Highlights from MicroAggressions.com:
I noticed that when I eat out and order a Coke, I’m often asked whether I want it to be a diet Coke. I asked some male friends about this and they told me it never happens to them.
24, female-bodied, in a relationship – so Facebook shows me ads with babies, wedding dresses, and engagement rings. Change gender on Facebook to male – suddenly I get ads pertaining to things I actually care about.
“I don’t date bisexuals. They’re never faithful.”
Said to me by woman who identifies as lesbian.
Often when I have dinner at people’s houses, they ask me if I would prefer chopsticks, regardless of the meal!
“You can do [x]. It’s not that hard.”
I have an invisible physical disability. I hear this from teachers, friends, and parents when I try to tell them about my ability level.
Being called “hearing impared,” instead of deaf or hard of hearing.
The term “hearing impaired” seems silly to be upset over, but when used over and over to describe you, you begin to believe that you are indeed broken instead of just different. I fight against the use of this word everyday.
"Push like a man!"
One man to another while trying to load a delivery cart in Manhattan.
My daughter is a college freshman three states away from home. She’s having some depression so went to college counseling office this week at my insistence. The counselor asked if she belonged to any clubs and she mentioned the gay-straight alliance. He replied by asking “Are you having trouble adjusting because you’ve been rejected by your fellow lesbians?” For the record, she thinks she may be asexual but said nothing to him to warrant his assumption.
I walk out of my office and approach a waiting cab, make eye contact with the cab driver, reach out my arm to open the door… and a white woman rushes past me, gets in the cab, closes the door and starts telling the cab driver where she wants to go. Does she think that she deserves the cab more? Did she see me but assume I wasn’t taking the cab? Did she simply not see me at all (despite touching me as she brushed past)? I don’t know which is worse. I do know that I immediately thought, “next time someone asks me why “all” black women are angry, I’m going to tell them its because of stuff like this”.
Hey! White girl! I love you! You are beautiful!
Shouted to me on the street 15+ times a day during my study abroad experience in Nicaragua. I never truly understood what it meant to feel objectified until this experience.
Comments upon Nicaragua anecdote
ToruKun1:
This submission is very, VERY problematic…as much as I sympathize with her plight I’m calling BULLS*** on this woman ~never TRULY feeling objectified~ until some random brown guys in a foreign country hollered at her…subconscious racism/xenophobia much?
eiVega:
This complaint of a microaggression is a microagression in and of itself. It is perpetuating the idea that ‘white beauty’ is ideal and that Latinos are machismo & objectify women.
As a side-note, it is also a humble-brag. Let’s complain about how annoying it is to be beautiful because unwanted men try to flatter me.
Sorry your beauty was such an inconvenience while trying to study abroad in the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, grappled by earthquakes, hurricanes, dictatorships, two revolutionary wars, oppression and a history of US interference and manipulation.
-A Nicaraguan-American, reading white girls complain about Nicaraguans on the microagression blog…
R:
As a white American girl living in a small town in the Dominican Republic, I’m going to have to agree with ToruKun1 and elVega on this one. I feel a hell of a lot more sexism coming from my white, male, American, ivy league-educated, nonprofit bosses than the constant catcalls coming from Dominican dudes, who are living in poverty that is directly related to my part of the world’s exploitation and oppression of theirs. You know our lives are like super f’ing easy in comparison, right? So much so that you can go study abroad, invade their lives and then complain when they act how their culture acts, wow. Even if it is objectifying (not saying it is), it isn’t your place to get offended. How bout you try to spend your time trying to genuinely and respectfully learn about culture and life and your role there instead?
Kenocka:
Why isn’t it her place to be offended? Perhaps she’s only pointing out one of many times that this has happened to her? What “role” is she supposed to assume?
I’m just really confused by this response. She doesn’t feel safe with random dudes yelling at her in a foreign country. Purely conjecture but she probably felt the same way back home but for whatever reason, being at home it might not have “been as bad” because she could call people she knew at a moment’s notice and have them help her or a million other reasons.
I’m just wowed that you would be mad at her for voicing her insecurities and fears. You could’ve been nicer about your points instead of just attacking her the way you seem to have done.
Rididill:
Uh, you may be Nicaraguan American but whatever, clearly they don’t shout at you in the same way. So STFU. ‘Your beauty was such an inconvenience?’ That is a little MORE than a microaggression. Why don’t you stop defending your misogynist compatriots and have a little solidarity. Harassment is not a compliment.
Actually, it’s your fellow Nicaraguans who are perpetuating the ‘white beauty ideal’ by saying that. Not her. Why don’t you take it up with them.
So worse things have happened in the world. DUH. It’s a site called ‘microaggressions’. Not genocide etc. Same could be applied to anything here. Get over yourself, this is supposed to be a safe space.
It’s actually a fact that if you are white, and you go to a Latino country, you will get harassed like a million times more than in a white country. It is not racist to point this out, it is simply true.
Simmerdownnow:
This person went to another country, with a different society and cultural norms and expected to be treated like she is in her country and then got offended when she wasn’t. Don’t go to someone else’s home and judge them based on your house rules. Go to someone else home and learn their rules and try to be a humble guest.
