| The term “microaggression” was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. The term has entered our vocabulary, although there is no uniform consensus about the use of the term, and what it means. Some have preferred the term “microabuse”, including the author of “How to Be an Antiracist”, Ibram X. Kendi, who argues that “A persistent daily low hum of racist abuse is not minor. I use the term “abuse” because aggression is not as exacting a term.” For the purposes of this piece I will persist with the term microaggression.
The difference between microaggressions and overt discrimination (or “macroaggressions”) is that someone who commits a microaggression is very likely unaware that they are doing something wrong. We are all learning to check everything that comes out of our mouths, or from our keyboards. Recently a well-intentioned tweet from Harvard’s counseling and mental health resources promoting “Anti-Asian Racism Resources” provoked anger because of the starting line “You may wish that you weren’t Asian….” The tweet was removed, but the pain has lingered, and made me examine my own communication style more closely. I recently committed a microaggression in my last President’s Message when I headed it by giving a Happy Passover and Easter greeting. One of my respected colleagues wrote to me afterwards and said that he had just finished “upstander1” training (to exercise our ability to recognize and respond to microaggressions), and that he wondered if some would feel uncomfortable with and excluded by a greeting intended for specific religious groups. In another example, I was surprised when I asked a patient who was born in W. Africa about potential exposure to infections in that region. He appropriately asked me “why I was questioning where he came from.” These two examples occurred almost on the same day, and made me think more deeply about my language and behavior in the context of microaggressions. Some have defined these as subtle, and often unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate bias toward historically marginalized groups. Microaggressions can impact a person’s ability to do their job, sense of safety, and overall happiness. One of my Black colleagues, who is very active in diversity and equity issues, told me that she still recalled microaggressions aimed at her from decades ago, and they still hurt. So we have a responsibility to learning how to recognize microaggressions (or microabuses) and change our language and behavior accordingly. This could have an impact on the happiness, productivity, and retention of our colleagues. Warm regards, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH |