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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Microaggression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microaggression. Show all posts

Friday, December 31, 2021

Dear White People: Here Are 5 Uncomfortable Truths Black Colleagues Need You To Know

Dana Brownlee
Forbes.com
Originally posted 16 June 2020

While no one has a precise prescription for how to eradicate racial injustice in the workplace, I firmly believe that a critical first step is embracing the difficult conversations and uncomfortable truths that we’ve become too accustomed to avoiding. The baseline uncomfortable truth is that blacks and whites in corporate America often maintain their own subcultures – including very different informal conversations in the workplace - with surprisingly little overlap at times. To be perfectly honest, as a black woman who has worked in and around corporate America for nearly 30 years, I’ve typically only been privy to the black side of the conversation, but I think in this moment where everyone is looking for opportunities to either teach, learn or grow, it’s instructive if not necessary to break down the traditional siloes and speak the unspeakable. So in this vein I’m sharing five critical “truths” that I feel many black people in corporate settings would vehemently discuss in “private” but not necessarily assert in “public.”

Here are the 5, plus a bonus.

Truth #1 - Racism doesn’t just show up in its most extreme form. There is indeed a continuum (of racist thoughts and behaviors), and you may be on it.

Truth #2 – Even if you personally haven’t offended anyone (that you know of), you may indeed be part of the problem.

Truth #3 – Every black person on your team is not your “friend.”

Truth #4 – Gender and race discrimination are not “essentially the same.”

Truth #5 – Even though there may be one or two black faces in leadership, your organization may indeed have a rampant racial injustice problem.

Bonus Truth #6: You can absolutely be part of the solution.

As workplaces tackle racism with a renewed sense of urgency amidst the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, it’s imperative that they approach the problem of racism as they would any other serious business problem – methodically, intensely and with a sense of urgency and conviction.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Microaggression and Moral Cultures

By Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning
Comparative Sociology 13 (2014) 692–726

Here is an except:

A culture of victimhood is one characterized by concern with status and sensitivity to slight combined with a heavy reliance on third parties. People are intolerant of insults, even if unintentional, and react by bringing them to the attention of authorities or to the public at large. Domination is the main form of deviance, and victimization a way of attracting sympathy, so rather than emphasize either their strength or inner worth, the aggrieved emphasize their oppression and social marginalization. This culture shares some characteristics and conditions with the culture of dignity out of which it evolved, and it may even be viewed as a variant of this culture. It emerges in contemporary settings, such as college campuses, that increasingly lack the intimacy and cultural homogeneity that once characterized towns and suburbs, but in which organized authority and public opinion remain as powerful sanctions. Under such conditions complaint to third parties has supplanted both toleration
and negotiation. People increasingly demand help from others, and advertise their oppression as evidence that they deserve respect and assistance. Thus we might call this moral culture a culture of victimhood because the moral status of the victim, at its nadir in honor cultures, has risen to new heights.

The culture of victimhood is currently most entrenched on college campuses, where microaggression complaints are most prevalent. Other ways of campaigning for support from third parties and emphasizing one’s own oppression – from protest demonstrations to the invented victimization of
hate-crime hoaxes – are prevalent in this setting as well.

The entire article is here.

Microaggression and Changing Moral Cultures

By Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Originally posted July 9, 2015

Here is an excerpt:

We can better understand complaints about microaggression and the reactions to them if we understand that each side of the debate draws from a different moral culture. Those calling attention to microaggressions have rejected the morality dominant among middle-class Americans during the 20th century — what sociologists and historians have sometimes called a dignity culture, which abhors private vengeance and encourages people to go to the police or use the courts when they are seriously harmed. Less serious offenses might be ignored, and certainly any merely verbal offense should be. Parents thus teach their children to say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

Microaggression complaints make clear that this is no longer settled morality. Those who see microaggressions as a serious problem and who bring up minor and unintentional slights reject the idea that words can’t hurt, that slights should be brushed off, that even overt insults should be ignored. This attitude reveals the emergence of a new moral culture, one we call victimhood culture, since it valorizes victimhood.

Microaggression complaints are just one manifestation; from the same circles of campus activists also come calls for trigger warnings to alert sensitive students to course material that might disturb them, and the creation of "safe spaces" to shield students from offensive ideas.

The entire blog post is here.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

A Chance to Walk the Talk at the Ethics Educators Conference

By Jeff Sternlieb, PhD
The Pennsylvania Psychologist
June 2012

During the 2011 annual PPA Ethics Educators Conference, an exchange occurred that could, met with the right attitude, guide our organization in creating safe learning spaces. Here’s what happened:

The exchange

The chair of the Ethics Committee began by identifying the content of the program for the day and then introduced the “luminaries” present: past presidents of PPA and significant contributors to ethics education. He ended with a specific request to be respectful of each other in our exchange of ideas and then introduced the morning’s presenters.

When the first pair of presenters described their roles, the second made a comment about being a longtime sidekick – Robin to the first one’s Batman. Immediately, someone in the audience remarked, “Oh, I guess that means you’re gay,” chuckling as though it were a joke. A ripple of laughter from the audience quickly subsided as the presenters moved on without any comment about the “joke,” even though it occurred minutes after the Ethics chair requested sensitivity.

My thoughts

Immediately I struggled. I wondered whether anyone would respond to the remark. I believed we were all, through our silence, colluding with the “joke” and placing in an unfair position anyone who was gay or simply cognizant of the impact of such comments on any minority member.

