The Brandeis Asian American Students Association has put up an installation at the Rabb steps to bring attention to microaggressions that are frequently heard in and out of the Brandeis community.
These words are microaggressions, targeted towards Asian (American) students drawn from our very own experiences on this campus. Our experiences connect us and create the need for Asian (American) communities and resources.
Here at Brandeis, we learn and benefit from our experiences outside of the classroom. We challenge our student body to rise to a higher level of understanding of their Asian (American) peers, and to help improve and enrich our campus climate. We hope that this installation will draw the community together through compassion, understanding, and a robust dialogue.
Our purpose in this installation is to represent the entirety of the effects of these derogatory or negative, racially based, comments called “microaggressions”. These comments build upon each other; when we hear these words used against us on a daily basis, the burden can be overwhelming and frustrating. Now, you see how these words, when visually placed together on the Rabb steps, become impossible to ignore. This is what it feels like to hear microaggressions constantly used against you. These papers are invasive of a space that you often inhabit and must pass through; similar to how these remarks invade our communities and the space we share as a whole: Brandeis. The experience is often alarming, alienating, and ultimately harmful. To us, it is unavoidable.
What exactly is a microaggression? According to Dr. Derald Wing Sue, “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. In many cases, these hidden messages may invalidate the group identity or experiential reality of target persons, demean them on a personal or group level, communicate they are lesser human beings, suggest they do not belong with the majority group, threaten and intimidate, or relegate them to inferior status and treatment”.
We have completed this project in hopes that our peers will recognize the harm in seemingly innocuous comments, and think more critically about what they say. We hope that this will foster a healthy dialogue about racism in the Brandeis community and how harmful and pervasive microaggressions can be. We encourage you to create and continue discussion with your peers.
