"The only way to be sure you won't 'microaggress' somebody is to remain silent. "

Won't work. If you are of a non-privileged class and you decline to speak to someone of a privileged class, that's a micro-aggression in itself.

I forgot to post the link yesterday; I need to go back and find it: A study that shows that, among young adults in the civilized world, Americans rank near the bottom in both reading and mathematical comprehension. Because these things are not only not taught, but the children are taught that literature and mathematics are dead-white-man tools of oppression, and also just generally uncool.

On the board of our HOA, trying to put together an informational mail to the residents, trying to keep them informed of a situation.

I said "Dear member, the board would like to keep you abreast of the situation involving XYZ..."

One of the women got upset and said "you can't say that".
"Say what?" I ask.
"You know what I'm talking about"
"No, I have no friggin clue."

From the schools to the real world.

TL;DR, but the gist of it seems to be that mission creep, those 6 figure jobs in academia aren't going to create themselves and we have to find the Race/Gender studies students jobs somewhere.

Say something or suck it up.

Or the little dears can go to the kitchen and make me a sammich.

Wut?

In seriousness, this is why I keep my head down, and mouth shut at work.

Dave, I think this is the study you are referring to:

http://freebeacon.com/culture/millennials-are-who-we-thought-they-were/

Researchers from education non-profit ETS compared test results of Americans with their peers in more than 20 advanced economies. The results pointed to an alarming trend, as young workers and students between the ages of 16 and 34 lagged far behind their peers in countries like Japan and Sweden in mathematical understanding and literacy. The report says that the results were even more surprising because millennials “have attained the most years of schooling of any cohort in American history.”

I'll note without judgement that we're pouring shit-tons of money into all forms of education...

Only works when you're in art school (best as a girl). Just wear a ball gag until graduation, call it an art project (write that, don't say it). Meet president, get rich.

Patai -- a 2nd edition of her book Heterophobia would be timely.

Even walking into a room with too many 'white people' is a microagression. So congregating while white is now a SJW crime. Call me when they get to the picoagressions.

What is SJW?

Shannon: https://www.google.com/search?q=SJW&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

If I believed in God's inclination to punish nations, I would prophecy an Islamic takeover of our nation before long. Because then these special snowflakes with their cultivated weakness would hear what they need to hear: "Fuck your microaggressions. Fuck your fragile femme mentality that needs to be offended to the point of requiring mental health counseling over even the tiniest offense...if there even was an offense, tiny or otherwise."

And these rape culture warriors, with their contrived standards, such as coercion is rape, or their ludicrous new phrases, such as "stare rape," would also learn what a real rape culture is. And that the West, before the Islamic takeover of our society, never even came close to having a rape culture.

Shannon: What is SJW?

Social Justice Warrior. A pejorative term to describe those who, not unlike the people I described above, take political correctness too far, and look for offenses in even most innocuous things. They take a variety of forms, such as Islamic apologists and third-wave feminists, but the overriding governing principle is basically that your right not to be offended trumps everyone else's right to freedom of expression.

Unless of course, you're a cisgendered, heterosexual white male. If that is the case, you have no right to respond to even the most egregious offenses directed at you.

If someone wishes to add to or correct my definition of SJW, please feel free. I don't claim to be the authority on the subject.

Only correction I have Patrick is most of them don't consider SJW to be a pejorative. They often self identify and wear that label with pride.

This seems fitting:

SANITY: Tennessee Law Would Outlaw Punishing Students For Speaking Freely, ‘Microagressions.’

Unfortunately, opponents of the bill — which is to say, supporters of educational bureaucrats and crazed PC — managed to turn this into a question of whether ISIS should be allowed to recruit at colleges.

That’s funny, because while actually signing people up and shipping people off to the Mideast would be action, not speech, and not protected by the First Amendment, speaking about the desirability of doing so (except in time of declared war, when it might be treason) would, in fact, be fully protected speech. And for decades, lots of people defended the right of students and faculty to speak about the desirability of supporting communists, etc., with full protection from the courts and the bureaucracy. But that’s different.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/229357/

They often self identify and wear that label with pride.

True. I try to mock them if I have a free hand and can do so with relative safety. As Saul Alinsky observed, ridicule is a very power weapon.

Which of course is why it must be eliminated on college campuses.

If I believed in God's inclination to punish nations, I would prophecy an Islamic takeover of our nation before long.