Rididill: Your comment was so offensive to me that I’m going to have to break it down and go through it piece by piece. Hopefully you can open up your mind and actually learn from this because your understanding of privileged oppression needs some deepening.
1. ” Uh, you may be Nicaraguan American but whatever, clearly they don’t shout at you in the same way. So STFU. ”
What does that even mean? And why was it even necessary to bring up this persons cultural identity here? Were you pointing out that elVega isn’t white and so they could never understand “white girl’s” situation? Everyone has imagination and intellect and can imagine what it was like from “white girl’s” description. You have no point here. Also don’t “whatever” someone’s identity. That’s just rude. Don’t do it.
2. “Why don’t you stop defending your misogynist compatriots and have a little solidarity. Harassment is not a compliment.”
Okay, so compatriots means fellow citizen of a nation. elVega is Nicaraguan AMERICAN, that means this person is American. That’s why it’s stuck in there at the end. Sorry to let you down, but elVega is you’re compatriot and you’re haste to jump to deny their American identity IS A MICROAGRESSION. If this person didn’t have Nicaraguan heritage you would’ve said “don’t defend misogyny” but instead you decided to go the racist route. Good job.
And I’m not sure if you’ve just gotten out of a feminism 101 class and you’re hot to stomp out male privilege everywhere but something you might’ve not gotten to yet is Western European Feminism is exclusive and based off of Western European experiences. You’re definition of misogyny does not apply to Nicaraguan culture so don’t call all Nicaraguans misogynists. That’s, again, racist.
Also elVega is showing mad solidarity, by speaking up when Nicaraguan people are being racially stereotyped by you and white chick.
3. “Actually, it’s your fellow Nicaraguans who are perpetuating the ‘white beauty ideal’ by saying that. Not her. Why don’t you take it up with them.”
Oh wow, you threw in another completely pointless reference to the fact that this person is Nicaraguan, look at you being casually racist all over the place. And no, it’s her, she took up space on this site to say “hey guys! people think I’m beautiful because I’m white! It’s awful.” The men who were cat calling her learned that white is “beautiful” through histories of colonization, U.S. interference and globalization. Through European people traipsing through the country, stealing resources, land and lives and meanwhile shaming dark skin and rewarding light skin.
So worse things have happened in the world. Like colonization, that was a horrible thing that happened and is still effecting colonized nations, peoples and communities today as we try to recover what is left of these cultures and learn how to love our cultures when we are constantly told by the dominant one that we are inferior. This site is about the way we still live with those histories and how they come to head in small, daily interactions. How people who have historically had privileges, like being white, male, straight, rich, gender conforming – act out their feelings of entitlement and false superiority in just a few actions or sentences. And how people who have historically been oppressed and marginalized have to deal with that s*** like 15+ times a day, everyday, all the time.
Project much?
Posts
109 comments:
It's a forest of mirrors. Time to introduce the concept of "nano-aggressions".
Oh wow, that is hysterical. Great great great find.
(Referring specifically to the Nicaragua feud.)
By the way, what to these people do when they "graduate"? How big of a drag on productive people are they?
"This complaint of a microaggression is a microagression in and of itself."
Priceless. One of your satiric Obie posts, or did this really come from the school's site?
I wish I could find the article (I think it was either Atlantic or Harper) where some white woman journalist was in Africa with her husband and every time she was out alone at least a couple of guys would whip out their dicks at her. She had some pathetic rationalization about why it wasn't that bad. Also, it's common in tourist guidebooks that I've read to have a disclaimer in there somewhere that white women shouldn't be offended or frightened by aggressive local men with some sort of ready-made excuse to try and prevent the reader from drawing their own conclusions about why.
Those people are insane or close to it. That nicaragua feud is beyond comprehension.
It's really fun how you can always count on POCs to turn on their white "allies" at the drop of a hat.
"By the way, what to these people do when they "graduate"? How big of a drag on productive people are they?"
Good question. At least here in Canada, they join organisations like the human rights tribunals that we have here, so they can be a nuisance.
Ha! This is hilarious!
And then, after a beat, deeply depressing.
On the one hand, this stuff is hilarious. On the other, it genuinely bothers me that these people actually exist.
It's not that I hate them; rather, they inspire much the same feelings as a cockroach crawling around my apartment. It's unpleasant; repulsive, even, if one gives it much thought. But it's not something I spend any time worrying about.
These people have microbrains. They're snared, paralyzed in a web spun of their own ideological constructs. Can't see the forest for the trees. They can't, in fact, see anything flat on, can't see anything as it actually is, because they've convinced themselves that they simply must see everything and everyone through the distorting lens-cum-hall-of-mirrors of their ideology. They live in a Fantasyland utterly divorced from reality.
And if you tried to show them how they've slaved their minds - surrendered their capacity to think freely - to their ideology, they'd do what their simpleminded ideology leaves them no alternative to do but to call you a "hater." To these fools, everyone outside their fragile bubble is and can only be a "hater." God forbid anyone should burst, with the hatpin of Truth, the precious bubble these morons inhabit, as with their bubble burst, these morons would find themselves all at sea, rudderless, adrift.
