The Intergroup Dialogue Project at Cornell prepares students to live and work in a diverse world, and educates them in making choices that advance equity and justice. At this meeting I was in a room with students of different backgrounds, interpretations, and experiences which made the topic, racism and microaggression, a very interesting eyeopening discussion.

In the beginning of the discussion, there was a skit that was acted out, that contained a micro aggression and we discussed thoughts and feelings about what we just witnessed. It was demonstrated that sometimes we don’t know how we should respond to such incidents because they are more subtle and not overtly racist.  But sometimes people engage in covert racism, which can involve statements, and behaviors that are more subtle or aversive, where the person engaging in the behavior is not aware that the behavior is racist or discriminatory and would feel offended if you labeled it as such.

These more subtle forms of racism are called microaggressions, and the dangerous thing about microaggressions is while they may be small intentional or unintentional offenses, they can accumulate and become burdensome over time for those who experience them.  One of the most insidious features of microaggressions is that sometimes it is hard to confront because it is so subtle.  Because they tend to involve small incidences or indirect insults, it is easy for the perpetrators to dismiss or negate your perception that the behavior or comment was racist.  After a while, you may begin to question whether you are being overly sensitive or imagining things yourself.

This is just one extreme problem that the Intergroup Dialogue Project is trying to combat, by increasing understanding of social identities, exploring the effect of social inequality at personal, interpersonal, and structural levels, to develop students’ skills to work effectively across difference, and to strengthen individual and collective capacities to address social justice issues.