As I reflect on microaggression I cannot recall a time in
which I have personally experience it myself.
However, I do believe that I witness my sister go through such an
experience, even though I wasn’t aware of it at the time that it was called
microaggression. It occurred in the mid to late 90’s my sister and I were
grocery shopping and she made a rather large purchase. As we approached the checkout and a white cashier began to ring up her items when she finished she automatically entered food
stamps as the paying method without even asking my sister how she was paying.
My thoughts about this situation is that I felt that the cashier believed that
all black people that comes through the doors to shop for groceries receives food
stamps. To me it was an insult to make such an assumption. Because I felt the message that she was
unintentionally sending was that all blacks don’t work but rely on public
assistance. My perception of prejudices
have not being effect because I always felt that discrimination, prejudices and
stereotyping is still very much alive and well.
Just this week in our local news an incident of prejudices,
discrimination and stereotyping played out that confirms my thoughts. In
this instance it was a Jewish gentlemen that went into a Greek restaurant and ordered a Greek salad and the man asked him
would that be the Jewish size or regular size because we all know that Jews are
small and cheap and proceeded to throw him out the restaurant. When I
heard the story my mind instantly went to this week study of
microaggression. The gentlemen denied
saying and doing it at first but after a lot of backlash from the public after
hearing the story, he decided to meet with the gentleman and make a public
apology stating that there wasn’t any harm intended it was only a
misunderstanding. I do believe that the
gentlemen meant harm toward this man and all Jews but after such backlash from
the public and the threat to boycott his restaurant he decided to do the
honorable thing and make a public apology.
The gentleman that was the recipient of this incident was so grateful
for the unwavering love and support he received from the public. Here is the
link if you would like to read more about this story. http://www.wapt.com/news/central-mississippi/jackson/rabbi-restaurant-owner-discuss-jewish-salad-incident/28268182
Wow Torri - I haven't heard that story yet, thanks for sharing the site. I agree that there are so many issues dealing with discrimination, stereotyping and prejudices still alive in the United States. This is so sad to me especially when it comes to our children. I have seen where teachers have blatantly treated children different because of their race or cultural differences. To me if you make differences in children and families within your classroom/center, you are doing a great injustice to this society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteHi Torri
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that story.There have been many instances where people were faced with microaggressions in restaurants and stores. This class had defiantly brought many stories to life. I was shopping in a grocery store and the same thing happened to me, the women assumed that I had food stamps. I was annoyed because all black people are not on public assistance.
LaNea
I can relate to the incident that happened to your sister. I saw a very similar thing happened at my local WalMart. It frustrates me that others assume that black people rely on the government for aid, such as food stamps. Thank you for sharing your post with us. I would like to know how would you handle this situation if it occurred again?
ReplyDelete