Microaggression in Social Media

I had a working lunch this week with colleagues (two early ed specialists with our local state funded preschool programs and one quality consultant with Michigan's rating system).  I picked the location- my favorite Mexican restaurant.  As we pulled into the parking lot we realized there would be no fajitas for lunch: county deputies were escorting Federal agents as they removed boxes of evidence from the restaurant.

I quickly texted my husband; he and our youngest daughter (6) are borderline obsessed with this restaurant.  The waiters have our orders memorized, and our daughter has gotten quite good at placing her order in Spanish and answering the waiters' questions with "si" and "gracias".  Once at home, I posted the bad news on Facebook.

Many friends commented and expressed their huge disappointment.  Two friends- family, actually- made sure to make some comments that were meant to be humerous, but were, in fact, examples of microagression.

Now, I would agree that this actually crosses the line from microagression to strait-up prejudice.  However, it is a good example of how someone attempts to be funny and ends up making an all-together inappropriate statement, and it makes me uncomfortable to see these kind of comments on my Facebook wall.

Keeping my eye open for microagressions helped me become more aware of the number of comments being made at all times.  I am usually quite sensitive to these types of comments, but watching for them allowed me to put myself in the shoes of members of many different groups in order to discover how it feels to be bombarded with them.  Not a pleasant energy at all.