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From a quick Google search, microaggressions are terms used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups.

In a classroom setting, racism is taught in a very extreme way, the most common being slavery. However, students are not given a clear example of racism in the 21st century. Racism now comes in the form of microaggressions. They are so normalized that I sometimes don’t catch them in school or in the workplace. Therefore, microaggressions are usually the root of racist laws because they are enforced at a very young age. To create change, we must check the biases we have and see how we apply them daily through microaggressions.

Microaggressions are everywhere: in the workplace, school, on the street. They also come in many different forms: verbally, electronically, and even systematically. Here are some examples provided by @diversifyyournarritive on Instagram:

• “You’re so pretty for a black/asian/hispanic woman”
  • This implies that “white” is the standard of beauty and that POC should uphold them. It also implies that POC features are conventionally unattractive
• “Your food smells”
  • This usually is said to South Asians, and saying comments like this can cause embarrassment about their culture. They feel like their culture is “lesser” than the culture they conformed to.
• “You’re so exotic looking”
• “You people always do well in school”
• “You speak so well”

These are only a few examples, and as you can see, there is a lot of generalization and stereotypes. Reducing a person down to their race can be very harmful to the way they think about their culture.

What Can I Do?
To keep it simple, speak up. Do something. If you see anywhere, call them out. But be open to discussing, and do not be defensive.