Awareness of Microaggressions

An example of a form of microaggression that I happen to view this week occurred a few days back when I was standing in line at the Driver’s License Facility in Belleville, Illinois to get a sticker renewal. The lady that was in front of me needed to have her address changed on her license, but failed to have the three proper identifications needed for this process to happen. The lady was disable and she slowly walked with a cane. The lady failed to bring two bills from the new address that she needed to reflect on her license. She only had one along with the lease. The lady insisted on being able to have this process done without two bills because she had her lease. The receptionists was clearly irritated because I saw her she sigh more than once, looking over the facility for another staff member, with a rude look on her face. She did not like that the lady challenged her with her knowledge of knowing that it could be accomplished. She was right, it was accomplished. The receptionists then turned to her colleague and began to discuss the nerve of the lady to talk to her as if she was her boss, but the lady was just stating her knowledge. The receptionist was so loud that everyone that was around heard her. The lady that knew that she could have her address changed looked at the receptionists and said, “Excuse me”. The receptionist ignored her and smiled at the next customer saying, “May I help you.” The other customers by me were saying how rude the receptionist was to because she was talking about the lady. I was hurt for the lady and I felt the dehumanization as well. She could not handle being wrong to the older disable woman that was clearly the same race as her, white. The form of microaggresion that I figured this case to be was the disability microaggression. The lady needing the services was clearly poor and had on clothes that were not so clean. I also felt that the receptionist did not want to work help her because of this reason. I don’t know if the receptionist was just upset due to the lady’s demand or if she was ashamed that a member from her culture was disable and dirty. I thought about the way that the lady felt, but she picked up on the microaggression from the receptionist. Our world needs to understand how hidden biases can be revealing to the eye of others, if not that person that is being targeted.