Micro-aggressions

Micro-aggressions are insensitive and harmful casual remarks or actions towards a particular marginalized group, or comments based in stereotypes about that group. These comments are often said repeatedly, without harm intended by the speaker, but wear on the recipient, causing harm and continuous trauma.

Some examples of micro-aggressions often said to Black people can be found in the #itooamharvard campaign run by students frustrated with micro-aggressions on the Harvard campus.

A micro-aggression does not have to be this overt. As an example, a (back-handed) compliment only given to someone from a marginalized background, without pointing out their background is still a micro-aggression. From the example above, this could be phrased as, “You’re smarter than I expected.”

Unconscious bias can be a key driver of micro-aggressions in circumstances where these are not intended to belittle or cause harm.