Dictionary

microaggress en · VERB

Etymology

From micro- + aggress, as a back-formation from microaggression.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To perform one or more acts of microaggression.
   • Every chapter presents an integrated "way forward" section that provides practical steps that we ourselves can take in order to better understand and control our own tendency to microaggress. 2010, Derald Wing Sue, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, →ISBN, Forward:
   • “I microaggress all the time. You microaggress all the time. Even people of colour microaggress all the time,” she said. 2014 February 18, Graeme Hamilton, “McGill student forced to apologize for racial ‘microaggression’ after emailing joke Obama clip”, in National Post, Canada, retrieved 23 Feb 2014:
   • Heterosexuals may also deny that they themselves could ever be heterosexist, stating such claims as, "I'm not homophobic, I have a gay friend." . . . [I]t sends a message to the individual that she cannot confront this person when he or she microaggresses. 2011, Kevin L. Nadal et al., "Gender, Racial, and Sexual Orientation Microagressions" in Women as Transformational Leaders (Michele A. Paludi and Breena E. Coates, eds.), p. 15 (Google preview)
2. (transitive) To perform one or more acts of microaggression directed at (someone).
   • You are microaggressing me and it is not okay. Period. End of story. 2011 April 12, Nellie, "I Wear Heels, Stop Judging Me," ourwiredlives.com (retrieved 23 Feb 2014)
   • People who are minorities because of physical characteristics such as gender, skin color or age are more often subjected to microaggressions, but most of us have been microaggressed at some point. 2012, Ranna Parekh MD, Carl C. Bell MD, with Karen Weintraub, Overcoming Prejudice at Work (e-book), harvardhealthbooks.org ch. 1 (Google view)
   • A common example of microaggressing people with disabilities is to assume an individual with a physical disability needs someone else to do a task for them. 2013, Karen A. Myers et al., Allies for Inclusion: Disability and Equity in Higher Education, →ISBN, page 62:
   • However, the privileged kids studying oppression for the first time who derail the class for a half hour every session may leave the more marginalized folks in the room feeling unfulfilled, if not constantly microaggressed. 2012 December 6, “We Are the Subjects: Academia for Multiply Marginalized People”, in Black, Broken & Bent, retrieved 23 Feb 2014:

Forms