Microaggressions and Intention

13 August 2021

Can subtle slights cause serious harm? Does it matter if no harm was intended? Are microaggressions in the eye of the beholder? Or are they a way to keep certain groups in their place? This week we’re thinking about Microaggressions.

 

Microaggressions are everyday slights that demean or debase others based on their race, gender, sexuality, etc. However, they don’t always look or sound like insults. In fact, the person committing the microaggression might think they’re paying the other person a compliment. For example, when Asian Americans are told they have "excellent English," even though they grew up here speaking English like everyone else, that is offensive and demeaning, even if it is meant as a compliment. It assumes that Asian Americans will lack English proficiency based purely on their appearance and racial stereotypes rather than any facts about the individuals in question. 

 

Joe Biden received a lot of pushback when he described Barack Obama back in 2007 as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Obviously he thought he was paying Obama a compliment, but what he was implying with his comment is that African Americans are usually inarticulate, dull, and dirty, and that they look bad. Obama, being “the first,” was the surprising exception to that rule. Even if Obama himself didn’t take offense (or so he said), the comment was nevertheless demeaning to other African Americans, which is why Biden received a lot of criticism for his remark.

 

This example illustrates that when it comes to microaggressions, intentions are not what’s really important. Someone may think they’re being nice, that they have no intention to demean any group, and yet the impact of their words may not align with their avowed intentions. No one should get a pass for being racist or sexist or homophobic just because they weren’t intentionally trying to be.

 

You might think this is too harsh. People can intend to do something nice and simply mess up sometimes, but we don’t treat those kinds of mistakes the way we treat intentionally harmful behavior. Lumping them all together fails to recognize an important distinction. Suppose I stomp on your foot on purpose, just for the fun of it. You’d be justified in calling me a jerk for doing that. But suppose I’m just a klutz and I accidentally step on you. The pain you feel in your foot might be the same in both cases, but we don’t judge the klutz the same way we judge the jerk. Why? Because intentions are important. If we only look at impact and ignore intentions, we would have to treat these two cases as the same, and that seems unfair to the klutz.

 

If we are considering a once-off incident, like accidentally stepping on someone’s toe, then sure, it would be unfair to treat the klutz like a jerk. However, if the incident is part of a larger pattern of harm and mistreatment, that distinction starts to lose its explanatory power. 

 

Imagine that, because you’re part of some marginalized group, you have to occupy a particular place, and spending time there means it’s much more likely that people are going to step on your toes. Are you going to feel better if someone says that none of the individuals intended to hurt you? Even if it keeps happening over and over again? At a certain point you will start asking why you have to occupy this space where this keeps happening to you, when clearly those with more power and status never have to worry about it happening to them. 

 

I think this is a more apt analogy because microagressions are part of larger patterns of discrimination and abuse. If only one Asian American was told on only one occasion they have excellent English, we might be willing to chalk it up to one person’s ignorance. But the fact is that this happens to many Asian Americans, and it happens on a regular basis. 

 

And it’s not just this particular comment. Asian Americans born and raised here, like other Americans of color, are often asked where they’re “really from,” (“You’re obviously not originally <wink, wink> from Wisconsin...”). They are often assumed to be good at math, bad at driving, and so on. If you’re on the receiving end of these kinds of microaggressions that keep reminding you that you are considered “other” or not truly belonging, or you are not seen as an individual, but as a stereotypical member of a homogeneous racial group, the intentions of the individuals committing the microaggressions start to fade from importance. 

 

So what is the best way to combat microaggressions? Do we just need to educate people so that they better understand the impact of their words and actions? Perhaps, but this assumes it is the ignorance of individuals that is the main source of the problem, and I’m not so sure about that. It seems that microaggressions do serve a purpose and that is to reinforce social hierarchies and to remind people belonging to marginalized groups of their place in that hierarchy. As such, they are a part of systems of oppression and need to be tackled systemically. 

 

Our guest this week is Lauren Freeman from the University of Louisville. She’s co-editor of a new volume called Microaggressions and Philosophy, and she’s also writing a book about microaggressions in the context of clinical medicine. Most scholarship on microaggressions, starting in the 1970s, has been done by psychologists such as Derald Wing Sue. Lauren thinks it’s important for philosophers to make a contribution to the debate, so I hope you’ll listen to this week’s episode to hear what insights philosophers have on the subject.

 

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Comments (138)


Tim Smith's picture

Tim Smith

Saturday, August 14, 2021 -- 11:00 AM

Biden is an interesting use

Biden is an interesting use case in change and acceptance. There is an age of plasticity to microaggressions and a stultification. I intend to be as plastic as possible for as long as possible. This blog helps, as did the show - https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/microaggressions .

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Wednesday, June 22, 2022 -- 11:52 AM

Hi, Tim. I did not expect

Hi, Tim. I did not expect things to go so badly for Joe Biden. Neither did I expect we would still be talking about DJT. I underestimated, tradition, process and the status quo. There are umpteen other things. Hope you see this, and are well.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Monday, August 16, 2021 -- 6:34 AM

I made some remarks earlier

I made some remarks earlier regarding this subject. Still don't quite get the distinction being made. To my mind, Microaggression is little different from other discriminatory attitudes and behaviors. Prefixes such as micro and macro are fancier labels, attached to terms and intended to bestow an air of intellectual sophistication and social respectability. One cannot, however, make a silk purse from a female pig's ear. (My tablet will not accept the colloquial term for that appendage) So, call this what you will. It remains abhorrent and insulting---just a devious means of belittling others for whom one has less respect. Is it a form of unlawful discrimination? I don't think so. Not yet anyway. Could that change? Maybe so---if the politically correct crowd decided to attach it to the me-too movement. If that seems petty or far-fetched, consider the motive(s) for microagression. Birds and feathers flocking, and all that.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Saturday, September 25, 2021 -- 12:52 PM

