MSU’s campus is full of different faces, and with diversity, cultural awareness is imperative.
“You speak English very well.”
“What are you?”
“You don’t act like a normal black person.”
“You people.”
Those are all examples of common microaggressions that occur without the acknowledgment that it offends the person who is on the other end.
Some people will ask questions that they believe to be neutral, but they are actually conveying a host of assumptions about who that person is.
MSU Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Nicole Buchanan said, "Universities are an extremely common place for these types of incidents to occur mostly towards minorities and women."
“They have these experiences on a constant basis and they are occurring not only in dorms or in the cafeteria or as they walk through the streets, but they are also occurring in their classrooms and sometimes by their instructors,” Buchanan said.
Another example of a micro aggression would be asking an Asian student where they’re from, with the presumption that they can’t be an American citizen, they must have come from another country.
“That really becomes the undertone. ‘You don’t belong here; you don’t seem to be like us so you must be foreign,’” Buchanan said.
In some of her research, Professor Buchanan found that black women experienced other students approaching them to touch their hair without permission and even making comparisons between their skin colors.
“It becomes very difficult at times to draw the line between microaggression, bias and even outright harassment because sometimes it looks very similar,” she said.
Unfortunately, these encounters are a reality for many students that attend large universities. Below, are various quotes from affected MSU students.
“Being Vietnamese American, microaggressions come along with my identity and I have and unfortunately will face them for the rest of my life.”
“I find myself having to prove to others that what I am experiencing is racist and discriminatory.”
“They’re not educated for different cultures.”
“It gets annoying.”
“When voices are not heard it is hard to simply explain concerns and experiences because opportunities and platforms are limited.”
“To improve this for the future, awareness and educational efforts to address not only Asian American and Pacific Islander experience but black/African American, Latinx, Native American, and the experiences of other marginalized groups is necessary. Additionally, discussions on race need to broaden to include other racial groups so that experiences of different groups are not dismissed.”
