Microaggressions and the rise of victimhood culture

[Recursion]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/?utm_source=SFFB

Last fall at Oberlin College, a talk held as part of Latino Heritage Month was scheduled on the same evening that intramural soccer games were held. As a result, soccer players communicated by email about their respective plans. “Hey, that talk looks pretty great,” a white student wrote to a Hispanic student, “but on the off chance you aren’t going or would rather play futbol instead the club team wants to go!!”

Unbeknownst to the white student, the Hispanic student was offended by the email. And her response signals the rise of a new moral culture America.

When conflicts occur, sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning observe in an insightful new scholarly paper, aggrieved parties can respond in any number of ways. In honor cultures like the Old West or the street gangs of West Side Story, they might engage in a duel or physical fight. In dignity cultures, like the ones that prevailed in Western countries during the 19th and 20th Centuries, “insults might provoke offense, but they no longer have the same importance as a way of establishing or destroying a reputation for bravery,” they write. “When intolerable conflicts do arise, dignity cultures prescribe direct but non-violent actions.”

...

The aggrieved might “exercise covert avoidance, quietly cutting off relations with the offender without any confrontation” or “conceptualize the problem as a disruption to their relationship and seek only to restore harmony without passing judgment.” In the most serious cases, they might call police rather than initiating violence themselves. “For offenses like theft, assault, or breach of contract, people in a dignity culture will use law without shame,” the authors observe. “But in keeping with their ethic of restraint and toleration, it is not necessarily their first resort, and they might condemn many uses of the authorities as frivolous. People might even be expected to tolerate serious but accidental personal injuries.”

Hmm.

I don't expect all that much from this post. But this is something I think we should talk about.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. More from the article:

The Oberlin student took a different approach: After initially emailing the student who offended her, she decided to publicly air the encounter that provoked her and their subsequent exchange in the community at large, hoping to provoke sympathy and antagonism toward the emailer by advertising her status as an aggrieved party.

She did so in a post to the web site Oberlin Microaggressions, a blog “primarily for students who have been marginalized at Oberlin.” The aggrieved student quoted the aforementioned email: “Hey, that talk looks pretty great, but on the off chance you aren’t going or would rather play futbol instead the club team wants to go!!”


Then she explained her grievance:

Ok. 1. Thanks for you thinking that the talk is “pretty great”. I appreaciate your white male validation. I see that it isn’t interesting enough for you to actually take your ass to the talk. 2. Who said it was ok for you to say futbol? It’s Latino Heritage Month, your telling people not to come to the talk, but want to use our language? Trick NO! White students appropriating the Spanish language, dropping it in when convenient, never ok. Keep my heritage language out your mouth! If I’m not allowed to speak it, if my dad’s not allowed to speak it, then bitch you definitely are not supposed to be speaking it. Especially in this context.

She also published the email that he sent to the white student:

Your not latino, call it soccer. You don’t play futbol. Futbol is played with people (LATINO) who know how to engage in community soccer, as somebody who grew up on the cancha (soccer field) I know what playing futbol is, and the way you take up space, steal the ball, don’t pass, is far from how my culture plays ball.

I’m not playing intramural once again this semester because you and your cis-dude, non passing the ball, stealing the ball from beginners, spanish-mocking, white cohort has ruined it (for the second time). Unless I find another team you won’t be seeing me.
I don’t care if this email is over the top or mean. So complain to whatever white friends you want about it. You’re never going to know what its like to not be able to your own heritage sport comfortably because of your gender/race/ethnicity.

[Tipperary]

8. A college student should have better grammar (and punctuation) skills.

And she calls him a "bitch"?

All kinds of wrong here.

[REP]

13. Also not aware that Spanish is a white, European language forced upon indigenous American peoples

If she ever finds herself in Spain, is she going to insist they stop speaking "her" heritage language with their white mouths?

[melman]

14. It reads like a parody

but I know it's not.

[hifiguy]

19. That summarizes more or less everything wrong

with so many things.

Barf.

These precious snowflakes are in for one brutal wake-up call when they go out into the asshole-filled real world.

[Marr]

25. You're not kidding.

And this attitude seems to be becoming pretty prevalent, too. I don't know what's spawned it-- social media, helicopter parenting... I don't know. But we certainly do a have a population of people who seem to be stuck at about age 3, emotionally.

[NV Whino]

2. Interesting

On to read the entire article.

[Recursion]

4. It's worth it, I think (nt)

[malthaussen]

3. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

When you're sitting near the top of the food chain, you can apply to the institutions which validate your position with a reasonable expectation of redress for any grievances. However, if you are unfortunate enough to be part of a class the power structure routinely, systematically, and institutionally exploits, then acting within their constraints is liable to get you exactly nowhere. Making a noise may not secure redress, either, in such cases, but it certainly feels better. Also, in cases where the society does not reward the processes of the "dignity" culture, the individual who can be the most intimidating usually gets his way.

