Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Microaggression is when someone makes a comment or assumption about someone based on their race, gender, class, etc.

I have witnessed microaggression several times in my life. I have experienced microaggression a lot of times when I call people on the phone. During this past school year I received a new student late in the year. I called his mother to express some concerns I had about his grades from the other school. The next day the mother came to the school to talk to me. When she came she couldn't remember who called her house so she told the office staff a white woman had called her. They assumed it was the speech therapist who is white. When she spoke to the speech therapist, she found out that it was not her that called her. The parent could not speak to me at the time, because I was in a meeting. The parent then came back the next day. When she walked in my room the next morning she said "Girl, I thought you was a white women when you called me."

This is an example of microaggression because she felt that as a black woman I was not suppose to speak proper English. I did not feel bad about it because this is a problem I have dealt with before. People have told me that I sound white. I really don't understand this because in my family we are encouraged to speak with proper English and not slang. I also feel that as a teacher I should speak proper English.  I realize that everyone has microaggressions. I know that when a person exhibits a microaggression they don't mean to be offensive. Educating people to know when they are exhibiting microaggressions is the first step in stopping them.