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Acad. Quest. (2017) 30:4757
DOI 10.1007/s12129-016-9613-5
Althea Nagai
Published online: 9 February 2017# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
A tsunami of microaggressions has swamped the country from east to west, with students posting their tales on social media and university websites. There are so many, many cruel statements, wrong words, routine insensitivities, and degrading silencesthose brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages sent by well-intentioned members of the dominant culture. Whites are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated, while overtly denying that they are racists.1
The microaggressions spectacle differs from that of a previous politically correct era, where well-known conservatives were widely picketed and speaker invitations revoked. Hostile actions toward conservative public figures continue, but today the microaggression targets include liberal and progressive faculty and administrators who have fostered their growth and capitulated to them.2 Microaggressions now cover race, gender, disability, LGBTQ, religion, class, and every other category of social justice. But in this essay, I focus on racial microaggressions (where the concept and theory originated) and the quality of the research behind it.
1Derald Wing Sue, Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Is Subtle Bias Harmless? Psychology Today, October 5, 2010, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
Web End =https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial- https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
Web End =microaggressions-in-everyday-life .
2See Heather MacDonald, The Microaggression Farce: The Latest Campus Fad, Which Sees Racism Everywhere, Will Create a New Generation of Victims, City Journal (Autumn 2014), http://www.city-journal.org/html/microaggression-farce-13679.html
Web End =http://www.city-journal. http://www.city-journal.org/html/microaggression-farce-13679.html
Web End =org/html/microaggression-farce-13679.html ; Catherine Rampell, Liberal Intolerance Is on the Rise on Americas College Campuses, Opinion, Washington Post, February 11, 2016, http://wpo.st/AbNI2
Web End =http://wpo.st/AbNI2 ; Ruth Marcus, College Is Not for Coddling, Opinion, Washington Post, November 10, 2015, http://wpo.st/RbNI2
Web End =http://wpo.st/RbNI2 .
Althea Nagai is a research fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity, 7700 Leesburg Pike, Suite 231, Falls Church, VA 22043; [email protected]. She has worked on numerous statistical studies in the field of social policy, including racial and ethnic preferences in higher education; American history textbooks; marriage, religion, and family structure; and American elites.
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12129-016-9613-5&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12129-016-9613-5&domain=pdf
Web End = WRONG TURNS, DEAD ENDS, AND THE WAY BACK
The Pseudo-Science of Microaggressions
48 Nagai
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