Did you ever think we would live in a world where mental health is linked to microaggressions?
Campus Reform reports:
Mental wellness program at UW will now tackle ‘racism,’ ‘microagressions’The University of Washington is expanding the scope of its mental health and wellness program to “interrupt racism” and “combat microaggressions,” a concept that UW defines in part as “assuming that others are like you”.UW’s mental health program Resilience Lab has existed since 2015 to help students “cope with stressors, including failure” according to its newsletter.The lab has seen change since Director Megan Kennedy took over in 2019, as she slowly expanded the Resilience Lab’s purposes and goals. Kennedy’s latest change was partnering with the school’s Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, to launch a new speaking and training series Resistance through Resilience, for faculty and students alike.Kennedy stated that mental health and racism go hand in hand, saying “We’re really committed to addressing the systems of oppression and racism that exist, and to think critically about why we have a system that promotes so much stress,”.One way to do that according to UW is to “combat microaggressions”. Microaggressions according to the school’s website, are “Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group”.The school further clarifies that “microaggressions can target any marginalized group identity, such as race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexuality, nationality, citizenship, ability, etc.” The page explains that such transgressions are not related to intent, stating “we are all socialized to commit microaggressions, even if we have good intentions”.
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