Cambridge Business Association
Microaggression
Podcast

Microaggression

Colorblind: Race Across Generations podcast

Vanessa Echols, Hank Van Putten, Mary Robinson and Rachel Luce-Hitt
Colorblind, 2018
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Microaggressions are seemingly harmless comments, typically intended as jokes or even compliments. They usually come from people with the purest intentions; nonetheless, they betray the speaker’s implicit prejudice and can cause a lot of harm over time. Colorblind podcast host Vanessa Echols and her panel of experts discuss what exactly microaggressions are, why they hurt and how to stop them.

Summary

Microaggressions are casual comments and actions that reveal the prejudiced way people see certain groups.

Microaggressions can take the shape of a compliment, honest interest or subtle gestures. For example, bank customers might commend the Hispanic banker on her English language skills although she’s from New York, others may ask the Muslim-American wearing a hijab where she’s really from and people in traffic might lock their cars when a black man passes. Independently, these gestures seem inconsequential, some even well-meaning. Collectively, however, they signal that people of certain races, religions, and other identities don’t belong and betray an underlying bias that perpetuates pre-existing disparities in areas like employment, incarceration and housing...

About the Podcast

For her Colorblind: Race Across Generations  podcast, journalist Vanessa Echols invites experts to loosely structured discussions on race issues. For this episode, her guests are Valencia College adjunct professor Hank Van Putten, Rollins College study abroad coordinator Mary Robinson and University of Central Florida diversity and inclusion facilitator Rachel Luce-Hitt.

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