According to psychologytoday.com, "Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership." (psychologytoday.com).
The website offers many different examples of microaggressions that aren't just limited to race like many believe they are narrowed down to but they also include ones about religion, women/feminism, those with learning exceptionalities, and members of the LBGT communities.
Here's one example specifically regarding sexual orientation, "A young person uses the term 'gay' to describe a movie that she didn't like" (psychologytoday.com). It's quite easy to tell that the hidden message is the young person used the word gay, without the term being used properly. I felt that this really related to the article from rethinkingschools.org, "One problem is that many people- children as well as adults- do not believe that justice is worth fighting for. One cannot assume an idea or cause will be embraced merely because it is just, fair, or compassionate." (rethinkingschools.org). I strongly believe that this brings up a great point about how it's really hard to teach this portion of Social Justice since it's used so frequently even when we don't even realize it.
I can remember when I was in high school and I was in a Social Justice class and we were discussing the use of the "N" word and I can easily recall when some students were saying that it doesn't mean anything when they use that word, it's all about the evolution of it. Thinking back on it now as I do want to work with high school students, it really breaks my heart to see that this is such a challenge for students to understand that there is an issue at hands and there needs to be something done about it. I think personally the best way to solve this issue is by working to make our students become activists and little do people know, there are plenty of ways to do so!
Down below is a diagram on the simplest and easiest ways of becoming an activist and I believe that they really fit into what the Social Justice article was saying about how to teach social justice. For example, one of the suggestions are to be open to try anything. So having a day in the curriculum dedicated to teaching about different cultures in the the classroom would be very beneficial since the students would be given the opportunity to learn about different kinds of people in a stimulating and hands-on kind of way! And this really relates to how the Social Justice Article talked about giving students the chance to participate and experiment with each other in terms of their differences and such.
Although micro aggressions can be a subject that is hard to teach, I do strongly believe that it can be done if we as educators work hard to make our students become activists so that they'll promote the end of the use of micro aggressions! I hope that you'll all join me in this task!!
Sources:
http://www.one.org/us/2013/10/17/infographic-29-ways-to-be-a-better-activist/
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/15_02/Just152.shtml
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201011/microaggressions-more-just-race
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