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Microaggressions and How to Manage Them When They Occur

Microaggressions - a term that can send an electric shockwave of contention through any environment. As one of the top hot-button topics over the last few years, just the mere mention brings people to immediate attention, combat-ready. Though for this combat, both parties play a different defensiveness. One person is accusing another of committing a microaggression, though they wouldn’t be in an offensive attacking posture because they are essentially speaking up for themselves - defending themselves.

Then in the other corner, the person being accused becomes defensive of the accusation because, with microaggressions, they’re defined by them being unintentional or done unknowingly. 

What typically results is an automatic fight with everyone pointing fingers at each other. But if we sincerely want to resolve workplace conflict and foster an environment of understanding, communication, and safety, we must...

It’s necessary to focus on the experience of marginalized communities, not to obsess about “identity” as would be used as a pejorative in today’s constant cultural arguments, but to concretize the fact that marginalized communities don’t just have a different experience; in many instances, they have a different reality. There are universal human experiences that unite us all—the need for safety and security; desire for caring relationships.

There are also experiences of people from marginalized communities that are difficult to surmise, given the array of contexts and circumstances. Those experiences span history and multiple generations, involve systemic and societal constructs, and run the gamut of struggle and the human condition: oppression, discrimination, prejudice, abuse, despair, self-hate, isolation, paranoia, pressure, and frustration. In attempting to address the negative impact of this collection of experiences, we struggle to...