Liberals are misusing something for political gain? Alert the media! Oh wait…

Red Alert Politics reports.

The guy who dubbed “microaggressions” term: Liberals are misusing my research

Microaggressions are a buzzword for higher education, but often misinterpreted, The College Fix highlighted.

Professors behind “Racial Microaggressions in Every Day Life” were recently featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education to discuss their intent for the research.

The document has been used as a tip sheet on many university websites, including the University of Missouri, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and (at one point) the University of California.

The document, and the phrase’s popularity, came from Derald Wing Sue of Columbia University’s Teacher College and his book, Microaggressions and Marginality: Manifestation, Dynamics, and Impact.

Sue figured his research would take off, but was surprised by its speed and reach. He didn’t even know about the use of tip sheets until the calls from talk radio shows came.

Sue is glad for his research to be useful, but warns it should not be taken as an absolute.

“I was concerned that people who use these examples would take them out of context and use them as a punitive rather than an exemplary way,” he said.

People are also not to be punished, shamed, or regarded as racists if they use microaggresions, but rather educated. “People who engage in microaggressions are oftentimes well-intentioned, decent individuals who aren’t aware that they are engaging in an offensive way toward someone else,” he said.

Co-author Christina M. Capodilupo, an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Teachers College, shared his concerns. Microaggressions have been used to shut down conversation instead of reflecting, as was the original intent.

“It was never meant to give a vernacular that then makes it OK to stop talking. It was to ask people to be flexible in their thinking and to be open-minded to the concept that we don’t all walk through the world in the same shoes,” she said.