I shared my concern with a colleague next to me, who did not seem to consider it nearly as significant. I was considering what I should do, but doing or saying nothing was not an option. Two choices occurred to me: say something to the entire group, potentially embarrassing the person who made the remark, or say something to him at the break. The former had the potential to interfere with the ethics program; the latter might determine the speaker’s awareness of the remark’s impact and intent to address it in the larger group. I chose the latter.

The conversation

When I asked the quipster whether he was aware of the possible impact of his comment, he indicated that not only was he aware, but that he had already addressed it during a small-group discussion. He said he regretted it the minute it came out of his mouth, and that he worked with a number of gay clients in a setting in which his comment would have been heard differently. It struck me as a justification rather than an understanding of its potentially negative impact in the current context. He said he appreciated that I brought the concern to him but made no offer to discuss it with the larger group. He had not heard the term “microaggression” when I used it. Included in his small discussion group had been the Ethics chair, who approached while we were talking and asked whether I would be willing to share my experience with the larger group. I agreed.

The organic process

After the morning break, one psychologist, new to the Ethics Educators Conference, questioned how the earlier comment had impacted the learning, sharing environment. This opened the opportunity to share these issues in a natural way, and the Ethics chair publicly invited me to share what we discussed during break. This person’s independent concern supported my belief that such comments have an impact. Save for those who speak out, we cannot know how many others have been affected.

I shared my reaction, thought process, and conversation. I then invited the quipster to share his perspective, and he did, explaining that he worked with a largely gay clientele, apologizing to anyone he might have offended, and repeating that he had regretted his remark immediately after making it.

Audience reactions

Some participants thanked the new attendee for her courage in raising this issue, while others commended the quipster for his apology. One asked what the fuss was about, saying she did not recall hearing any offensive remarks. One person rejected the idea that he was collusive, having heard the remark less negatively. Another asked how this had become Jeff Sternlieb’s issue. Others expressed discomfort at censoring comments that might be seen as offensive to any one person, resisting “political correctness.” One participant noted a significant bias toward calling on male participants to the exclusion of women.

Analysis

All comments struck me as introductory and reactive. No one sought clarification. We did not converse. While no time was scheduled to explore these issues, I was surprised at the lack of informal discussion during lunch or break. These issues seemed too hot to handle and we seemed too uncomfortable to talk about them. Though the exchange introduced the opportunity to learn, our inability to talk effectively stopped us from naming our experience and the concepts involved, including:

·         Privilege. Those of us with privilege – especially we who are white, male, heterosexual, and relatively financially secure ­– tend to minimize the perspectives of those who are marginalized. While none of us want an environment in which we cannot talk about race, sexual orientation, or gender because we are afraid of offending others, we seem to do the opposite: fail to take others seriously when insensitivity is identified. Just because clients or friends are gay does not give us the freedom to make jokes about being gay, particularly among those we may not know well. When any group is singled out, it impacts all groups who have been marginalized.
·         Collusion can be active or passive. Active collusion involves direct participation in the offense, and might involve adding to an initial insult or joke, thus amplifying the impact. This “joining in” sanctions the remark, making it easier for others to “pile on” with similar comments and more difficult for anyone to object. Passive collusion consists of saying or doing nothing, thereby lending tacit support to an unacceptable statement. To object may be seen as a personal affront, discomfiting, or unnecessarily confrontational.
·         Microaggressions are comments that may seem innocent, harmless, or even complimentary but contain demeaning implications or hidden messages. They “...are the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages” sent to minorities in subtle, unintended discrimination (Sue, 2010). Sue describes three types: micro-assaults, micro-insults, and micro-invalidations. A useful website, http://microaggressions.com, lists many examples of such comments.
·         Political correctness. The primary reason we should not joke about people’s race, gender, or sexual orientation is that these characteristics are personal. In the context of a professional exploration of issues, a reference might not be microaggressive, but a joke about a minority made as an aside is a personal affront, and to not recognize it as such IS to collude.
·         Misapplication of Golden Rule. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” does not address individual and group preferences; we cannot assume that because a remark might not offend us that it won’t offend others. An alternate rule, the “Platinum Rule,” can be helpful: “Treat others as they want to be treated,” which would require asking rather than assuming.

The fact that one seemingly simple comment raises so many questions, issues, and reactions suggests we in PPA have a lot more to learn. Having a Committee on Multiculturalism and a host of resources (including a CE program) is not a guarantee of progress. Having this experience in vivo can teach more than any didactic exercise.

The comment one person made could have been made by any of us. The real challenge, in my view, is how we respond.

Reference
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life:  Race, gender and sexual orientation. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.


Monday, October 24, 2011

Subtle and Stunning Slights

By Sara Martin
Monitor Staff
October 2011, Vol. 42, No. 9
 
As an Asian-American, Derald Wing Sue, PhD, says he often gets compliments for speaking good English. Such "praise," he says, is a typical example of a "microagression," the brief and pervasive verbal, behavioral or environmental slights that—intentionally or not—communicate hostility.

"The hidden message is that I am a perpetual alien in my own country," said Sue, who researches microaggressions as a psychology professor at Columbia University's Teachers College.

At an APA 2011 Annual Convention session, Sue and other psychologists discussed their work in the area and their frustration that many people don't recognize microaggressions' detrimental psychological consequences.

More on ethics and diversity can be found here.