Microaggressions Pioneer Derald Sue: ‘Not Everything Is a Microaggression’

One of the creators of the concept of “microaggressions” has expressed concern about overuse of the term. Columbia University professor Derald Sue now claims “not everything is a microaggression.”

According to a report by The College Fix, one of the primary popularizers of the concept of “microaggressions” is concerned that leftists are applying the term to innocent conversation.

Columbia University Professor Derald Sue is responsible for popularizing “microaggressions,” the notion that small, off-hand, comments can amount to bigoted oppression. Breitbart News reported in March 2018 that the University of California viewed the statement America is a “land of opportunity” as a microaggression.

Sue told The College Fix that many universities had downplayed the importance of context when determining whether or not a statement is offensive. “Oftentimes someone will say to me, ‘Where were you born?’ And I’ll say, ‘I was born in Portland, Oregon.’ And they’ll say, ‘No, where were you really born?’” Sue explained.

“Asking me directly, ‘Where were you born?’ is not in itself a microaggression, especially if I say “I was born in Portland” and they accept it. But if they don’t, and pursue, and continue, then contextually they are seeing me as not a true American, not someone born and raised here, I’m an outsider,” Sue continued, “Not everything is a microaggression.”

Despite his concessions, Sue maintains that minorities face a constant, everyday, stream of microaggressions in America. “Microaggressions in the lives of people of color are constant and continual, beginning from the moment (they) awaken to when (they) go to bed,” Sue argued. “Well-intentioned white brothers and sisters frankly don’t understand what people of color go through on a daily basis.”

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