This is about microaggressions.
Microaggressions are insults against a certain group of people that come off as a joke or even a compliment. Often they’re not even thought about… the aggressor sometimes doesn’t even know what they’re doing. They’re automatic comments that are often made in passing.
Here are some examples:
“You don’t seem gay, though!”
“You’re the whitest black person I know!”
“Figures your family is rich, being Jews.”
“You’re actually pretty cool for a Christian.”
“You look like you’re from China.”
“Have you gained/lost weight?”
I recently read an article from years ago that talks about microaggressions and how the accumulation of them in the daily life of the ones receiving them is exhausting.
There’s a gay couple I know. Let's call them Josh and Steven.
Josh grew up in an affirming home, Steven didn’t. Josh notices every microaggression spoken against Steven. But Steven is just happy to get through the day without getting spit on. It’s exhausting. Josh doesn’t put up with them.
Steven endures them.
This has been a huge learning curve for me. Now knowing just how devastating microaggressions really are, I’ve decided to offer macrocorrections when I hear them.
If many microaggressions are preconscious or unconscious, then why not macrocorrect? But if they did mean it as an insult then they’ll get a macrocorrect for sure.
I figured it was time to stop playing around.
So, if someone says a microaggression in my comments section, I’ll offer a correction.
Here’s an example:
“I love your cartoon because it shows that God will forgive gays just like he will forgive rapists!”
I’ll say, “Are you aware that you compared gay people to rapists. Being gay is not a sin. It is not wrong!”
This will do one of a few things:
1. They will silently go away.
2. They’ll defend themselves that they indeed meant that. In which case I will delete them.
3. They will say, “Oh no I didn’t mean that. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to be more careful!”
Or... telling someone that what they just said was racist. The same responses are possible.
Hopefully, they are willing to learn and change.
Doing that face-to-face can be harder. But I’m learning how to do it. All the same responses as above are possibilities.
But if we want to help create a loving world, it means challenging aggression against others.
