Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Last week, I attended my first Photography 101 class at a local university. When I walked into the classroom, I quickly noticed I was the only minority in the class; my classmates are all Caucasian women and 2 Caucasian men. Apparently before I entered the class, there was a conversation being held about music, when I walked in, one woman exclaimed, “I bet she knows!” She then proceeded to ask me about a particular rapper who had recently been arrested for drugs and wanted to know his “real name.”

What I find interesting is that first and foremost, I do not listen to rap music! I had no idea who the rapper was let alone his real name; I do not even have cable TV to keep up with the news and the latest gossip of celebrities in the music industry. 

My first thoughts were was I asked this question because I am black or was I asked this question because I am much younger than my peers in my class; I didn’t take the time to dwell on the situation, but it did make me feel uncomfortable and simply annoyed. I was a bit insulted but I have experienced far more serious types of racial micro aggressions, so I pushed this occurrence to the back of my mind. Thinking about it now, it bring about a bit of disgust and I dread going back to the Photography class, which I am extremely passionate about and had high hopes for this class. 

This experience has affected my perception of stereotypes in that I truly understand that people “do not know, what they do not know.” I also realize that unless I speak up, individuals will not know when they have offended me or when things are inappropriate. I am known to have a very blunt attitude and I will speak my mind, but in a room where I am the only minority, I tend to keep quite for I do not want to be labeled or stereotyped further as the “angry black woman” or the “aggressive black woman.” All in all, I know that I will not address this situation with my peers, but I would only hope that they are teaching their children differently.