microaggression
/mʌɪkrəʊəˈɡrɛʃ(ə)n/noun
1A statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority: the students made signs detailing microaggressions they had heard or experienced...
- Enduring such microaggressions can damage one's mental health, Franklin says.
- I also include a definition of racism as the system under which daily racial insults, or microaggressions, are perpetuated as "entertainment."
- Recent work by an associate professor of psychology at Kent State University shows how such microaggressions often produce anxiety in African-American women.
1.1 [mass noun] Indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group: they are not subject to daily acts of microaggression...
- She told me that many black students experience unintended racial insults (sociologists call this "microaggression"), and that racist expression, intended or not, often gets a pass.
- Making assumptions about Asian-Americans as a "model" minority is also considered microaggression.
- A street artist is responding to the microaggression of people feeling free to pass remarks to passing strangers.
Origin
1970s: from micro- + aggression.