As people across the country mobilize to end police violence against Black Americans, a graphic circulating on Twitter is helping us delineate overt, socially unacceptable white supremacy from socially acceptable, covert white supremacy. Most of us would agree that overt white supremacy in the form of hate crimes and the N-word are incontrovertibly racist. Instances of covert white supremacy, also known as microaggressions — the statement that “There’s only one human race,” for example — may seem innocuous, but they inflict just as much damage.
What exactly are microaggressions, though? “Microaggressions are subtle, oftentimes unintended, perhaps even well-intended sometimes,” E.J.R. David, a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, tells Mic. “But they turn out to be slights, or offensive and hurtful comments, behaviors, or attitudes toward historically marginalized people.”