Worse, they can't see how other races, foreigners, and our rulers and their crony capitalists - and they themselves - are using this ideology to fuck them over, to fuck America and Americans over, to destroy all the goodness that Western Civilization created, nurtured, developed, and bequeathed to them. These fools believe perfervidly that they're creating a Brave New World when all they're really doing is destroying what had been the one island of decency and morality in what has been is, and always shall be a perpetually immoral, amoral, and dangerous world. The road to Hell being paved, of course, with good intentions.
Every time I encounter these ideo-conformist fools, or see film of them or read of them, they bring instantly to my mind the sheeple masses in 'Fahrenheit 451," streaming from their homes to stand on their lawns to be borg-vigilant for the newly morally conscious, fugitive Montag.
Making self-pity into an art-form, cheaper than previously--technology's gift to us all
Ha! This is hilarious!
And then, after a beat, deeply depressing.
Like visiting People of Walmart.
Ah, the classic incompatibility of the feminist and multi-cultural world-views! I always love it when this happens.
This is just beyond parody.
everyday
All of the excerpted microagressees misuse the word everyday. If I was an English teacher I would feel microaggressed.
Spectacular find, Steve.
I read this stuff and am overwhelmed by the waves of sheer energy burned up by the participants. It makes me tired just to scan their written words. It's hard even to contemplate talking to them.
BTW, Auntie Analogue, that is a fantastic comment.
Terrific name for a site: genocide, etc.
mental destructuration of the West.
It's like talking to deranged cult members.
Trivialism. What do you expect in the age of 'gay marriage'?
With no great evils to fight anymore, there are no more mountains to climb.
Only molehills left to pore over.
With no more cancer to remove, only zits to pop.
The age of micro-tragedies. Why not when kids send micro-texts and watch movies on their micro-iPhones?
Micro-
It's so chic and nifty.
If a Jew feels slighted by who is assumed to be an 'anti-semite', it's a microcaust.
Microcaust in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaPBhxXhprg
Jews are hyper-sensitive about everything, gays are fussy about everything, and blacks are touchy about everything.
So, their culture of complaint has rubbed off on everyone as a kind of fashion.
Everyone is a micro-victim or micro-martyr.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/michelle-obama-and-kerry-hold-giving-award-anti-semitic-911-fan_706591.html
No matter how much you suffered(really suffered), even the slightest micro-aggression on twitter against Jewish sensitivities gets you nixed.
McCarthy was never this nuts.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-80-percent-of-recent-nyc-high-school-graduates-cannot-read/
I wish I could find the article (I think it was either Atlantic or Harper) where some white woman journalist was in Africa with her husband and every time she was out alone at least a couple of guys would whip out their dicks at her. She had some pathetic rationalization about why it wasn't that bad. Also, it's common in tourist guidebooks that I've read to have a disclaimer in there somewhere that white women shouldn't be offended or frightened by aggressive local men with some sort of ready-made excuse to try and prevent the reader from drawing their own conclusions about why.
Reminds me of this woman's rationalization.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2010/08/01/conservative-celebrities/#photo-34077
HEY, WE GOT BO DEREK!
I'm a pasty white guy who's been to Nicaragua about a dozen times since 2001. People there have been known to stare at me like I'm a circus freak when I'm there, presumably because I'm just about the whitest individual in the country. That said, there are a lot more gringos down there now than there were 10 years ago so I don't get as many looks now, at least not in the Managua area.
(Apologies in advance to any iSteve readers offended by my racist, aggressive comments.)
"My daughter is a college freshman"
Not a "freshperson"? That's a microaggression right there, that is.
I find this post "problematic."
Re: NYC reading
When I taught history at a 95% NAM school, I was told not to use the textbook or to assign any reading. We instead used a comic book of American history and fill-in-the blank work-sheets.
We would go over these orally and I would get all kinds of weird phonetic spellings.
I remember on instance a boy filled in the blank that the 101st and 82nd airborne had dropped behind enemy lines using "a par of shus".
I can't read about Nicaragua without thinking about the SNL skit with the overpronunciation. "Man-AG-EWAH." Good times.
The misuse of everyday is an everyday occurrence; you see it every day.
Personally, I felt that the commentator who called out the microaggression as an act of micgroaggresion had, zherself, committed an act of microaggression. See also Futurama, Benders Game, Hermes the Centaur: (winning a debate) -- "Your abhorrence of aggression is, itself, an act of aggresion, and therefore, to be abhorred!"
When that kind of argument happens, its usually called "derailing"
These are awesome. The main lesson here seems to be that trying to be sensitive is a pointless effort. The person who says "hearing impaired" instead of "deaf," or who offers chopsticks to an Asian guest, is trying to be sensitive and open to other cultures, yet the recipients are so offended they had to go write about it online.
There's no point in trying -- just act however you want and use whatever terms come to mind, and you probably won't be any worse off.
It was funny, but also tiring. I only managed about half of the comments on the white woman in Nicaragua before having to stop. It must be exhausting being that offended by every goddamned little thing that ever happens. Thank God I'm a white male - as an oppressor I never have to worry about the little shit.
You might like the site wtfsocialjustice.tumblr.com. The writer known as "Yvain" on LessWrong also has a good post on the "memetic superweapon" common in the "social justice community", though from a fellow-traveling perspective.
The cab story sounds legitimately annoying, like something George Costanza might do and then try to justify.
