"Harvard Law dean puts ‘microaggressions’ in the same league as sexual assault"

The College Fix: Dean Martha Minow recently addressed graduating students at her alma mater, the University of Michigan, for the school’s winter commencement, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Telling students to be “upstanders” – those who intervene when they see injustice – Minow compared apartheid and forced segregation of public schools to … accidentally offending someone:

“Taking even seemingly small acts in one’s own school can build the culture that prevents violence, bullying, sexual assault, and racial microaggressions,” she said.

...the University of California was telling faculty that saying “America is the land of opportunity” was a microaggression.

What's lighting up the NYT's Commentorati: "Students See Many Slights as Racial ‘Microaggressions’"

Apparently, and despite all that 2008 talk of the dawn of a post racial America, race talk, the race conversation is still going on. So, I have to go where the conversation goes, I can't just sit here and pretend that Althouse is staying above the fray. I have to bang the gong, bang the gong, get it on. Years ago, a boxing referee would forcefully say after the bell signaling the first round... "lets get it on"!.. I'm digressing. Lets get back to Race/Mix race...

A tone-deaf inquiry into an Asian-American’s ethnic origin. Cringe-inducing praise for how articulate a black student is. An unwanted conversation about a Latino’s ability to speak English without an accent.

This is not exactly the language of traditional racism, but in an avalanche of blogs, student discourse, campus theater and academic papers, they all reflect the murky terrain of the social justice word du jour — microaggressions — used to describe the subtle ways that racial, ethnic, gender and other stereotypes can play out painfully in an increasingly diverse culture.

On a Facebook page called “Brown University Micro/Aggressions” a “dark-skinned black person” describes feeling alienated from conversations about racism on campus. A digital photo project run by a Fordham University student about “racial microaggressions” features minority students holding up signs with comments like “You’re really pretty ... for a dark-skin girl.” The “St. Olaf Microaggressions” blog includes a letter asking David R. Anderson, the college’s president, to address “all of the incidents and microaggressions that go unreported on a daily basis.” READ MORE

I get mistaken for a Hindu/Pakistani sometimes. When I go to Dunkin Donuts, sometimes I get a stare that I recognize as "are you one of us?" kind of thing. Nothing to get hung up about.
However, if you read the linked column carefully, I believe the students are talking about something slightly, maybe not altogether different. Microaggression IS NOT ChipA taking a bat to his Microgreen Garden. I don't want you to jump into a conclusion. As difficult as that may sound,  "jumping into a conclusion" is never recommended. Like I said, read the article and please say something, even if it's of the microagressive variety.