadvertently offends.
This is such a minefield for white people, Vaughn said. If we could have honest conversations it would help.
I see the anger and the protests, which I can now feel empathy for. But honestly, I dont have a clue as to what I am supposed to do about it. sandy.banks@latimes.com Twitter: @SandyBanksLAT
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