Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

• Describe at least one example of a microaggression which you detected this week or remember from another time. In what context did the microaggression happen?

I have seen microaggression in many times of my life, it has happened directly to me or to someone I know. One example I have comes from my brother in law, he was driving one day with my younger brother and the cops stopped them. They asked for my brother in laws license and registration, well my brother in law did not have his wallet with him that day and because he looks “mexican” they wanted to deport him. When they finally realized that he was Puertorican and legal they felt stupid, and began to apologize for the mistake they had made.

Another time I have seen it is with my youngest son godmother, her first language is Spanish and she has always had a hard time with her English. But the hardest time came when she was trying to speak English with a parent and the parent could not and did not try to understand what she was trying to say, the parent told her to go back to school and learn English. After that day my son’s godmother tries not to speak English if she does not have to for the fear of people making fun of her.

My first example I believe is microinvalidations because the cops did not validate that my brother in law was telling the truth about being legal in this country. My second example is microinsult because the lady insulted my son’s godmother with her comment about learning English, not knowing that my son’s godmother is a very educated person and does speak English just with an accent.

• In what ways did your observation experiences this week affect your perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people

I have always been on the edge about this type of issue, because I know a lot of people that are directly affected with it. My husband is American from Ecuadorian parents, in reality if you just look at him (without talking to him) he looks like an illegal Hispanic. If you talk to him you would think he is puertorican, you have to sit and really have a conversation with him to know where he is originally from. And this is just one example of many that I have been a witness to.