The M-Word: Death by a Thousand Cuts
Since George Floyd, institutions are now seemingly (kind of) trying to do more to be anti-racist. One of the terms I’m seeing around more is “microaggression.”
Microaggressions can be so subtle that neither the perpetrator or the victim may even realise that what is happening is racism. “Can I touch your hair?” — “Where are you from? No, where are you really from?” — “You are so articulate” — “your name is hard to pronounce” — the white woman that grabs her purse / handbag as a Black man walks past. What about those who are Multiracial, where microaggressions can present themselves differently? “You don’t look like your mom / dad is white?” — “You don’t look Mixed-Race” — “What are you?” — “That’s hot” — “You’re the best of both worlds.” The list is infinite and racial microaggressions are what psychologists have described as “death by a thousand cuts… very much so the dripping tap of racism.
Essentially, racial microaggressions are “subtle statements or behaviours, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile… messages toward people of color” (Nadal, Wong et al, 2011). Whilst racial microaggressions aren’t exclusively commited by white people, my experience has been one where the perpetrators have been overwhelming white: the ones in Wetherspoons that look up in fear when I approach them; the security guard that follows me around the supermarket (also racial profiling, borderline macro-aggression) — the white lady the clutches her purse as I walk past her on on the bus; being told you speak well for a Black man.
In ‘Unmasking Racial Microaggressions’, Tori DeAngelis says microaggression was a phrase first coined by a psychiatrist called Chester M. Pierce in the 1970s. Since then, it has only increased in its popularity. However, this is not just a phenomon that happens to people of colour, but also those that are women. Moreover, members of society that are also gay, lesbian, bi, trans and / or non-binary [LGBT+]. When we apply intersectionality to microaggressive behaviours, it gets a bit more complex and then we must have discussions about nuance as well, because “…the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism” (Crenshaw, 1989: 140) and “…any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated” (ibid).
Intersectionality must be at the nucleus of all conversations about race because race is seldom a straight line. Where we find racism, we may also find classism, sexism (incl. misogynoir), and more. Black Studies professor Kehinde Andrews has often been criticised for his comment — “whiteness is a psychosis” and “Whiteness is actually rooted in the political economy; it is in the fabric of the institutions and social life” (Andrews, 2019: 194).
Looking at specifically racial microaggressions, the textbook response is “white fragility” (DiAngelo, 2019), where whiteness gets centred once the microaggression has been highlighted. In exposing the problem, that person becomes the problem. So often, we are treated as the problem in these spaces — where white colleagues insist on “niceness” using their “white tears” to claim victimhood, (in)directly condeming us for showing our emotions and humanity, ultimately ending in a very damging, toxic form of tone-policing.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, racial microaggressions can appear in many different ways. However, anyone part of a marginalised group can experience them. It’s a dripping tap; one or two drips may not have an impact but after time, it grows tiresome and annoying. Before long, the sink is full; before long the bathtub is full and overflowing. This type of racism is “death by a thousand cuts” and can have dire consequences when we think about the COVID-19 pandemic and the biological weathering that happens with racism.
Drip, drip, drip for 400+ years — and now we are saying we can’t breathe; no matter whether we are are talking about the Coronavirus pandemic and those ventilators, or a police officer’s boot print.
Referencing
Andrews, K. (2019) Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century. London: ZED.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum. 1989(1). pp 139-167.
Nadal, K.; Wong, Y. et al. (2011) Microaggressions and the Multiracial Experience. The Special Issue on Behavioral and Social Science [online] 1(7) pp. 36–44.
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