Microaggressions

Regrettably, the august and normally sane Harvard Business Review has jumped on the anti-racism bandwagon. It has discovered that open discussions of race produce a raft of microaggressions, directed against people of color. (via Maggie’s Farm)

Dare we say that the article in question does not once ask whether people who are hired to fulfill diversity quotas are really up to their jobs. The authors have fallen back on the typically mindless explanation-- suggesting that if certain people are poor performers, the answer must be microaggressions. 

The authors do not care whether or not a company is going to be more efficient and more profitable for spending employee time whining about microaggressions. But, they consider it a good thing. They take it for granted that anti-racism training will improve employee performance.

In U.S. workplaces — and around the world — people are finally engaging in real conversations about race, justice, diversity, equality, and inclusion. That’s a good thing, hopefully paving the way for meaningful anti-racist action from both individuals and organizations. But those discussions will in all likelihood be very uncomfortable — not just for white employees and leaders who might be confronting their privilege for the first time but also for people of color, especially Black Americans, who know that candid talks with colleagues will mean they either face or need to call out “microaggressions.”

This tells us that this anti-racism movement, initiated by a notable idiot called Ibram X. Kendi, has caused trouble. It has made people hypersensitive about race and has caused them to contort their minds in order not to give offense. As it happens, giving offense does not just mean offering flagrantly racist comments; it also involves any and all efforts to play along with the anti-racist movement.

Since no one really knows what counts as a microaggression, whites will be induced to avoid contact and interaction with people of color. It is not worth the risk. 

But it also must mean that people of color can no longer receive negative performance reviews, because racist assumptions cause managers to fail to understand their unique contributions. 

Of course, the authors are happy to define microaggressions:

Microaggressions are defined as verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group. For Black people, they are ubiquitous across daily work and life. Here are a few seemingly innocuous statements that, in the context of racist assumptions and stereotypes, can be quite damaging.

I will not even try to explain what an environmental indignity might involve. But, if white people are required to tiptoe around anyone who is Black, why would they want to work together. 

In truth, nearly any remark emphasizing race can be considered a microaggression. And yet, companies are now told that they must encourage anti-racism training-- which inevitably leads to more microaggressions.

Among the insinuations that are apparently to blame for poor black performance are these:

When I see you, I don’t see color.

We are all one race: the human race.

You are so articulate.

I see your hair is big today! Are you planning to wear it like that to the client meeting?

Everyone can succeed in society if they work hard enough.

The people who utter these remarks probably learned them from anti-racism training. They are trying to get with the program. 

They are likely to come away thinking that it is simply not worth the trouble to try to interact with people of color.

Of course, this is all about explaining away black underperformance. Or better, it involves blaming white people for black underperformance.

The best solution is, of course, increasing awareness of microaggressions, insisting that non-Black employees stop committing them, and calling out those who do. But in the absence of those changes — and understanding that complete prevention is probably impossible — how should Black employees and managers respond to the microaggressions they face, within and outside of current discussions around race in the workplace?

Of course, the authors, who are certainly not very bright, suggest that the solution is increased awareness. They are offering a therapeutically correct solution, suggesting that blacks underperform because whites think ill of them.

In truth, as Shelby Steele analyzed more than two decades ago, the very existence of affirmative action and diversity programs casts a shadow on the achievements of anyone who might have taken advantage of them.

The current mania over diversity, equity and inclusion is more likely to disadvantage people of color. It will make them radioactive in the workplace and will ensure that trying to get along with them is too risky. Of course, the more you avoid people, the less you are willing to work together, the worse their performance will be.

Aside from the fact that anti-racism training is racist in and of itself, the attack on microaggressions and the indictment of white people for the failings of non-white people is a fool’s errand.