My whole life I have heard people say “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Is that completely true? In today’s society when we hear the word microaggressions what comes to mind? What does it mean? “The term microaggression originated in the 1970s and referred to subtle, often unconscious racist affronts. The definition has expanded in recent years to include anything that can be perceived as discriminatory on virtually any basis.” It has been heard constantly over the news, in the work place and in schools that it seems to be a norm. So, the question is do you think microaggressions has a negative impact on students’ ability to succeed in college OR are we creating a culture where freedom of expression is being penalized in the name of political correctness? I seek counseling or do I just ignore it and keep going on.
To answer the question on the prompt I agree that microaggressions need to be stopped! They are just words, they say but words can compromise one’s emotions and cause us to doubt our inner faith and at the same time I feel some people have no filter and need to learn to control that. “Research over the past decade has connected experiencing microaggressions with symptoms of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, and even suicidal ideation. It is thought that the unrelenting and unacknowledged experience of microaggressions generates distress, frustration, and/or hopelessness-” and they are 100% correct. Monnica Williams hits the nail on the head with that one and I completely agree.
In this country one birthday is the most detrimental. Our 18th birthday the most awaited day of our teen years. The years we think to ourselves that are going to be the best ever just because we feel as adults’ things will now change for the better. Once again, we are freshmen’s in a new environment and are outcasts to all of our new surroundings and peers. We’re transitioning from children in high school to adults starting college. We’re still discovering who we are and who we want to be. The days are slow but we are finally starting to feel welcomed suddenly we get hit with what appears to be a microaggression and it stops us in our tracks. Did they just say what I think they said? Did they mean what they said? Should I take it seriously, should
Those are the daily struggles that we, our children and some of our peers go through. When it comes to Generation X and their mental stability there are so many opinions regarding
them and their feelings since to them they are the only ones on this earth that matter. It’s sad to have to bring this up but during my lifetime I’ve never once seen or heard of so many young adults committing suicide. Is it due to people being overly sensitive or is because we have stopped teaching our children the basics of life? That being if we do not have anything nice to say then we must not say anything at all. Microaggressions are what it’s called because yes there is a name for it. And it sometimes comes with very lasting consequences. Some people just don’t understand the harm they do by asking or assuming certain things where as the other subjects don’t even stop to think before speaking. Where does this lead us to now?
Take for instance in Microaggressions Matter Simba Runyowa mentions that a fellow student once compared him to a dog because his name is Simba, a name associated with an animal. Although the classmate didn’t mean to offend him, “The impact of her words and actions mattered more than her intent. That is just one example of people not measuring their words before speaking them. That then comes hand in hand on how we are raising our children. As a parent myself I am teaching my children to think before they speak and if somebody says something hurtful or insensitive towards them to not take it to heart because no one’s opinion matters other than one’s own, but what about those children that have no teachers at home? Are they the leading cause as to why their peers are committing this horrible act of leaving this lifetime or is it because they the victims don’t not know how to ignore the commentary?
When we hear about young adults constantly on the news committing suicide what is the cause of their actions? What pushed them over the edge and what could have prevented it from happening. As parents are we aware of what our kids are doing and what they are saying to others? What are we doing wrong and can we correct it or are we just making it worse on our children by being sometimes overbearing and intrusive? The Coddling of the American Mind insists that “A movement is arising, undirected and driven by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense.” Is the reason behind this because we have made our children into soft souls and not taught to withhold the harsh realities of what life really has to offer? Can we really shield them from things that we cannot control?
How can we control the problem when we are being led by a person that demonstrates that acting in such manor is okay? Then to make matters worse he is only saying what the people that are too scared of saying themselves and making them think that it’s okay but this is what he has created and what we have to go through in school in 2018. But it’s not just college campuses; while sitting at lunch by myself the other day I overheard two older white gentlemen discussing how glad they were that political correctness was dead because they really wanted to go back to calling gay men “queers” and black people “colored” in public like they did in the ’60s (knowing full well I was sitting less than 10 feet away from them). It was then that it occurred to me that maybe my work would soon shift primarily to educating students about the dangers of overt public hate speech rather than innocuous, subtle microaggressions. According to Sterling Mosley he can’t even eat in peace without people attacking others with just their words. The country is regressing and our children are the victims and the aggressors because of that behavior that our POTUS is displaying.
What can we do as a nation to address this type of behavior? Do we trace the problem back to the source? Can we input more programs in schools to prevent future problems? As parents should we continue to stay as involved as much as possible with our children? The answer to all of those questions is yes! We need as many programs to show our children the correct paths in life and how to treat people and we need to educate them at home as well. I was a victim of constant microaggressions based on my looks as a child and now a grown woman and they are feelings I don’t even want my children to have to endure. The time is now to make a positive change in this life for our children. For this is the world in which are children are being raised in and I sure as heck don’t want to raise insecure or hateful people. I urge you and everyone to correct our children at all costs and I guarantee that they will leave a positive impression where ever their lives may lead them.
