This past week, many U students noticed a new page popping up on Facebook. No, it is not a new crushes or confessions page. This is so much more. The page is called University of Utah Micro/Aggressions. The page was created anonymously, described on the page as “a place where students can share their experiences with microaggressions at the University of Utah.” For those who do not know what a microaggression is, The Microaggression Project defines them as “the subtle ways in which body and verbal language convey oppressive ideology about power or privilege against marginalized identities.”
When we think of discrimination, we often think of instances when someone is barred from a diner for their skin color, beaten and raped by police for their sexuality or murdered for the god they worship. However, discrimination occurs in multiple forms, both overt and subtle. It occurs in the things an individual says, the looks someone gives another person or the way someone acts around someone of a different identity. The New York Times offers as examples, “A tone-deaf inquiry into an Asian-American’s ethnic origin. Cringe-inducing praise for how articulate a black student is. An unwanted conversation about a Latino’s ability to speak English without an accent.” These acts seem innocent or unintentionally prejudicial. It does not matter how ignorant or well-intentioned a person is, though. What matters is the impact these words and actions have upon others.
Microaggressions occur on a daily basis. People often refer to me as a man, tell me to be a man or call me “sir” or “mister” because of my gender presentation without taking the time to ask me my gender identity, which is actually genderqueer. While I am not being beaten or murdered or obviously attacked, it is an affront to my identity to be misgendered because of someone’s lack of consideration. Others are constantly referred to as international students because of their skin color, despite the fact that they were born in America or are American citizens. These aggressions, while minor, add up. One paper cut is fine. It hurts, but it heals. Incessant cutting at the skin, and the pain progresses, the time to heal expands and the ability to recover diminishes. This is how microaggressions work, disempowering individuals from living lives of identity validation, celebration and recognition.
Pages such as these display the sheer power in speaking the words that others attack you with. The U is not alone in having such a page. Brown University, University of San Francisco, University of California, Santa Barbara and Fordham University and others have developed pages similar to this as well. The page posts microaggressions anonymously, asking the submitter to include a trigger warning so that individuals dealing with similar issues can choose whether or not they read further. One post speaks about the ways in which the U confessions page quickly turned into a page where Asian-bashing became common. As the post states, “Why is it necessary to mention that your roommate is Asian when whatever you are confessing has nothing to do with their race?!!”
While the U has implemented a Bias Incident Response Team, the ability to speak to others about issues of racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia and other issues of prejudice can be difficult. It is not easy to discuss these issues, let alone on a campus where they are extremely prevalent. Being able to post them on Facebook anonymously displays them to the world, permitting those who caused the microaggression to learn, become aware and change, while simultaneously allowing those who have experienced them to find solidarity and catharsis.
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