Understanding Microaggressions

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence at PolicyLink, begins her powerful talk about microagressions by asking her audience to close their eyes and listen. What follows is a series of audio clips of real women of color describing the many microagressions they experienced in the workplace daily. They include stories of managers threatening physical violence toward employees, questioning the way they speak, and of managers stressing that "they don't see color at all" -- a problematic dismissal of employees' identities, experiences and feelings. The series of clips ends with each woman saying they are afraid to approach the subject in fears of losing their job.

Hosted at the 2020 MAKERS Conference, this talk by Angela Glover Blackwell dives into the importance of understanding microaggressions, going beyond individual understanding to stress how crucial company-wide understanding is. Blackwell discusses how this is "integral to diversity and inclusion" within a workplace and aims to educate and enlighten her audience with honest and empathetic stories, including those about her own experience within the legal field.