Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

     I have experienced microagressions on many occasions. One that stands out in my mind is when I was working for a paper company in California. I had fifteen years previous experience at another paper company so I knew what I was doing going into a new position for another paper company. I had been working at the new company for approximately two years and we just received a new district manager who was supposed to come in and “Clean house”. This man was the biggest male chauvinist I had ever encountered in my life and to this day, twenty-five years later, I have never met someone like him. He was very condescending when he talked down to me and one incident during a meeting, he patted the back of my hand as he told me everything would be okay. Not long after, I quit my job and it was an excellent career with excellent benefits. To this day I am mad at myself for letting him do that to me. I gave him the power over me because I did not stand up for myself. Life goes on and we all learn from situations and the experience has made me a better person.

    I let this man make me feel as if I were worth zero and had nothing to offer the company I was employee with at the time. Looking back at this situation I think he did this to me because I had more experience that he did. I really feel this man was threatened by experience and the only way he could deal with his emotions was to degrade me and make me feel bad. I look at all of these moments as a learning experience. I would never make a human feel bad because of what is lacking in my own life. This type of person who does this is called a bully, plain and simple.