I would have said the collapse of civilization, but an Islamic takeover would be the same: party like its the 7th century!

Ben, just to be sure, I assume you meant that the people already IN the room were "committing" the microaggression? The way it was worded, it sounded more as though the person ENTERING the room was committing it...

But even so, there COULD be more to that scenario, when the person entering the room happens to be black.

Namely:

Former Assistant Attorney General Roger Wilkins (who is black) has commented on the inability of so many white people to behave politely in their non-verbal habits, in particular, toward all adults.

"(Whites) think of it as a land of opportunity - a good place with a lot of good people in it. Some suspect (others know) that the presence of blacks messes everything up.

"To blacks there's nothing very easy about life in America, and any sense of ownership comes hard because we encounter so much resistance in making our way through the ordinary occurrences of life. And I'm not even talking here about overt acts of discrimination but simply about the way whites intrude on and disturb our psychic space without even thinking about it.

"A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?'

"When do they give you that look?' I asked.

'Every time I walk in a door,' he replied.

"When he said that, every black person in the room nodded and smiled in a way that indicated recognition based on thousands of such moments in their own lives."

A bit more on that:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/27/kobe_bryant_arg.html

(There's a very telling, different example of how white parents might teach racism to their kids without ever even talking about race.)

""A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?'"

That is entirely because of Affirmative Action.

The simple existence of such a program, based on the idea that blacks cannot - that's cannot - succeed without special privileges, is enough to raise suspicion of everyone.

Standards? What are those? If they cannot be met by "enough" blacks, why, then they must be lowered. MUST be lowered. Because, fairness!

"The only way to be sure you won't "microaggress" somebody is to remain silent."

Or you could have fun and say:

If anything I say "offends" you, don't blame me. Blame your parents for raising a crybaby!

"A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?'"

Y'know, it isn't true just because someone says so. I guarantee you that if this claim were subject a double-blind test -- put a bunch of people of different ethnicities in ninja suits so that only their eyes show, and then have them all walk in the room and look at him -- he'd be utterly unable to tell which ones were white and were giving him "that look", and which ones weren't. (Well, I guess blue eyes might give away the white people, but you could have everyone put on the same color contacts.) To me, the whole thing just sounds like yet more original-sin shaming.

Lenona,

Every white person in the room is microagressing at the same time. Doesn't matter if a white guy is entering or was already there. Their mere existence is considered a microagression.

As for the walking into a room thing, I've experienced that. In Oklahoma even. I went to OU and some black group was using the room the mailboxes were in. When I entered the whole room stopped talking, stared at me, and frowned. So I left. A very nice black girl came out and asked me what I wanted. It was very clear that next to no one wanted me in that room. This is not what most black people experience when they go to class. That 'What are you doing here?' look you referenced is mostly in their heads.

And no, my issue was not with a room full of black people. I don't care what color their skin is, when a room stops talking and stares at you either you are the guest of honor or the turd in the punch bowl. You usually know which.

"And I'm not even talking here about overt acts of discrimination but simply about the way whites intrude on and disturb our psychic space without even thinking about it.

"A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: 'What are you doing here?'

"When do they give you that look?' I asked.

'Every time I walk in a door,' he replied.

So to be clear, this guy's example of everyday racism is a second hand account wherein white people rudely and unthinking INTRUDE on a black persons "psychic space" by existing in a room, minding their own business when a black person walk into said room?

You know, part of my family is from the south, I was born in 79, only really STARTED (quite poorly) paying attention to the world at large in the mid to late 90s.

In my visits to family in the south I've seen actual racism. Nothing on the order of physical assault, but I've seen treatment of other people that could never be described as anything less than racism.

I can comprehend seeking victim status in todays world, it gives an individual power, a little fame. What I cant comprehend is why people who have really suffered from racist acts allows these fucking whiners to belittle their experiences

"When do they give you that look?' I asked.

'Every time I walk in a door,' he replied."

Funny 'cause who doesn't look at the person entering the room. Plus damn good eye-sight if he can tell in an instant which one/two/three of the group is looking at him funny.

I'm sure someone at some time looked at him 'funny' solely because of his skin color. I'm also sure someone looked at him harshly 'cause they were having a bad day and were pissed off in general.

His loss if he wants to color (get it?) his life w/negative vibes when as lujlp points out those of us that were around in the '60's know what negative vibes (bottles, punches, etc.) were really thrown.