Boy, that site seemed like a great place to go have some fun and then... comments are moderated!
What a surprise that a bunch of little Progressive Fascists would moderate comments on their site. I consider that a microaggression against me.
Ehhh - that discussion does not sound much different to me than discussions here or on the internet in general. I am sure a lot of people would find iSteve message board discussions fairly ridiculous.
I am now living in Central America and so far it's been great. There are annoyances like the gaping holes in the street where someone has stolen the grating for scrap, but all in all I'm very happy here.
Having said that, Steve's views on Latin America's attitude to intellectual pursuits seem pretty accurate. They don't read a lot here, but there are thousands of places where you can get your finger nails painted.
Latino girls seem to like being complemented by strangers. Maybe this psycho should learn to be a bit more culturally sensitive in Nicaragua and not take offense at the local customs.
The biggest irritation here is the boomer retiree. You see these wankers with grey beards and grey pony-tails being driven around in special buses so they don't have to slum it with the locals who are usually a great deal better scrubbed than they are.
Just to think in the 1970s if you wrote that stuff you would be considered a genius.
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/annie_hall.html
ROB
Alvy, you're a total paranoid.
ALVY
Wh- How am I a paran-? Well, I pick up on those kind o' things. You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said ... uh, "Did you eat yet or what?" and Tom Christie said, "No, didchoo?" Not, did you, didchoo eat? Jew? No, not did you eat, but Jew eat? Jew. You get it? Jew eat?
Wow, a whole website devoted to water-cooler bitching about stuff that pissed you off, complete with occasional arguments over whether or not you had a right to be pissed off. This is a re-enforcement of the massive evidence out there that, when it comes down to it, most people, even when trying to talk about serious issues in a serious way, just haven't got much of interest to say.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression
Type Definition
Microassault An explicit racial derogation characterized primarily by verbal or nonverbal attack meant to hurt the intended victim through name calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful discriminatory actions.
Microinsult Characterized by communications that convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person’s racial heritage or identity.
Microinvalidation Characterized by communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person.
Microrape Characterized by predatory non-physical prurient communications with the intent to penetrate the victim's emotional security on the basis of heteronormative impositions.
In Steve's recent post about species, one definition given for "species" was groups of animals that couldn't interbreed. When I read something like this MicroAggression site (great find, BTW!) I feel that the participants are of a different species, not so much about the breeding issue (though I would foresee some problems there) but because I cannot imagine relating to them as fellow human beings. Communication would be impossible. They have constructed and are rabidly defending a completely insane worldview. Any honest statement is pounced upon and condemned.
One can only hope that the effect wears off after they leave the college environment.
All of the excerpted microagressees misuse the word everyday. If I was an English teacher I would feel microaggressed.
If you were an English teacher, you'd probably know the subjunctive, so you'd be bothered by far more things than the misuse of "everyday."
I'm a woman, and probably more to the left than most of Steve's readers.
This, however, makes me question the 19th Ammendment, as well as a host of other voting rights legislation. It might be an idea to bring the voting age up to, oooh, 60 or so.
What a bunch of useless, whining, cry-babies. I second the commenter who wondered what kind of drag these people are on the economy. I bet there is not a one of them who does any productive work - they are probably all counselors, activists, etc. - parasites all. Eloi.
It seems like these people are mentally stuck in that phase of adolescence when you discover that the external world isn't bent on conforming with the inner you and that, in fact, you will have to modify the inner you to live in the world. Doesn't that typically happen at about age 13 or so? What happened to these jokers?
"I read this stuff and am overwhelmed by the waves of sheer energy burned up by the participants."
Childlessness, labor saving devices, public largesse, and the lack of a real war make Jane an energetic, delusional girl.
I feel a hell of a lot more sexism coming from my white, male, American, ivy league-educated, nonprofit bosses than the constant catcalls coming from Dominican dudes, who are living in poverty that is directly related to my part of the world’s exploitation and oppression of theirs.
It's funny how these people who hate American imperialism sign up with NGOs to go to places like the Dominican Republican so that they can help uplift the incompetent locals. Don't they understand that that's the exact same motivation of the Christian missionaries who spread out through the Third World during the 19th century to teach the heathens our ways?
I have a liberal friend whose son has spent a summer vacation from Yale in South Africa as part of a program that devoted half its time to coaching young Africans in soccer and the other half in coaching them to respect women. How incredibly patronizing is that, not to mention futile?
It strikes me that liberals, who would seem to like non-white peoples much more than their fellow whites, don't actually like non-white peoples as much as they like a fantasy image they hold of non-white people. For example, there was much outrage about Michael Vick and his dog-fighting escapades. To be truly tolerant, shouldn't liberals accept that other races don't think about pets the way we do, that love of animals is an Anglocentric thing? That if you really "love" blacks, you have to accept the reality of blacks, not just blame all the problems they create on your fellow whites.
This blog post is offensive.
Not that it really is, but after reading through that taking-offence-athon, it just seems like the thing to do to be offended by something.
Maybe when I have time later on I'll come back to this comment thread and figure a justification for being offended by this post -- you know, string together something about the white male heterosexist rape culture, or lookism or something.
Until then, I'll just ride out the massive dopamine rush that I'm getting from being righteously indignant and offended.
