Microaggressions
Small, everyday slights and indignities - often unintentional - that communicate hostility or prejudice toward members of marginalised groups.
Also known as: Subtle discrimination, Everyday prejudice, Casual racism
What it means
The term “microaggression” was coined by psychiatrist Chester Pierce in 1970 to describe the subtle, often automatic slights and indignities directed at Black Americans in everyday interactions. The concept was later expanded by psychologist Derald Wing Sue to cover a broader range of marginalised groups - including people targeted on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and religion.
The “micro” in microaggression does not mean the impact is small. It means the individual incidents are small - a comment, a look, an assumption, a question. Each one, taken in isolation, can seem trivial. “Where are you really from?” “You speak English so well.” “I don’t see colour.” “You don’t look gay.” The speaker often means no harm. They may even intend a compliment. But the message received is: you are other, you don’t belong, you are not what I expected someone like you to be.
What makes microaggressions psychologically significant is their cumulative nature. It is not about one comment ruining someone’s day. It is about navigating hundreds of these moments every year, each one requiring a split-second calculation: do I say something and risk being labelled difficult, or do I absorb it and move on? That tax - the constant low-level vigilance and self-editing - is what the research shows takes a genuine toll on wellbeing.
In the real world
A British-born person of South Asian heritage is asked “but where are you originally from?” at a work event. The questioner is making friendly conversation. But the person being asked has heard this question hundreds of times, and what it communicates - regardless of intent - is that their Britishness is conditional or surprising. They are being marked as foreign in their own country.
A woman in a meeting makes a suggestion that is ignored. A male colleague makes the same point five minutes later and is praised for it. No single instance proves anything - maybe the timing was different, maybe the phrasing was better. But when it happens repeatedly, to the same person, the pattern tells a story that individual incidents cannot.
How to spot it
Pay attention to moments where someone from a marginalised group visibly bristles at something that seems harmless on the surface. Microaggressions often follow a pattern - the same person gets the same kinds of comments repeatedly. Ask yourself: would this comment or question be directed at someone from the majority group? If you would never ask a white colleague where they are 'really' from, but you ask it of a colleague of colour, the question is doing different work than you think.
The thought to hold onto
One raindrop is nothing. A lifetime of them will wear down stone.
Why it matters now
As societies have become less tolerant of overt discrimination, the subtle forms have become more significant - not because they are new, but because they are increasingly recognised as the texture of daily life for people from marginalised groups. The term itself has become politically charged, with some dismissing it as oversensitivity. But the research is clear: the cumulative effect of microaggressions on mental health, workplace belonging, and educational outcomes is substantial and measurable.