Had an epiphany of sorts

Had an epiphany of sorts about this tired subject. Dealing with microexpressions. These are split-second looks which convey notions about how/what we are feeling about things/people/situations..There appears to be some correlation with your microaggression thesis.. I asked my source about this. Will see what they think. My suspicion is, as often, it is all connected..Stay tuned. There is no subatomic stuff here. Only pragmatism.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Thursday, January 13, 2022 -- 4:40 AM

I find myself musing upon

I find myself musing upon these terms. I mean, they just sort of burst upon the linguistic scene. See, it is pretty clear (I think) that microaggression(s) has/have been around for at least as long as humans have possessed minds, bicameral; unicameral or any other which might be imagined. Perhaps they spring from master's theses or doctoral dissertations? Or, from books written by intrepid thinkers who have attained such rites (rights?) of passage? Discrimination, whether lawful or unlawful, is a form of aggressive attitude and/or behavior. Whether it is micro or more depends upon degree.
In any case, it can be viewed as a character flaw or badge of courage, depending on where one stands.

I have been examining what I have called contextual reality. I don't rabidly assert origination of the term, although throughout a varied reading history, I have not encountered it. If I were to attempt a definition, it would be something like: contextual reality is that which refutes "how things probably are, not how they might possibly be", by basing one's conclusions on belief(s) instead of facts. On balance, this is the sort of reality upon which positions are held; causes established and driven, and so on. In principle and/or practice, this is not new. Anymore than microaggression is new.
Thought is an old activity. We tend to engage it when not doing something more useful...

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Friday, January 14, 2022 -- 3:12 AM

Amendment:

Amendment:
In the previous comment, I made reference to where one stands. One must, of course, stand for something, lest he fall for anything. Key to success for this stance is being certain that what one stands for is worth the support. Yeah, that's right. Don't try to raise a sunken ship. Remember the Andrea Doria...

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Friday, January 21, 2022 -- 2:53 PM

Thanks, Laura.

Thanks, Laura. Acknowledgement noted.
I am pitching my notion of contextual reality to some other sources. Did not know much of Ken Taylor's reference project before--- have not yet read the book, though I intend to. There feels like a parallel of sorts. Terms mean whatever their originators intend them to mean...often, more than they imagined; occasionally, more than ever hoped.
Harold.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Sunday, February 27, 2022 -- 1:36 PM

When working in government, I

When working in government, I experienced what this blog calls microaggression. I only mention this now because, then, I was not well-schooled enough to 1. Understand what was going on, and 2. To counter the aggressive behavior with a credible defense. The result: a minority female got a promotion to mid-management, that I could have gotten, on the basis of experience and seniority, had I been other than white and male. Due to the politically charged nature of equal opportunity work, then, (and probably now...), it was not politically correct for white people to hold high-level jobs in that occupational slot. Whether male, or female, they did not last long....sooner, not later, they were expunged. Now, granted, this had much to do with small-p politics. But, being real, it was about race and appearances. And, a personnel practice known as prepositioning. It was a foregone conclusion I would not rise any higher than I did. Not even after serving as administrative law judge---a fiduciary sideline that earned me no more money, yet required independent thought and integrity.. In retrospect, that helped me try harder and think better. All good.

On the downside, I harbor resentment for microaggressors . Devious people, who function within the boundary of integrity, contextually speaking, of course. My story was mostly about race, for the reasons stated. Microaggression is so much more..Yeah. It is meaningful. So what?

.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Monday, February 28, 2022 -- 6:11 AM

Here's what: life hands you a

Here's what: life hands you a bushel of rotting lemons. You pick out the best ones and make lemonade.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Tuesday, January 3, 2023 -- 8:51 AM

There was a piece today in a

There was a piece today in a blog I visit, concerning virtue signalling. I left a comment which was quickly answered. i asked if in the blogger's opinion, virtue signalling and microaggression were related. I think they are. Anyway, the blogger gave a stock account of microaggression. Textbook. He then disavowed virtue signalling as a kind of microaggressive behavior,. Neither of us said anything about intention. Again, his response to my question was worthy of a third or fourth year philosophy student. My long view sense is undeterred. Why? Because braggadocio and intimidation assume different forms under different circumstances. And, bragging is nothing less than a level of intimidation, which is aggression, in its' own right. Textbook answers are fine. They do not, however, contribute much to independent thinking.

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Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Thursday, January 12, 2023 -- 12:21 PM

Let us theorize that

Let us theorize that microagression, virtue signalling, discrimination (all kinds) and other anti-social attitudes/behaviors are, propositional attitudes, i.e., intentional, 100% and nothing more than the self-promotion and aggrandizement we always knew they were. If this is not so far-fetched, neither is it so to conclude that humans are, at bottom, self-indulgent morons. There is little to argue after that. Futurists who think and speak of long-life, transhumanism and immortality are equally foolish. The circle of life is there for good reason...though reason is but a human construct. We conjure up all kinds of excuses for the behaviors we abjure...place all sorts of labels on them. If death is preferable to dishonor, this must mean we have no purpose for leading honorable lives? So, dreams and musings of long-life, etc. are vain imaginings. Allah-u-abha, all.

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