Good times.
I weep for the future.
I've noticed that no one really appreciates the struggles I have undergone, and all I have overcome, and that is hurtful, not helpful.
Actually, this brings to mind that mini-controversy that surrounded Phil Jackson's comments after his Lakers lost an early season game to the Spurs back in 2007.
Jackson, who was coach of the Lakers at the time, said something to the effect of the game reminding him of Brokeback Mountain because of all the Spurs' penetration and kick backs.
Gay and Lesbian groups immediately became offended and Jackson, who's the "Zen Master" of the NBA, had to come out and issue an apology (though it was a non-apology apology, to be sure).
But there was a segment on KTLA TV where they did a complete, in depth report on Jackson's comments, and where a panel of experts discussed their feelings about his comments.
The show's host was a light-skinned and air-headed black woman who initially had difficulty determining whether or not she was offended by the comments, but who decided that she probably could be offended if she tried to be.
The sports writer on the panel was a Jewish guy (surprise) who also didn't see what was so offensive about the remarks, but when pressed, decided that as a Jew, he had to be particularly sensitive to offensive language. So after thinking about it, he ultimately decided that he could probably get offended by Jackson's remarks, even though he didn't see what was so bad about the remarks and wouldn't normally be inclined to get offended by such a trivial matter.
In the end, everyone on the panel decided that they probably should be offended by the remarks, even though none of them thought the remarks were really all that offensive.
It was as bizarre a spectacle of people being offended over ... well ... over nothing as the threads at MicroAggressions.com. And, unfortunately, it was all too indicative of where we are as a culture.
The video doesn't exist at KTLA's website anymore, otherwise it would be linked in this comment.
I feel a hell of a lot more sexism coming from my white, male, American, ivy league-educated, nonprofit bosses than the constant catcalls coming from Dominican dudes, who are living in poverty that is directly related to my part of the world’s exploitation and oppression of theirs.
"Beyond parody" indeed.
By the way, what to these people do when they "graduate"? How big of a drag on productive people are they?
The SMOD simply cannot arrive soon enough.
It's like talking to deranged cult members.
That sentence would offer a far better description of these matters if you were to omit the word "like".
I'm going to have to invoke Poe's law on this whole thing.
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing
It's impossible to tell if this is someone parodying contemporary elite liberal thoughts on race, or if they actually feel this way.
On some blog, some guy called me a crybaby! For complaining about being called a crybaby on a different blog! This is meta-micro-aggression and nobody's doing anything about it! I just feel so invalidated. SIGH.
The only bad thing about microaggressions.com is that it's updated so rarely.
Yep, and to think Obama's people realized they could harness these kinds of pretend intellectuals to elect a President...and they did, twice.
I can imagine what professors at Oberlin sound like.
"I'm a pasty white guy who's been to Nicaragua about a dozen times since 2001. People there have been known to stare at me like I'm a circus freak when I'm there, presumably because I'm just about the whitest individual in the country. That said, there are a lot more gringos down there now than there were 10 years ago so I don't get as many looks now, at least not in the Managua area.
(Apologies in advance to any iSteve readers offended by my racist, aggressive comments.)"
Normally pasty would be a fightin' word, but since you call yourself one, I'll let it go.
Why would you do this to us, Steve? We're loyal readers and fans. I'm going to do everything I can to forget I ever read this because it's nauseating.
I have read on some of the PUA blogs(Roosh,Krauser etc)thatn white guys who go to Latin America are in demand,and can have LOTS of fun. That is truly sad. Heh heh heh.
You may think that these people are being silly arguing about the "microagressions" committed against them, but they are deadly serious. The most important card you can carry in America today is the victim card, which all except straight white males are entitled to display. The victim card can get you into Harvard, it can excuse crimes, it may even get you to the White House. But what if you are in a game of victim poker and two "victims" both pull out their victim cards - say a woman and a brown male? Which victim card trumps the other? The rules for this have not yet been sufficiently codified so "top victim" status is up for grabs and a victim brawl ensues.
"Microaggression". The latest demon to be outed and destroyed in America's never ending quest to ensure people of color, of LGBT, of (fill in your own personal choice) are not being oppressed by white males.
Jews are hyper-sensitive about everything, gays are fussy about everything, and blacks are touchy about everything.
Why? It's hard to imagine the Jews surviving 4000 years by being hyper-sensitive. Somehow I think this started some time in the last 75 years. And African blacks don't seem to be nearly as touchy as Af-Ams, despite being poorer and blacker.
Perhaps modern American culture make this all possible. There is no advantage for a Jew in Israel (or better yet Iran), a gay in Taiwan, or a black in Africa to be so "hyper" about everything.
I work with disabled children, and have a good idea what they go through every day, and how little sympathy and support they have from mainstream society. All of them would love to trade places with the above "micro-aggressed" minorities.
How about a superhero called Microman who comes to the rescue of people victimized by microaggs.
"It's hard to imagine the Jews surviving 4000 years by being hyper-sensitive. Somehow I think this started some time in the last 75 years. And African blacks don't seem to be nearly as touchy as Af-Ams, despite being poorer and blacker. Perhaps modern American culture make this all possible. There is no advantage for a Jew in Israel (or better yet Iran), a gay in Taiwan, or a black in Africa to be so 'hyper' about everything."