-- Mal

[NV Whino]

5. Well, this fits Kim Davis to a T.

They did so in hopes of making the case that the small slight that they’d seized upon was actually evidence of a larger, significant injustice to a whole class of people.

Victimhood culture. Yep.

[Oneironaut]

6. I blame the narcissistic social media culture that occupies our society.

It's no longer about, "I'm offended and here's why." The new way seems to be, "This person did something that offended me - enact revenge on them and ruin their life in every way possible." This doesn't seem to be about improving society at all - it's about the offended party's ego and desire to enact revenge.

[B2G]

7. After reading the whole article,

she seems to have a large burr up her ass.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. I practice "covert avoidance" against "microaggressions" on DU everyday

But I call it "ignoring people who are acting like assholes."

[Rex]

11. I do that too, it is my advanced ignore feature.

Don't need a button, I just ignore until I feel like not ignoring.

[TM99]

10. A victimhood culture arises

in part because of third party coddling.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

These two articles really go hand in hand in supporting each other in clearly stating what is damaging our once fine institutions of higher learning.

[B2G]

12. Related article about UC policy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/06/16/uc-teaching-faculty-members-not-to-criticize-race-based-affirmative-action-call-america-melting-pot-and-more/

[LittleBlue]

20. Thanks for the link. nt

[fishwax]

15. It's an interesting read, but I'm skeptical of the term "victimhood culture"

That and similar terms have been used for several years now to respond to or diminish complaints by marginalized populations. I haven't read the study referenced in the article, and so can only draw on this Atlantic article and Jonathan Haidt's summary of the original study (http://righteousmind.com/where-microaggressions-really-come-from/). But there seems to be an imbalance in the different labels offered to the different cultural moments: honor, dignity, and victimhood. If one wants to argue that there is a shift underway and wishes to facilitate a discussion of the causes, merits, and dangers of such a shift, I think perhaps a more neutral term is in order. If one wants to argue that there is a shift and that it's a bad thing, then the term will be pretty appealing.

Along similar lines, I'm skeptical of the claim that discussions of microaggressions are fundamentally about the elevation of victimhood. This makes it too easy, again, to reduce any complaint about inequality to simply whining about being a victim. Here is the statement of purpose for the Oberlin Microaggressions tumblr:

Our blog is primarily for students who have been marginalized at Oberlin. We welcome submissions by marginalized students who wish to speak about their lived experiences.


If you see or hear racist, heterosexist/homophobic, anti-Semitic, classist, ableist, sexist/cissexist speech etc., please submit it to us so that we may demonstrate that these acts are not simply isolated incidents, but rather part of structural inequalities.

Friedersdorf says that the student in question posted her complaint to the site "hoping to provoke sympathy and antagonism toward the emailer by advertising her status as an aggrieved party." But I don't really see that--or an elevation of or valuing of victimhood--in either the post or the blog's mission. Rather, the post seems to be about working through one's personal frustration in a way that might be of use and value to (a) people who have had similar experiences and (b) potential allies who might see from the examples that the blog hopes to aggregate that there is a pattern to such behavior worth viewing critically.

The blog and discussions of microaggression don't seem to be (if we take them at face value) about acquiring or elevating or celebrating victimhood, but rather about wrestling some sort of control from an incident in order to generate awareness and alliance. (Again, this highlights the problem with the term Victimhood Culture: people in honor cultures seek to preserve honor, people in dignity cultures seek to preserve dignity, but I don't see the discussion of microagressions as an attempt to preserve victimhood.)

Friedersdorf's Atlantic article does a good job of starting to bring out some of the complexities in the issue, I think, in his discussion of the ways that those in the majority have historically relied on the same structures as what is being identified here as "victimhood culture" when their own status seemed to be threatened (i.e., stop and frisk, English first movements, and so on), as well as how the advantages of what's called here dignity culture didn't reach all levels of society equally.

[Recursion]

17. Friedensdorf asked for emails and I basically said the same thing

We need a phrase besides "victimhood culture" because that has been used a cudgel since at least the 1980s.

[petronius]

31. Good post, and good points. The example used in this article seems

carefully chosen and framed--to present this student as hypersensitive and microaggressions in general perhaps as somewhat trivial--but there's more to it than this initial/simplified discussion covers. It's too bad the research article itself is behind a paywall...

[Igel]

34. The names changed from time to time.

Oddly, because of perceived grievances.

Used to be "honor culture" and "shame culture." But that whole "shame culture" thing was too belittling and degrading, some found it offensive and so the name was changed. The thing itself, what really matters, is the same.

Which is part of the point, to be honest. We get so caught up in minor irritations and make the entire problem about the minor irritations. It misses the point entirely. This is the second OP on this (if truth be known), and some took issue with the very idea of a "grievance" or "victimhood culture"--missing the point entirely that the kind of paradigm shift that led from honor to dignity cultures seems to hold. You can't use the same parameters and metrics for the currently developing culture that would would for dignity cultures.

