David Young
Professor Costello
COMS 1100
20 November 2014
Microaggressions Reflection Paper
Dr. Derald Wing Sue first defines microaggressions as “The everyday slights,
indignities, put-downs, and insults that people of color, women, LGBT populations, or
those who are marginalized experience in their day-to-day interactions with people.” I
think it is pretty obvious by this definition that they are bad. Nobody should be slighted,
put-down, insulted or made to feel shame or loss of dignity as a result of their race,
sexual orientation, gender, etc. etc. As Dr. Wing Sue continues his presentation on the
topic he explains that microaggressions do not occur because the perpetrator intended to
offend the marginalized individual(s), but rather occur “because they are outside the level
of conscious awareness of the perpetrator.” This is where I start to have some
disagreements with Dr. Wing Sue.
Dr. Wing Sue’s whole case here involving microaggressions is that they are bad
because they hurt people. In his Student and Advisor example he says that the advisor
offended Michael by paying him a compliment that had an offensive undertone. “You
know, you speak excellent English” should not be considered offensive. Yes, this is a
sticky situation because obviously there is a lot of context that could change what is and
is not appropriate but in general it should not be considered offensive. This advisor does
not know that by saying that he is going to make Michael feel like a “perpetual alien in
his own country”. He simply was probably trying to say that Michael had excellent
English. If someone told me I had excellent English, (which has happened, not just
foreign-appearing people get complimented on their English) I would take it for face
value. This person must have thought that my English was impressive enough to be
worthy of vocal praise. Now let’s get back to the issue. The issue is that Michael is
Asian. That is the factor that makes it potentially offensive. This advisor probably deals
with a lot of students. He is not necessarily going to know the heritage and background
of every student that comes into his office. What he is going to know is common sense
from his experience with other human beings. More often than not, someone who appears
to look Asian is not going to speak very good English. When he encounters an Asian-
appearing individual who does speak excellent English, he feels compelled to let them
know that he noticed the impressive nature of that student’s linguistic skills. It’s not like