Being hyper-sensitive doesn't mean you have to show your hyper-sensitivity. Obviously, Jews knew when to keep their mouths shut. I mean they weren't stupid. But privately, they were extremely critical and hyper-sensitive about lots of things. They kept it under the lid and pretended like they just wanted to go along and get along... which is why white Americans trusted them--even leftist Jewish radicals in the 50s and 60s. But once Jews smelled that they could they could be hyper-sensitive openly and get away with it, they've been in Sarah Silverman, Howard Stern, Woody Allen, Jackie Mason, and Tim Wise mode out in the public. In the past, they wanted to be pushy but were more careful. Now, they don't just wanna rock the white boat but topple and sink it.
Same with blacks. They long been thinking, "Just wait til we get some freedom cuz we's gonna whup these flabby-ass honkey mofos good." But they must smiled and shucked and acted like Scatman Crothers in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST since whiteys had all the guns and laws on their side.
And gays have been closetly-fussy for 1000s of yrs. They were trading bitchy rumors behind the scenes while designing fancy stuff for kings and aristocrats.
All these pushiness, touchiness, and fussiness were once in the closet, but they are now out in the open, and much of MSM is Jews, gays, and blacks bitching on and on and on, with 90% of all the blame falling on white gentiles. A convenient way for white liberals to deflect some of this blame is to create the bogeyman of the white conservative male. That way, white liberals and women can join the Jews, gays, and blacks and attack the BAD WHITES, the conservative white males.
"I'm offended!"
"Well, I'm offended that you're offended!"
"Oh yeah? Well I'm offended that you're offended that I'm offended!"
"Oh yeah, Well, .. "
{repeat toward infinity}
What a bunch of silly brats people on the left are. What they really need is a good spanking.
(Cue the cries of "I'm offended by that remark!")
I think Taiwan caught the gay bug. Asians see, Asians do. It should now be called Gaiwan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIwPSFOubFQ
And it seems Taiwanese politics is very touchy in its own way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHPK6TdgsZU
Hilarious, it's like eavsdropping on arguments between mental patients. How could anyone whose mind is full of this nonsense ever be a productive member of society, they can't all go into university employment, Right? It's self absorbtion combined with an ideology perpetually looking for new victims. The poverty of the Dominican Republic being caused by Uncle Sam is to them a certainty like the Moon orbits the Earth. Not bad institutions or the legacy of Spanish mercantilism, no, it has to be the fault of America, and it is beyond questioning, someone should get on the site and question it and watch the fools lose their minds.
"I read this stuff and am overwhelmed by the waves of sheer energy burned up by the participants. It makes me tired just to scan their written words."
These are college kids, right? Too bad the tremendous energy of young people is often wasted on worse than trivial pursuits.
24, female-bodied, in a relationship
Female-bodied? What sort of numbskulls talk like this?
"Missing: Fluffy, 6 years old, dog-bodied, in a relationship. Send any information to female-bodied Melissa at .."
"Hi, I'm interested in a relationship with a male-bodied person .."
It's worthwhile to keep in mind that these commenters are (mostly) 18 - 21 year olds with, on the whole, VERY LITTLE real world experience. Academia breeds obsession and over-intellectualization...of everything, from indie rock to Battlestar Galacta to victimization. College is a good time to explore the deepest recesses of a cause or ideology. After a few years of being an adult, these students usually emerge with an understanding of how absurd any of it can be if taken too far. I suspect that in a few years most of these kids will look back at these same comments and cringe with us.
"This, however, makes me question the 19th Ammendment, as well as a host of other voting rights legislation. It might be an idea to bring the voting age up to, oooh, 60 or so."
As sympathetic as the "if you can fight at 18, you can vote" argument is, now that I'm on the other side of 30 I'm really wishing the voting age was raised back to 21, if not 25.
"Female-bodied? What sort of numbskulls talk like this?"
Just check her match.com account:
24 year old Vagino-American, seeking same.
Somebody compared microagressions to overhearing an argument between mental patients sitting around the ward...so true. I mean, really-- true. Some of the exchanges echo almost exactly some of what I've heard among the mentally ill I had a family member who did time in an institution). Not neccesarily on the same subject, but close enough.
They can't find enough white racism so they just have to invent it. Considering the elevation among blacks in government and business (merit being but rarely a criteria), institutional racism isn't enough. I suspect the term came out of a think tank somewhere. I didn't use to think that sickos-- and not black ones either -- were stirring up trouble (mostly for whites). But now I'm convinced of it. I am also wondering whether they adopted the form of discourse mental patients would carry on, as I already mentioned. Just to drive us all as crazy as they are.
As sympathetic as the "if you can fight at 18, you can vote" argument is, now that I'm on the other side of 30 I'm really wishing the voting age was raised back to 21, if not 25.
Especially now that "kids" can remain on their parents' health care plan until age 26.
Steve, did you miss this one:
“My friend said I was totally black because I drink kool aid and eat watermelon all the time!”
A bit lowbrow but hilarious.
Whatever happened to microfinancing? Has that been microaggressed out of existence?
All these micro-hysterias are silly, but maybe it's good for the Right in this way. With everyone bitching microlistically, how can they unite for any higher cause?
