माइक्रोएग्रेशन्स: मजबूत दावे, अपर्याप्त सबूत, Microaggressions: Strong Claims, Inadequate Evidence
माइक्रोएग्रेशन्स: मजबूत दावे, अपर्याप्त सबूत, Microaggressions: Strong Claims, Inadequate Evidence – Hindi
Introduction:
Part 1: DEI/Microaggressions
Part 2: Critiquing Microaggressions
Epilogue: Something for Christians
Introduction
DEI…Microaggressions are terms that are relatively new to me. While the injustices in the workplace bear revealing and active discussion. I am unsure about the “over activism” that has emerged in our colleges and workplaces. Perhaps an OVER RESPONSE has occurred. Are microaggressionists/or the label of microaggression become the new “Salem witch hunt?” In her book, Sway: Unravelling Unconscious, Pragya Agarwal does a deep dive into our unconscious Biases.[1]
Part 1 DEI/Microaggressions
A quick review was needed for DEI and Microagrressions. I turned to YouTube for a quick summary. Many are available, the I selected was DEI Series: Microaggressions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwQ3WtwEfg
The video refreshed the issues, defined terms and called the audience to better behavior.
I also referred to my learned peers who write,
DLGP02 Jennifer Vernam – As usual, I am left with more questions than answers. Today, here are my musings. I would love to hear agreements, expansions, or counter-ideas:
- Agarwal is unclear on if she is trying to solve bias or inequity. Are they different problems?
- I am concerned that her focus on intersectionality may perpetuate a problem by creating greater segregation, and thus greater societal loneliness.
- I wonder if there is a more effective way to see “the other” or the out-group members than addressing their hyper-focused identities.
I appreciate these questions. I searched for critiques of microgagression and found many are engaged in the debate. See part 2.
DLGPO2 Tim Clark writes, “But the strongest connection I kept making was to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, partly because Agarwal explicitly mentioned it in her book a few times, and partly because I’m once again being forced to recon with System One and System Two thinking in my own life.
YES, our biases do spring up from our system 1 thinking. Training our system 1 thinking on this topic is a good endeavor. It can only give us the appropriate pause to respond before we react.
In her Epilogue – Debiasing 101, “So how do we tackle unconscious bias? Agarwal, provides some steps and cautions. She writes, “Training does not work without a change of attitudes and addressing systemic inequalities, which are of the result of stereotypes too.”[2]
She suggest, 1) “(we) could signify that a particular attribute is associated to an individual rather than to their whole group, such as “This boy is good at math.” She continues, “In (this) case, essentialist tendencies and stereotypes can be reduced and the formation of a rigid social group boundaries avoided. 2) It is important to create safe, non – judgmental spaces in an organization to discuss this….it is important to criticize the microaggression rather than the microaggressor. 3) If you are the microagressor, use empathy and do not get defensive. 4) Calling out microaggressions can serve as a deterrent. 5) Use gender neutral descriptions and avoid gender-coded words.
Part 2 Critiquing Microaggressions
While the study of Microaggressions brings to light some terrible workplace flaws. It is not without its critics. Specifically, sociologists are weighing in on the research justifying microgaggressions.
In his Psychology Today article, Dr. Lawrence White, Microaggressions: A Critique of the Research | Psychology Today [3] Dr. White summarizes an article written by Scott Lilienfeld who in his Abstract, “I conclude with 18 suggestions for advancing the scientific status of the MRP, recommend abandonment of the term “microaggression,” and call for a moratorium on microaggression training programs and publicly distributed microaggression lists pending research to address the MRP’s scientific limitations.[4]
Lilienfeld’s article calls for further reading, however, Dr. White presents a quick summary.
- Subtle insults occur—and some of them are surely motivated by racial prejudice—but choosing to call these slights “microaggressions” was a mistake. [5]
- It’s proven difficult to achieve consensus about whether a particular act is a microaggression or not. [6]
And perhaps something NEW for the debate.
- Finally, Lilienfeld says microaggression researchers have largely ignored the role of negative emotionality. Negative emotionality (NE) is “a pervasive temperamental disposition to experience aversive emotions of many kinds, including anxiety… hostility, irritability, and perceived victimization” (Lilienfeld, 2017, p. 153). Persons with high levels of NE tend to be vigilant, judgmental, and prone to interpreting ambiguous stimuli in a negative light.[7]
Other articles by Lilienfeld. [8]
Epilogue: Something for Christians
Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas is working on its Version three of their Re-engage program for couples.
