Blog: Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

CD 6164~ Week 4

Ann Geddes Babies

Describe at least one example of a microaggression which you detected this week or remember from another time. In what context did the microaggression happen? What did you think and feel when you observed the microaggression or when you found yourself as the target of a microaggression?

One microaggression that I experienced this week was walking around the local mall and going into Starbuck and asking for a cup of ice. A psychological dilemma that I noticed was that I was constantly being watched. I got a “clash of racial reality” when the cashier at Starbucks ask me twice what I wanted and I stated clearly that I only wanted a cup of ice. He saw a drink in my hand and thought the drink was from Starbucks and I was trying to steal it. My presumption is that when I walk around the mall or even just comb the store, that someone is looking at me or following me. I know when there is an undercover police in the store because my uncle was undercover in the mall and he said that an undercover police is usually a white male walking around carrying nothing or a small bag pretending to shop. 

When I go to the mall, I always carry money and a purse. I don’t go into stores that I don’t intend to get something. If I go into another store and have bags with me, I ask to have them held behind the counter. 

In what ways did your observation experiences this week affect your perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people

There is a nationwide disparity, racial profiling, discrimination and prejudice and racial stereotype when Blacks go into stores/malls that they are there to steal something. This disparity is constant in the Black community were you have store owners who are Muslim, Korean or Asian. My daughter was about 18-years old and getting ready for her Homecoming Dance, when she drove to a small hair shop owned by Asians. She had a bag of hair with her to match the hair she had purchased at another store. 

The owner saw her come into the store with a shower cap on and carry a bag. She said that she walked into the back and the owner said that she was trying to put things into the bag and that she was going to call the police if she didn’t exit the store. My daughter called me in tears; she had not been in the neighborhood before or ever in that store. The store was known for robberies by high school students getting off the bus and robbing the store. I told her that I would be right there and that to show the lady that she had money and that she carried the bag to match hair color for a weave hairstyle. I think the store has since been closed down, but there attitude was horrible for first time young customers. 

Nancy ~ circa 2011