However, I think it's worth pointing out that a number of cultures have, for decades, had large subsets or even majorities that seem to have been this way: You exaggerate the degree of victimization in order to curry favor and support. (Some are even what have been described as "honor" cultures, so I'm not sure that we're not just seeing a variant of those. Mostly they seem to be endemic in formerly honor-based cultures, so the US South and derivative subcultures or some ME or even post-Soviet cultural varieties.)

[Starry Messenger]

16. I don't give Ron Paul fans the time of day, myself.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/why-does-ron-paul-scare-you/243987/

Conor Friedersdorf: "What's the worst thing that could plausibly happen if Ron Paul wins? And by that metric, how does he measure up to the folks he's running against? Don't ask why I chose him. It's obvious."

[Recursion]

18. Yeah, Friedersdorf and Greenwald both get more love here than they probably should

That said, the study quoted here is interesting.

[gollygee]

21. Example of white privilege (or heterosexist privilege, etc.)

Being part of a society and culture that creates victims through racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., and then telling those victims that their victimhood is their own fault and is just a culture they themselves have created.

[Egnever]

36. Are you claiming the response to the email was rational?

If that original email was offensive we are truly screwed.

[gollygee]

38. No, I'm talking about a general theme

Someone replied to an OP I posted earlier today saying that he/she doesn't believe in the existence of microaggressions at all. My complaint is more general in nature.

[oberliner]

22. Good old Oberlin College

Always on the cutting edge.

[mythology]

23. There is a really interesting discussion to be had around this

More specifically where the boundary is between victimhood and legitimate complaints. That said, that conversation would be really difficult to have. Look at the way the person example here was throwing out terms as cuddles to discourage discussion. One could probably say something similar here about primary factions among others.

But obviously there are plenty of legitimate cases where a majority group or individual crosses the line but don't see it.

I think it's more complicated than the notion of if someone or a group is offended that means what was said is offensive which I have heard here before.

[yardwork]

27. I agree that an interesting conversation could be had, but won't be here.

The student in question comes across as a twit, but there may be more to the story than reported here. The whole article is slanted toward making the student look like a twit. The truth could be more nuanced.

But even if this particular individual is a spoiled twit, that doesn't negate the existence of actual bigotry. This article seems to be working toward that argument (with lots of plausible deniability thrown in as a smokescreen).

It reads like a right-wing rant about kids these days.

Meh.

[Igel]

35. It would be.

But the idea is offensive to a lot, so in the interest of avoiding offense.

Knew a guy who came to be convinced he was the victim of racial discrimination. As he was about toe challenge the authorities it turned out they didn't hire him or contact him because they were creating a higher, better, more richly compensated pay package for him.

Then there are cases where the only person who heard an epithet--including the tape or videorecorder--was the offended person. Who gets truly furious when it's suggested that he (or she) simply misheard, and insists everybody else was wrong. And the tape edited.

[Throd]

24. Victimhood is the hot ticket these days.

[hifiguy]

26. Yep.

A way of seizing the "moral high ground" through deception and irrelevance.

[yardwork]

28. Kids these days.... Get off my lawn.... Vote Trump.

[Marrah_G]

29. I read the article

Frankly, she seems like an unpleasant person and was just looking for a fight. There was nothing that kid could have said that would have been a correct response to her.

[B2G]

30. Perceived microagressions make blatant macroagressions A-OK.

I'm living in wonderland these days...

[cigsandcoffee]

32. White people don't play soccer right either? n/t

[riderinthestorm]

33. Yeah so much wrong with her screed. I bet she'd be surprised @ soccer's history

And that its not a "latino heritage" sport.

Kudos mostly go to the English for its modern version but it appears it owes its real origins to China, and the Greeks and the Romans.

http://www.historyofsoccer.info/

Of course simply presenting the historical facts would probably be another "micro aggression ".

[madville]

37. We had micro-aggression training at work recently

Like it's potentially offensive to ask a Hispanic person if they have been to the new Taco truck down the road or ask an Asian person if they took martial arts as a kid. Everyone (workforce is a mixture of white, Hispanic and black) was pretty much laughing the entire time.

I can sympathize with the victim in the OP though, I'm from the South so I get offended when westerners or Northerners purposely say y'all or ain't in a heavy fake southern drawl

[Waiting For Everyman]

39. This is a brat

with no manners or sense of fairness or proportion -- in short, an asshole, who does't even HAVE a grievance, not even a micro one.

The victimhood schtick is just as petty and pointless as the people who obsess about every little detail of their appearance 24/7. There is no substance there. There is nothing worthy of respect at all, and consequently, that "approach" will get none from me.

I hope fewer and fewer people buy into that, too. It's really despicable and needs to be over.

[Nye Bevan]

40. A white guy using the word "futbol"? How DARE he.

Anyone who is skeptical of the real trauma that these "microaggressions" can cause needs to read this story.