Critical Race Feminism

"[A microaggression is]...one of those many sudden, stunning, or dispiriting transactions that mar the days of women and folks of color. Like water dripping on sandstone, they can be thought of as small acts of racism [or sexism], consciously or unconsciously perpetrated, welling up from the assumptions about racial [and gender] matters most of us absorb from the cultural heritage in which we come of age in the United States.  These assumptions, in turn, continue to inform our public civic institutions--government, schools, and churches--and our private, personal, and corporate lives."  

(Delgado & Stefancic)

This week's readings on Critical Race Feminism reminded me of a website I like: microaggressions.com.  This site is a collection of reader-submitted quotes and experiences that illustrate microaggressions that the readers have experienced or witnessed.  I think this site is a great tool for understand how subtle microaggressions can be, and also for helping people to realize that they may engage in microaggressions against other people without realizing it.  I also think it's a good tool for practicing responses to microaggressions.  When I look at this site, I ask myself, "How would I respond if someone said this to me, or if it happened in a conversation I was involved in, or if I overheard it?"  Thinking through and practicing my responses helps me to feel empowered that I can learn to respond in an assertive way and help carve out safer spaces for people who are victims of microaggressions.

I also think the site is great because it contains submissions from a wide range of people--people who experience microaggression because of their race or ethnicity or class or sexual orientation or gender, or, in some cases, people who experience it in the context of their intersecting identities.  I have experienced microaggressions personally because of my gender--but at the same time I am a "possessor" of white privilege and straight privilege and cis-privilege and class privilege, and so it is important for me to hear the stories of people who experience different brands of microaggression.

In recent months I've encountered a number of women (including, I think, some members of this class) who have told me that they have never met a feminist/pro-feminist man.  This makes me so sad, not least because non-feminist men (and especially men who are not conscious of their own privilege) tend to be big offenders when it comes to sexist microaggressions.  I have known men in the past with whom I have felt consistently insecure because of the constant risk of microaggression; it is a terrible feeling and so exhausting.  I have been thinking lately about how lucky I feel that now, literally all of the men who participate in my life in an intensive way are either self-avowed feminists or at least acquainted and comfortable with the feminist ideals that are an integral part of who I am.  Part of this is because I am lucky, and part of it is a function of social privilege, and part of it is because I am demanding of people.