Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

 

 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

       I was involved in an incident of microagression this week when I pulled into a gas station to get gas.  I walked up to the booth and gave the attendant my credit card to obtain gas and a heated conversation pursued. I told the attendant who was of an African culture (my guess Ethiopian) for $15.00 dollars worth of gas.  He responded “(wan – fi)” and I said “no, $15.00 dollars worth of gas”.  His voice became louder and he shouted “Wan- fi” and I then raise my voice and said “$15.00 dollars, I can’t understand you!”  So finally he wrote down the number 15 on a piece of paper and then I replied “Yes”.   During this heated exchange I was thinking negative thoughts like why didn’t this man speak English?  There was definitely a communication disconnect and I realized that I got caught up with emotion and disregarded everything I had learned this week in my Perspective Diversity class. 

            This was clearly a case of racial microagression because I probably humiliated the gas attendant and made him feel like a stranger in his own land (Laureate Education, Inc, 2011).  I was shocked about my behavior because I have always viewed myself to be a very caring and sensitive person who cared about the feelings of others.  But emotion can make us do ugly things and exhibit behaviors out of the norm.   I am now feeling very guilty because I committed a microassault against this guy because I was challenging his intellectual ability (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  As I now self-reflect I grapple with the reality that I too possess some deep seated biases that I need to get rid of so I can truly show an understanding and respect to all cultures.

 

 

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved

            from https://class.waldenu.edu