UMass Librarian: Hug a Minority to Help End Microaggressions
“give hugs to students, especially those of color”
Who knew microaggressions were such a deep concern among librarians?
The Daily Caller reports:
Librarian: Hug A Minority To Fix Problem Of Microaggressions
A University of Massachusetts-Amherst librarian urged her colleagues to give hugs to students, especially those of color, in order to help fight microaggressions during an October conference.
Academic librarian Isabel Espinal gave a presentation along with two fellow academic librarians at a conference at Dartmouth College, Campus Reform first reported Wednesday. The Dartmouth Library Conference gathered academic librarians across the country to share how they “have achieved success through assessing and addressing user needs.”
Espinal’s presentation, created with UMass-Amherst librarians Tom Paige and David Mac Court, focused on improving students’ experiences while at the library by eliminating micro-aggressions and focusing on “micro-affections,” or words and phrases that uplift students.
The micro-affections chart, created by Espinal, calls on librarians to “note someone’s unique fashion sense or new haircut,” “smile at coworkers,”and “hug someone.” The chart also suggests telling students or colleagues “I love your idea,” “I appreciate that you…” or “Thanks for mentioning that perspective.”
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Comments
Screw that … these days an unwelcome hug can get you charged with assault or cause you to loose your job …
I believe some of the recent sexual harassment charges against politicians and actors have involved hugs. Better get a signed permission statement before giving a hug.
Wouldn’t assuming minorities are emotionally fragile snowflakes in need of hugs be in and of itself a microaggression? I mean it just takes one person to decide to be offended for this stuff to become spoken doctrine.
Hug a student? Why not hug an academic librarian?
Or might librarian Espinal develop a whole new ‘tude after the 300th instance of micro-affection directed at … Espinal?