It's like Amanda Marcotte's big micro-tragedy of her life. She had sex with a porn star but, HEY, no one high-fived her when she told others.
Oh, poor poor girl.
Sontag may have written some stupid things but nothing on the level of such shallow twaddle.
SWPL folks are spoiled and pampered.
Or how about the skepchick getting all hyper because some dork at an atheism convention asked her out on a date. Oh boo hoo, a dork asked a dorkette out, but the dorkette was offended because she thought she was hotter stuff deserving of better specimen of males asking her out.
When Dawkins pointed out how silly this was, there was a whole bunch of fellow idiots to share in skepchick's micro-tragedy of having been micro-sexually-harassed(simply because some dork in an elevator said he admired her and would like to share a cup of coffee with her).
What a bunch of namby pamby brats.
Just look at youtube vlogs. We don't even have armchair radicals anymore. They are more like bedroom radicals who sit on their beds and bitch about every inane nonsense around the world.
You gotta remember that what passes for feminism is shouting 'vagina' and organizing 'slut pride parades'.
What passes for global human rights is 'pussy riot' acting like fools in a church and shoving a chicken up their crotch.
What passes for black power is a bunch of idiot rappers yapping and bitching about everything.
Here's my attempt. I tried sending it a few times, but their site says it needs to be under 100 words, which it is:
"Whenever I talk about interests with white people, there's always several progressivs- very upper-middle class, straight, athletic, who pontificate about their ablist love of backpacking. It's always to "conquer" some high peak (where they, no doubt, will complete their conquest of some hippie girl in the tent). It's like "hiking mountains" are a crypto-elitist signifier that calls up all of the repressed elements of patriarchy, like "exploring" some new colony.
It's gotten to where the sight of Patagonia gear makes me sick. I really am beginning to feel ambiguous about this "outdoorsy" stuff and where it sometimes leads.
I am both homosexual and Jewish, or at least of Jewish heritage. Some of you might think I get a "two-fee" in the victim card department.
I don't feel that way at all. If someone mugged me, or if they held up my business at gunpoint, I would be a victim of assault and battery and armed robbery respectively. But as for playing the victim about who and what I am? Naah. Not interested. The activists may flash the cards and get all the headlines but I think as ill of them as any of you on this site. They in fact make things worse for everyone.
"It's gotten to where the sight of Patagonia gear makes me sick."
Is the Patagonia brand name for backpacking clothes colonialist, since it was name applied by Spanish conquerors to First Nations' territory? Or is it Hispanic, so therefore okay? Or did Yvon Chouinard appropriate an Hispanic term? But, as a Quebecois immigrant, wouldn't Chouinard qualify as oppressed?
Microaggressions = macro-parody.
It's the progressive equivalent to "You can't triple stamp a double stamp. You can't triple stamp a... Lloyd! Lloyd!!"
Is the Patagonia brand name for backpacking clothes colonialist, since it was name applied by Spanish conquerors to First Nations' territory? Or is it Hispanic, so therefore okay? Or did Yvon Chouinard appropriate an Hispanic term? But, as a Quebecois immigrant, wouldn't Chouinard qualify as oppressed?
I guess ala Zimmerman he's a "white Quebecois".
At any rate, maybe the site will accept my submission if I just close with "Mountains are racist".
How the hell did these people make it to '24' (as one claims to be), or for that matter, any age? My god, these little spoiled princesses... My two year old is more mature. It would be worth these tools sinking the country just to watch them have to deal with real hardship and standing on their own two feet.
"A convenient way for white liberals to deflect some of this blame is to create the bogeyman of the white conservative male. That way, white liberals and women can join the Jews, gays, and blacks and attack the BAD WHITES, the conservative white males."
They don't stop at the "bogeyman of the white conservative male." They go after the bogeywoman of the happily married straight woman who likes motherhood.
Thanks for the laughs. Yeah, men aren't sensitive at all. They can take criticism...oh wait, they can't. They go and whine about the mean feminists all day on isteve.
Ehhh - that discussion does not sound much different to me than discussions here or on the internet in general. I am sure a lot of people would find iSteve message board discussions fairly ridiculous.
No, not even close. Some freak over there said she was Nicaraguan and therefore an expert qualified to tell another commenter who had a bad experience in Nicaragua that she was a racist White piece of shit. Someone defending the victim mentioned the attacker's self-proclaimed Nicaraguanity, and another lunatic attacked the victim's defender as a racist for mentioning the Nicaraguanity that the original malefactor had made the centerpiece of her argument. This is a dort of insanity that you would never find here.
"As sympathetic as the "if you can fight at 18, you can vote" argument is, now that I'm on the other side of 30 I'm really wishing the voting age was raised back to 21, if not 25."
Simple: Voting age back to 21, unless you are in the military.
Wh- How am I a paran-? Well, I pick up on those kind o' things. You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said ... uh, "Did you eat yet or what?" and Tom Christie said, "No, didchoo?" Not, did you, didchoo eat? Jew? No, not did you eat, but Jew eat? Jew. You get it? Jew eat?
"Didchoo"? You must not have seen the movie.
"Sort" of insanity, not "dort" of insanity. Damn typos.
