English

Alternative forms

• micro-aggress

Verb

microaggress ‎(third-person singular simple present microaggresses, present participle microaggressing, simple past and past participle microaggressed)

1. (intransitive) To perform one or more acts of microaggression.
   • 2010, Derald Wing Sue, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, ISBN 9780470594155, Forward:

     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.

   • 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.), ISBN 9780313386534, p. 15 (Google preview):

     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.

   • 2014 Feb. 18, Graeme Hamilton "McGill student forced to apologize for racial ‘microaggression’ after emailing joke Obama clip," National Post (Canada) (retrieved 23 Feb 2014):

     “I microaggress all the time. You microaggress all the time. Even people of colour microaggress all the time,” she said.

2. (transitive, possibly nonstandard) To perform one or more acts of microaggression directed at (someone).
   • 2011 April 12, Nellie, "I Wear Heels, Stop Judging Me," ourwiredlives.com (retrieved 23 Feb 2014):

     You are microaggressing me and it is not okay. Period. End of story.

   • 2012, Ranna Parekh MD, Carl C. Bell MD, with Karen Weintraub, Overcoming Prejudice at Work (e-book), harvardhealthbooks.org ch. 1 (Google view):

     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 Dec. 6, "We Are the Subjects: Academia for Multiply Marginalized People," Black, Broken & Bent (retrieved 23 Feb 2014):

     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.

   • 2013 Karen A. Myers et al., Allies for Inclusion: Disability and Equity in Higher Education, ISBN 9781118846056, p. 62 (Google preview):

     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.