“That’s a really good school. Good for you.” 1:07
Black-ish is a show that demonstrates life through the eyes of wealthy upper-class African Americans in the United States. In this particular episode, the Mother of the family is an anesthesiologist that has completed her work successfully in a number of surgeries. The staff and coworkers of her’s have thrown a surprise party for her and invited the head surgeon of the recent surgery she just finished helping with to the party. The leading surgeon asked her for her educational background and when responded to she gave a backhanded compliment. She mentioned “That’s a really good school. Good for you.”. This is something positive wrapped around what seems to be a prejudicial thought about African Americans and their intellectual abilities. Microaggressions are degrading and dismissive while not always being obvious to a third party. Microaggressions are difficult to explain unless someone has experienced one. However, most unenthusiastic congratulations that follow with rating the achievements of an individual will most likely be a microaggression. It is a difficult concept to explain and the show does well in portraying this. As the show goes on the Mother in Law of the Anesthesiologist mentioned that this kind of aggression is nothing compared to the racial slurs and frequent aggression she experienced when she was young. Aggression against people of minority background has changed in its deliverance but not in its meaning.
Prejudice, the incorrect preconceived notions of one social group applied to all members of that social group. The lead surgeon held prejudice against the anesthesiologist and conveyed it through microaggressions. While not harmful or hateful it is unethical and uncalled for. To think of someone who has gone through the same rigorous training and education to get ahead in their medical field and then be derailed to nothing because the lead surgeon did not believe people that looked like the anesthesiologist could be or go to an excellent medical school is what this microaggression was rooted on. This is what people hear while not being directly insulted.
Prejudice and aggression have come a long way in the united states. The mother in law is not quite old and recalls a time when aggression was strongly verbal and almost physical. While now aggression is hidden behind a curtain of compliments in order to not be deemed racist and outcasted by the social network of the hospital.
In my personal view, I never experienced blatant racism that is portrayed in popular media. I have received microaggressions from people of a different ethnic background and people of the same ethnic background. More often than not microaggression is written off as not a big deal when in reality it could become a new way to facilitate institutional discrimination and keep minorities down through self-doubt of their well-earned accomplishments.
Word Count: 462
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