LibGuides: DEI Resources: Bias & Microagressions

Definitions

Bias: a predisposition, prejudice or generalization about a group of persons based on personal characteristics or stereotypes.

Implicit bias: Refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness.

Microaggressions: The everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. In many cases, these hidden messages may invalidate the group identity or experiential reality of target persons, demean them on a personal or group level, communicate they are lesser human beings, suggest they do not belong with the majority group, threaten and intimidate, or relegate them to inferior status and treatment. Microaggressions are rooted in ideologies such as racism, classism, sexism, cissexism, ableism, ageism, heterosexism, colonialism, as well as other discriminatory belief systems.

Anti-Violence Project. Glossary. University of Victoria.

Jen Fry. The Anti-Racist Manual for Students.

Ontario Human Rights Commission. Glossary of human rights terms.

Bias

The Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias by Pamela Fuller; Mark Murphy; Anne Chow (As told to)
Call Number: *Title not owned by MSU but can be borrowed for free through MelCat.
ISBN: 9781982144319
Publication Date: 2020-11-10
A timely, must-have guide to understanding and overcoming bias in the workplace, from the experts at FranklinCovey. Unconscious bias affects everyone. It can look like the disappointment of an HR professional when a candidate for a new position asks about maternity leave. It can look like preferring the application of an Ivy League graduate over one from a state school. It can look like assuming a man is more entitled to speak in a meeting than his female junior colleague. Ideal for every manager who wants to understand and move past their own preconceived ideas, The Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias explains that bias is the result of mental shortcuts, our likes and dislikes, and is a natural part of the human condition. And what we assume about each other and how we interact with one another has vast effects on our organizational success--especially in the workplace. Teaching you how to overcome unconscious bias, this book provides more than thirty unique tools, such as a prep worksheet and a list of ways to reframe your unconscious thoughts. According to the experts at FranklinCovey, your workplace can achieve its highest performance rate once you start to overcome your biases and allow your employees to be whole people. By recognizing bias, emphasizing empathy and curiosity, and making true understanding a priority in the workplace, we can unlock the potential of every person we encounter.

Microaggressions

The Microaggressions project
This blog seeks to provide a visual representation of the everyday of “microaggressions.” Each event, observation and experience posted is not necessarily particularly striking in and of themselves. Often, they are never meant to hurt - acts done with little conscious awareness of their meanings and effects. Instead, their slow accumulation during a childhood and over a lifetime is in part what defines a marginalized experience, making explanation and communication with someone who does not share this identity particularly difficult. Social others are microaggressed hourly, daily, weekly, monthly.

Recognizing Microaggressions by Nadra Nittle
ISBN: 9781978504660
Publication Date: 2018-12-15
A classmate questions how you got into college. A neighbor clutches her purse when you pass. A job interviewer compliments your English. Every day these experiences leave people of color scratching their heads, and before long, they're impossible to ignore. After all, the neighbor doesn't clutch her purse when whites approach. So, what gives? Is she racist? Making that call is hard when people aren't obviously bigots, but their behavior has a name: racial microaggressions. These slights are indeed real; you're not imagining things. With this book, readers will learn what microaggressions are, why they're bad news, and how to handle them.
Reveal moments : Microaggressions in everyday life
Streaming video (27 minutes). Reveal Moments is an intimate portrait of four people of color in the Pacific Northwest coping with microaggressions in everyday life. Their vivid stories create "reveal" moments, where the truth about lived experience shines and inspires. A white ally discusses his experience of privilege as he struggles to learn about and change his own racial bias.
My whole self
My Whole Self is a documentary (streaming video; 28 minutes) on microaggressions and gender and intersectionality. It explores the subtle forms of gender bias experienced by women across lines of difference.

MSU Libraries

Guides

DEI Resources: Bias & Microagressions

Definitions

Bias

Microaggressions