Microaggressions Quotes

“The answer: assimilation. Always, the pressure is there. Assimilate, assimilate. Dissolve yourself into the melting pot. And then flow out, pour into the mould. Bend your bones until they splinter and crack and you fit. Force yourself into their form. Assimilate, they say it, encouraging. Then frowning. Then again and again. And always there, quiet, beneath the urging language of tolerance and cohesion - disappear!”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“Unfortunately, 'post racism' is also a myth, like unicorns and black people who survive to the end of a horror movie.”
― Justin Simien

“More insidious than those moments of outright hostility, though, and maybe more powerful, are the constant, low-level reminders that you're different. Many of us feel different in some way, but it's really jarring when one of your differences is obvious at a glance—other people can tell you're different simply by looking at you . . . Even when you feel like you belong, other people's reactions—even stares and offhand remarks—can make you feel that you don't, startlingly often.”
― Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You

“It is crucial to teach incoming students to be thoughtful in their interactions with one another. A portion of what is derided as "political correctness" is just an effort to promote polite and respectful interactions by discouraging the use of terms that are reasonably taken to be demeaning. But if you teach students that intention doesn't matter, and you also encourage students to find more things offensive (leading them to experience more negative impacts), and you also tell them that whoever says or does the things they find offensive are "aggressors" who have committed acts of bigotry against them, then you are probably fostering feelings of victimization, anger, and hopelessness in your students. They will come to see the world - and even their university - as a hostile place where things never seem to get better.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure

“Explain air. Convince a sceptic. Prove it's there. Prove what cant be seen.”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“I've seen what stress can do to how the heart functions. Just walking down the street here, or even in a big, mixed place like LA or New York, watching people watch you, listening to their questions, and figuring out the right answers, can calcify arteries. You know what I mean?”
― Sameer Pandya, Members Only

“Too sensitive… You can’t take a joke... This further ostracizes you and when stakes get higher - a promotion, raise, or job hinges on your ability to ‘hang’ - you might be surprised at what you can ignore.”
― Danielle Prescod, Token Black Girl

“In my clinical experience, always trusting your feelings or jumping to conclusions that you know what others are thinking, without any supporting evidence, are seen as examples of cognitive distortions.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“When sharing your thoughts about an incident, such as a microaggression, approach the person who made the comment as an ally. Social advocacy is more effective when you start with “calling people in” to dialogue instead of “calling them out” or simply critiquing them.

Todd Kashdan, author of The Art of Insubordination, said that “calling in” is ultimately about admitting that we’re all of the same nature. “We all have flaws, make mistakes, and often don’t have the energy or mental capacity to do the things we care about. What’s important is we acknowledge it and choose to do better,” Kashdan adds.”
― Evelyn Nam

“Because they watch (us). They're taught how to, from school. They are taught to view our bodies (selves) as objects.”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“Microaggressions are not trivial and insignificant but have a continuing and oftentimes harmful macro impact. Those in the majority group, those with power and privilege, and those who do not experience microaggressions are privileged to enjoy the luxury of availing for proof. Meanwhile, people of color, LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and other socially devalued groups continue to be harmed and oppressed. To ask them to wait for individual, institutional, and societal change is to ask them to continue to suffer in silence and to maintain the status quo of power and privilege.”
― Derald Wing Sue

“I used to be afraid of telling people they'd gotten my name wrong, but I've now made it a part of my praxis. It matters that we defy white supremacy, every day, bit by bit. It matters that we demand respect.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface