Being an ally is to provide support and help educate others about behaviors, language and different perspectives.

Don’t assume – it’s best to ask – just be willing and open.

Microaggressions & the techniques to battle them.

• We must be open to initiating those “tough” conversations. Just because “we were raised that way,” or “it’s always been this way,” doesn’t mean it’s always right.

• The first step is awareness.

*Microaggressions = the tiny, casual, almost imperceptible insults and degradation often felt by any marginalized group.

• They are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative slights and insults to the target person or group.

• Examples: Doing imitations of accents, mistaking someone for someone else of the same ethnicity/race, speaking over or interrupting someone in meetings, especially women or other underrepresented groups.

• *For the recipients, they are exhausting and chip away at self-confidence and belonging.