[The Sabbaticus]

UNC claims Christmas vacations, golf outings are microaggressions


Rob Shimshock
Virginia Campus Correspondent
@ShimshockAndAwe
on Jun 24, 2016 at 12:51 PM EDT

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The guidelines, posted to UNC's Employee Forum website Thursday, warn against terms like "husband/boyfriend," "you guys," and "I love your shoes!"

Claiming that "I don't know any LGBTQ people" is also deemed problematic, apparently even if it is a true statement.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include comment from UNC.



To help staff members avoid microaggressions, the University of North Carolina advises gender-neutral dress codes and avoiding phrases like “husband/boyfriend.”

The guidelines, which were posted to UNC’s Employee Forum website Thursday, also warn against such potentially offensive behaviors as complimenting a woman’s shoes, asking people to “stand and be recognized,” and even scheduling vacations around religious observances.

“I don’t know any LGBTQ people.”

The school categorized microaggressions based on “social identity group,” with separate sections for race, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, national origin, and class.

The document asserts, for instance, that “referring to ‘husband/boyfriend’ of women, ‘wife/girlfriend’ of men who are coworkers instead of partner/spouse … sets the expectation that people do not identify as LGBTQ until they say otherwise or disclose their sexual orientation.”

Similarly, saying “I don’t know any LGBTQ people” implies that “you have to openly declare your gender identity and sexual orientation for me to care about LGBTQ issues.”

Moreover, the guide adds that “addressing trans people with incorrect gender pronouns, calling them by former names, inquiring about their ‘real’ identity, asking them to explain their gender identity, and denying or failing to acknowledge their pronouns, name, or identity” suggests to the recipient that “as a trans person, you are inferior to and less authentic than cisgender (non-trans) people.”

Even a simple compliment like “I love your shoes,” at least when addressed to a woman in leadership during a Q&A after a speech, really means “I notice how you look and dress more than I value your intellectual contributions. How you look is really important.”

The post also addresses microaggressions against individuals with physical and mental disabilities, warning against phrases that trivialize such conditions.

“Please stand and be recognized,” the school explains, “assumes that everyone is able in this way and ignores the diversity of ability in the space,” while using expressions such as “I’m totally OCD about my files” and “I get ADHD sometimes” “minimizes the experiences of people who live with mental health issues.”

According to UNC, “having an office dress code that applies to men and women differently assumes that your staff fits into one of two gender categories; can also be a violation of anti-discrimination policies.”

For the same reason, the guide adds, “only having ‘man’/’woman’ or ‘male’/‘female’ as options for gender on forms” constitutes a microaggression because it means that one “must fit in the gender binary and select among these predefined categories.”

Suggesting that the staff play golf at a retreat is also a microaggression, UNC contends, since it “assumes employees have the financial resources/exposure to a fairly (expensive and inaccessible) [sic] sport.”

Race and national origin are apparently fraught topics, as well, leading UNC to recommend that individuals neither ask too many questions about those topics nor remain ignorant about them.

“When I look at you, I don’t see color” is a microaggression, for instance, because it constitutes “minimizing/denying a person of color’s racial/ethnic experiences,” as is asking to touch a black person’s hair, because it implies that they are foreign and exotic.

“How did you get here?” constitutes a national origin microaggression because it acknowledges that some “immigrants get to this country illegally,” while asking “Where are you from?” implies that “you are not American and do not belong to this community.”

Meanwhile, telling a foreign-born person that “you speak English really well!” suggests that “if you are born anywhere ‘foreign,’ you cannot speak English well,” and thus is also a microaggression.

Regarding religion, the guide avers that telling someone that “you don’t look Jewish/Native/Muslim” implies that “there is an expected look/attire and you must fit into that norm.”

UNC also states that academic calendars planned around significant religious holidays “further centers the Christian faith and minimizes non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances.”

In a section suggesting strategies for self-correction, the guide encourages staff members who “tend to say ‘you guys’ in mixed company” to “become more inclusive with your language and social media posts,” as well as to “reflect on ways you can increase your cultural intelligence on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

The list was made by Sharbari Dey, assistant director for education and special initiatives at UNC’s Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, and Kristia Prince, coordinator for leadership development in the school’s Housing and Residential Education department.

