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I keep telling myself, “Arbourist, you need to post more stuff you write as opposed to other things gleaned from the net”. The problem is that the net has a lot of awesome on it that does it better than I. Consider Sociological Images. They present a concept, concisely explain said concept and then reinforce the learning with a spot-on video. SI, you do are doing it right. From SI:
“Microaggressions are “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative… slights and insults” (source). These are often subtle. So the recipient feels badly, but it can be difficult to explain exactly why, especially to someone who isn’t sympathetic to issues of bias. The Microaggressions Project has hundreds, maybe thousands, of examples.
In this video, Franchesca Leigh poses as a “White girl” and says many of the things that she and other “Black girls” hear routinely. To Leigh, these are microaggressions. They variously trivialize and show insensitivity towards race and racism, remind the listener that she is considered different and strange, homogenize and stereotype Black people, and more…
From the CBC:
“Emergency crews have found a second body in the wreckage where a small plane smashed into an Austin, Texas, office building that houses a U.S. Internal Revenue Service office.”
Okay, flying a plane into a building. We’ve seen that before. But what is different this time? It seems that it is taking awhile to classify the act itself. Would there be as much confusion if the pilot was of Arabic descent or had a Arabic surname? That is the question ‘Big man” poses at the blog ‘Stuff White People do“.
Big Man says:
“I’m watching the coverage of this plane crash in Austin. The one where a dude flew a plane into the IRS building after burning his house.
And everybody is falling all over themselves not to call this cat a “terrorist.”
It’s “possible terrorist-related activity” but it’s not terrorism and he’s not a terrorist. What the hell?
How can you fly a plane into a building out of spite, and have folks call it “suicide by plane?” That’s like calling it “suicide by portable chest bomb.”
We often think of racism is a in your face type of action. Overt discrimination, the name calling, the hiring practices but here we have a possible example of the more subtle systematic nature of racism and what that entails. Patriarchy sneaks up on one like this as well.
I tend to agree with BigMan that the story would have been framed quite differently if the pilot was not Caucasian.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…