轻微的冷落和忽视会带来很大的伤害.doc

Petty slights and snubs that can leave deep wounds Students celebrate after the resignation of University of Missouri President Timothy M. Wolfe on Monday. He stepped down amid criticism of his handling of racial issues. When I attended college in the 70s, microaggression wasnt a thing. Back then at Ohio State, we were always protesting something — racial discrimination, sexism, the Vietnam War — and there were plenty of ways to offend. I learned to overlook lame comments from professors amazed that I could hold my own with white classmates. I willed myself not to be hurt when I took a seat in class and the white girl next to me rolled her eyes and moved across the room. We absorbed the inane and retaliated only against the most grievous insults — not with administrative muscle but with our brothers: brawny black guys who relished kicking butt. I suppose things are better now; there are forums and committees and official sanctions for everything from inappropriate Halloween costumes to ugly name-calling, condemned these days as hate speech. Minority students dont feel the need to be invisible or pretend they dont hear slurs directed their way, as my friends and I often did. Theyre fighting back and?going beyond obvious transgressions?to challenge slights and snubs — even the puny and inadvertent — that challenge their sense of belonging. People are going to dismiss us … because they say its political correctness gone too far, USC student body President Rini Sampath told Times reporters this week for a story on the rising profile of microaggression. Sampath drew national attention to the issue in September after someone loudly insulted her Indian heritage in a frat house catcall. Every day, she said, students walk into a room and someone makes fun of their accent or [they get] kicked out of parties, and we have to take those things seriously. Rini Sampath, right, the president of USCs student body, drew national attention to the issue of microagression in September a