‘Microaggression’ installation takes over Brandeis University

Apparently, asking students at Brandeis University with the same last name if they are related is a “microaggression.”

The Asian American Students Association at Brandeis University created an art project outside a campus building designed to make everyone understand the way they are treated due to their race.

The Rabb Steps Microaggressions installation consisted of a large series of small printed signs featuring sayings that the students claim they hear “frequently” from other students on campus.

These “microaggressions” signs were taped to the ground and the stair railings of the Rabb building steps included lines like, “Why do you guys all have the same last name? Are you related?” and “I’m color blind. I don’t see race.”

Here is the group’s explanation for why they felt the installation was necessary:

“Our purpose in this installation is to represent the entirety of the effects of these derogatory or negative, racially based, comments called “microaggressions”. These comments build upon each other; when we hear these words used against us on a daily basis, the burden can be overwhelming and frustrating. Now, you see how these words, when visually placed together on the Rabb steps, become impossible to ignore. This is what it feels like to hear microaggressions constantly used against you. These papers are invasive of a space that you often inhabit and must pass through; similar to how these remarks invade our communities and the space we share as a whole: Brandeis. The experience is often alarming, alienating, and ultimately harmful. To us, it is unavoidable.”

I’m surprised there weren’t calls for trigger warnings and safe spaces over this.

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