At least someone injected a dose of sanity into the discussion:
So worse things have happened in the world. DUH. It’s a site called ‘microaggressions’. Not genocide etc. Same could be applied to anything here. Get over yourself, this is supposed to be a safe space.
It’s actually a fact that if you are white, and you go to a Latino country, you will get harassed like a million times more than in a white country. It is not racist to point this out, it is simply true.
Maybe one day she will realize that the Microaggression website and the Left in general privilege non-Whites over White women and that she is being played as a fool. I look forward to welcoming her back into the fold.
Good example of how anything can be spun into "white racism".
Someone mentioned the Quebecois. They may be the first example (other than the Jews) of a minority group in North America using microaggression for political gains. Having lived in canada in the 1970s, I had to listen to Quebec politicians and activists sounding like Holocaust survivors, and threatening to leave Canada unless they were given special privileges. Compared to most oppressed minorities, including American blacks and Jews, and even irish Catholics, the Quebeckers had it pretty good.
This is what happens when you outlaw weed.
"Compared to most oppressed minorities, including American blacks and Jews, and even irish Catholics, the Quebeckers had it pretty good.
"
well for starters, the English held all the elite positions in the province and the French the working class jobs. You call that a microaggression? Tell us how good the Quebecois had it pre-1970's why don't you.
Anonymous 3/8/13, 12:52 PM wrote:
Sarah Silverman, Howard Stern, Woody Allen, Jackie Mason, and Tim Wise mode
Tim Wise is one-fourth Jewish by ancestry. He is not a Jew.
well for starters, the English held all the elite positions in the province and the French the working class jobs.
Assuming that is even true, how is it any different from Mayflower WASPs having the elite positions in New England, and Irish Catholics cleaning the toilets? Does it mean California has to speak Gaelic out of guilt?
Get a life, grow some balls, and go mau-mau someone else, Frenchie. It makes me wish the Krauts took Quebec instead of France in 1940. Then you would have known what real tragedy is like.
"
Assuming that is even true, how is it any different from Mayflower WASPs having the elite positions in New England, and Irish Catholics cleaning the toilets? Does it mean California has to speak Gaelic out of guilt?"
How ignorant can you be? And what does "assuming that is even true" mean? If you have doubts, or know better, google it/enlighten us rather than cast vague aspersions on something that is actually uncontroversial. Anyway, the French were there first, had an established culture and language, and vastly outnumbered the English in the province so your California example doesn't even make sense. Complaining about that situation, and taking action, is not "whining" about "microagressions" by any stretch of the imagination.
"Then you would have known what real tragedy is like."
Yeah, worse than serving as cannon fodder and slaving away all your life for the elites. No tragedy there.
"how is it any different from Mayflower WASPs having the elite positions in New England, and Irish Catholics cleaning the toilets?"
By the 1970's many Irish Catholics had made great strides, in some cases after only a generation or two in the US. Another reason your comparison is stupid.
By the 1970's many Irish Catholics had made great strides, in some cases after only a generation or two in the US. Another reason your comparison is stupid.
The Irish Catholics did so without massive Federal Big Government affirmative action programs and sucking on the taxpayer's teat.
Quebec has always had a French premier. The government of Quebec is 100% French. The Anglos never had any political power there. French-Canadians were poorer for their own socio-cultural reasons and not due to some Anglo "conspiracy".
"Served as cannon fodder"
French-Canadians took a pass on fighting in WW1 and WW2.
"slaves for the elites"
Maybe if French-Canadians had valued education (not made compulsory in Quebec until 1942 and largely because of the Anglo community) instead of cranking out 20 kid families, they might have achieved more.
Btw, I would LOVE to see Quebec separate from Canada.
By the 1970's many Irish Catholics had made great strides, in some cases after only a generation or two in the US. Another reason your comparison is stupid.
The Irish Catholics did so without massive Federal Big Government affirmative action programs and sucking on the taxpayer's teat.
Good point.
French-Canadians are the only white people to have been offered affirmative action. Whether they have "succeeded" or not depends on your point of view. But if prospering without AA is a sign of whiteness, then the Armenians are a thousand times whiter than French-Canadians, and the Japanese, a million times so.
"
French-Canadians took a pass on fighting in WW1 and WW2."
You are obviously deranged.
Aww, poor Anglos. They suffer so. So many microaggressions against their sense of superiority- it's just not fair.
You are obviously deranged.
And a "nation" that works and votes like Puerto Ricans, and expects to be paid like Germans, and screams like post-Holocaust Jews when they're not, isn't deranged?
French-Canadians did indeed take a pass on fighting in the two world wars. That is a historic fact. I mention this because you claim they served as "cannon fodder", which is not only untrue, but the direct opposite of the truth.
Please, please separate. Go. Begone. Good riddance. Don't hit your head on the door on the way out. Leave. Take your 'joual' and go. We'll keep the 7 billion bucks in annual shakedown money (equalization payements) you clowns steal from us.
We'll keep the 7 billion bucks in annual shakedown money (equalization payements) you clowns steal from us.
Mau-mauing the flak catchers, Canadian-style.
"Mau-mauing the flak catchers, Canadian-style".
Whatever you say buddy. But as far as I am concerned, Quebec can't separate from Canada fast enough to suit me.
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