Microaggression Effects On Students

Microaggression and Its Impact On Students Minority students attending elite and prestigious universities are more often faced by notions of "microaggressions" than their rich counterparts leading to conflict between both groups on campus and spilling over into the rest of U.S. society. With the definition of microaggression differing between both groups of students, the minority students believe that the universities and the traditional student body they serve cannot or fail to identify problems being felt by the minority students. This lack of communication has led to polarizing identity politics and a sense of an "us vs. them" mentality on both sides, where the conflict caused by "microaggression" has reached an all time high after the

In Rebecca Cox's "The College Fear Factor," the reader is exposed to the routines and fears of being a student attending a community college. The students interviewed for the book appeared to fear adapting to the life a college student and the fear of failing more than they were concerned about how microaggression affected them. This can be attributed to the fact that community colleges offer a more diverse student body where students share similar life experiences. Social class, gender, and races come in second when the students are attempting college for the first time than compared to minority students who attend elite schools and face a new and alien culture to them; That of the students who are rich and privileged and are able to more easily afford these elite universities. Students who by the fortune of being born into privilege may not have known or felt the struggles that a minority student on campus would face. For example, minorities "[...] are severely underrepresented on most campuses. At Oberlin, for instance, black students form only 5.2 percent of students, Hispanic students 7.2 percent, and Asian Americans 4.2 percent. Minorities, by virtue of their being in the minority, do not and cannot exert robust social control of any kind at elite universities like Oberlin." (Runyowa par. 18). In losing the diverse environment that community colleges face, the

In recent news, Milo Yiannopolous had planned a visit to the UC Berkeley campus at the request of the student Republican body. Many minority students who were familiar with the content of Yiannopolous' visit planned to protest what they viewed as hate speech. Berkeley has now become the site of violent protests between groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter against conservative groups in support of Yiannopolous and President Trump where both groups fight in order to obtain the moral high ground without actually communicating and collaborating with each other with ways to stop the fighting and violence. This leads us to a case where we have two groups shouting at each other without actually listening to what the opposing side has to say. This division is not just specific to the campuses of elite universities now but to everyday society as well. With the recent presidential election in the U.S. as well has the primary and caucus elections politics came to extremes in the nation. Reports of hate groups attacking minorities at Trump rallies and terroristic threats of death against white people by leftist organizations have become daily occurrences. This conflict between ideals has thus led to negative consequences on everyone involved being felt through educational institutions, places of employment, and in many communities