For further reading, the post recommends reading 35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say by Dr. Maura Cullen to learn more about microaggressions.

UPDATE: Tanya Moore, Director of Campus Communications for UNC, provided the following statement to Campus Reform:

“The blog post you refer to was created by the Employee Forum, which does not speak for the University. The information in the post does not reflect University guidelines or policy. The Employee Forum piece was compiled from research and published scholarly works – which were annotated in the blog post – in response to Forum members’ interest about the topic of microaggressions. The Forum represents a diverse array of constituents on a wide variety of topics and often uses its website to discuss issues of interest to its members. Our employees have the freedom to share their views, which is one of the reasons Carolina has earned the highest “green light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). The Employee Forum is a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill group of 52 staff and non-faculty delegates elected by their peers. The mission of the Employee Forum is to constructively address the concerns of UNC-Chapel Hill employees. Among other things, the Employee Forum seeks out the issues, interests, ideas and participation of employees and develops recommendations and advocates those recommendations to the administration."

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Campusreform

When stupidity is considered a form of thought crime, regardless of intent. Many of these remarks could be tailored for just-within-the-rules insults, but to automatically assume that there is malicious intent involved?

[Harmattan]

When stupidity is considered a form of thought crime, regardless of intent.

It is even worse than this: this document attempts to "criminalize" the lack of oratory precautions and makes it a legal reason for firing people. It turns communication into a dangerous action that can be righteously perceived as hostile by your interlocutor and sanctionable by the Authority.

Didn't you know? Talking to strangers is an aggression. We are at war, boys. Err, sorry, we are at war, ladies, gentlemen. Oh, sorry, ladies, gentlemen and others. Oh, sorry, lady may refer to a marital status. So, errr, people? Is it discriminatory against people who do not see themselves as people?

Millenials: policing language, prohibiting opinions, sanctioning expression, banning critical thinking, sterilizing communication, ostracizing social disconformity. Language should be reduced to likes and approved emotes.

[Frollein]

When will the pendulum start to swing violently back to sanity?

[Harmattan]

It will swing back, but not to sanity. If they hate freedom so much as twenty-something leftists, just wait until they turn into forty-something rightists. They will be a great generation of oppressors, dictators and maniacs who will push back the boundaries of Orwellian madness.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

I am triggered.

[Decky]

Yea there definitely should have been a trigger wanting in the title of this thread (and every thread).

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

There definitely should have been a trigger warning about the topic of Christmas being brought up. I'm not even a Christian!

[Diligent]

Fucking madness. It can't be serious.

[Drlee]

This is why we need to dramatically cut funding to our Colleges and Universities. They obviously have too many people with too much time on their hands.

The president of this university should be fired and replaced with someone at least as smart as a 7th grader.

[warsmith17]

I really hope this trend runs its course soon. This is ridiculous even by extreme sjw standards, how is asking someone about their identity offensive? It's not a question I lead with, but I'm typically genuinely curious about such things. It strikes me that these questions when asked politely demonstrate a desire to learn in order to at minimum, better understand and work with someone.

I agree on golf outings, though these already seem to be a thing of the past. If I'm going to be forced to play a game with co-workers I don't need the added expense of specialty equipment.

[Albert]

It will swing back, but not to sanity. If they hate freedom so much as twenty-something leftists, just wait until they turn into forty-something rightists. They will be a great generation of oppressors, dictators and maniacs who will push back the boundaries of Orwellian madness.

You set the bar pretty night there. It will be hard to out perform progressives.

[Donna]

This trend will continue until WSU's are formed to counter the saturation of safe spaces.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

It will continue up to the point where UNC, Mizzou, and other black holes of intelligence and reasoning powers come to the conclusion that college and education are microaggressions against people who either can't afford the time or money or lack the motivation/intelligence for higher education. They will consume themselves and then, finally, the rest of us won't have to ever hear about their vapid nonsense.