In their section Introduction to Peacemaking, I share their three topics that may elude non believers. Forgiveness, Making Amends and Reconciliation.
Stage 1 – Forgiveness – to give up all claim on account of a debt or obligation (between me and God), “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you” C.S. Lewis.
Stage 2 – Making Amends – reparation for payment for a loss, damage, or injury of any kind: to pay back (from me to you). “If possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceable with all” (Romans 12:18), “There are three dimensions to the peace that God offers to us through Christ; peace with God, peace with another, and peace within ourselves” Keven Sande, The Peacemaker.
Stage 3- Reconciliation – settle, resolve, bring to agreement (us together). “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…” (2Corinthians5:18) “Christian faith is…basically about love and being loved and reconciliation. These things are so important, they’re foundational and they can transform individuals and families” Philip Yancey.
I am working on Stage 2:
Repenting of my sin and humbly accepting my sin against another.
Asking for forgiveness
Repairing the damage of my sin.
These CHRISTIAN suggestions are not so out of line with the mental process that Argawal suggests. Admitting our sin, recognizing our injury (intentional or not) to others, and making amends. One hopes that this will lead to reconciliation.
________________________________________________________
[1] Pragya Agarwal, Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias, Bloomsbury Sigma Series (London ; New York: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020).
[2] Ibidl, p. 381
[3] Lawrence White, “Microaggressions: A Critique of the Research | Psychology Today,” Psychology Today, accessed March 15, 2024, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culture-conscious/201805/microaggressions-critique-the-research.
[4] Scott O. Lilienfeld, “Microaggressions: Strong Claims, Inadequate Evidence,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 12, no. 1 (January 1, 2017): 138–69, https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616659391.
[5] Lawrence White, “Microaggressions: A Critique of the Research | Psychology Today,” Psychology Today, accessed March 15, 2024, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culture-conscious/201805/microaggressions-critique-the-research.
[6] White., p.1
[7] White., p.1
[8] Lilienfeld, S. O., Ammirati, R., & David, M. (2012). Distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology: Science and scientific thinking as safeguards against human error. Journal of School Psychology, 50(1), 7-36.
Lilienfeld, S. O., Marshall, J., Todd, J. T., & Shane, H. C. (2014). The persistence of fad interventions in the face of negative scientific evidence: Facilitated communication for autism as a case example. Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention, 8(2), 62-101.
Lilienfeld, S. O. (2017). Microaggressions: Strong claims, inadequate evidence. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(1), 138-169.
About the Author
Russell Chun
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Thanks Russell….you (and Jenn) are wrestling with some of the same questions/issues that I was as I was reading this book, but I didn’t blog too much about it because I couldn’t find the right words. Your blog helps: Sway helps us all better understand our own bias and the subtle ways these might be expressed in hurtful ways….but does it over correct? I felt this question particularly in the microagression and stereotyping sections. If I spell someone’s name wrong (one example the author gives)…someone might perceive that as a microagression….but I might just be really bad at spelling. Heck…I still sometimes confuse the order of the “a” and “i” in my daughter’s name! So as I read the book…I wondered if, as we speak and learn about these things, if we are creating a generations of ‘victims’….trained to notice, name, and react to every perceived ‘slight’ against them. I’m not sure that’s going to lead to a more cohesive, flourishing society in the end.
Hi Scott,
I am as insensitive as they come (ask my wife), and yet this course (and this book in specific) has perhaps turned on a “spiritual antenna” that has me on the look out for unconscious bias.
With that being said, I am now also aware of, Negative emotionality (NE) is “a pervasive temperamental disposition to experience aversive emotions of many kinds, including anxiety… hostility, irritability, and perceived victimization” (Lilienfeld, 2017, p. 153). Persons with high levels of NE tend to be vigilant, judgmental, and prone to interpreting ambiguous stimuli in a negative light.
Cup half empty folk? I don’t usually hang around with these people. I like visionaries who look to solutions.
Still I must be aware of them and their “feelings.” What do I feel annoyance creeping in.
Sigh…
I guess I am the “Emotional brick in Colorado Springs.”
Selah…
Hi, Russell,
“Admitting our sin, recognizing our injury (intentional or not) to others, and making amends.” I want to hone in on “intentional or not.” I find that it is easy to pass by how someone else feels when what we said or did seemed trivial to us but was in some way offensive to them. It takes humility to simply say “I’m sorry” and even “Please share how that made you feel and why so I can learn from you.”
Asking for forgiveness, is something I will have to practice.
It sheds pride and brings me to a place of humility.
Wow, major personality overhaul.
Selah.