Walking on Eggshells

The hypersensitivity that underlies "microaggressions" is an impediment to normal human relations

Welcoming Marika

Back in the early 2010’s a new physician - we’ll call her Marika - arrived in town. One of my medical colleagues in admin had recruited her. He had learned that she was a triathlete.

He knew I was head of the tri club and that for years I had made a real effort to connect new doctors as well as visiting med students to the local athletic community. It made their time in Sydney more enjoyable and was good for recruiting and retention. And it was fun for our local group to meet visitors. Win-win.

He gave me Marika’s number. I texted her and we arranged to meet for coffee the next week.

We met and spoke for a long time. I asked her about herself: Where did she grow up? Where had she done med school and residency? Where had she worked? Where was her family from originally? Where did she plan to work now that she was here? What races had she done and what was her athletic background?

I told her about potential group activities that she could attend. Friday evening beer run, Tuesday track. Weekend bike rides. Swimming 5 days per week. It was a fun, congenial group, I explained. I made her welcome. The next week I brought her to a club social event to watch the Hawaii Ironman and meet everyone. A few weeks later (small town story) I found her wallet in the road and returned it to her.

I was genuinely interested in her, and genuinely keen to have her make community connections.

It turned out I was a “microaggressor”

Hearing all this, you can imagine what a shock it was a couple of years later to see a front-page article in the Medical Post on “microaggressions”, featuring Marika.

For those unfamiliar with wokery, “microaggressions” are anything that you do or say that might be received badly by someone else. Disagreeing with a female if you are male can be “aggressive”. Using the wrong pronoun. Making prolonged eye contact. Making too little eye contact. Talking too much. Talking too little.

Although I wasn’t named, I was clearly one of the “microaggressors”, as one of her main complaints was the number of times she had been asked where she was from, which I certainly had done. I had tried to be friendly and welcoming. Instead, I was front page news in the Medical Post, and learned that I was unconsciously racist.

Microaggressions are in the eye of the beholder

I had always considered the “where are you from” question to be a sincere expression of interest in another human being. In my estimation it is an invitation to talk about oneself, and an attempt by the questioner to get to know someone more completely.

In the course of my life, including my medical training and subsequent career, I was asked countless times where I was from. Perhaps because of the Cape Breton twang in my voice, people could tell I was “from away”. People in small communities like Bancroft, Longlac, Moose Factory, and Trenton know all their doctors. Even if I hadn’t talked a little funny, they hadn’t met me before, and thus quite reasonably asked ‘where are you from?”.

Julie, as well, was constantly asked “where are you from” when she first moved to Sydney in 2003. She speaks with a bland New Brunswick non-accent, unlike people who grew up in Cape Breton. Certain words are a dead giveaway. She sits on a “couch”, not a “coach” when she watches television, and goes “ow-t”, not “ew-t” for the evening. Despite being white and Canadian, she has many times explained where she grew up.

Furthermore, asking about family pedigree is de rigueur in Cape Breton. “What’s yer fadder’s name?” is a standard local conversation-opener, even when meeting someone from the next town over. The question is such a well-known local trope that it’s ended up on t-shirts and in comedy sketches.

It turned out I was being racist, not friendly

But it turns out I had fallen behind the times. According to the politically-correct establishment, asking where a person is from is now a “microaggression”. According to Marika, it is the same as saying “you don’t belong here”. It’s a short step from saying “get the hell out of our town!”. The woke left instructs us to assume the very worst of someone’s intent, the antithesis of giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

When physicians – many of whom were immigrants – arrived in our community, I had always made a point of meeting them to say hi and introduce myself. I asked questions about their background, their plans. I often invited them to social or sports events, and passed on my contact information. The Medical Post article changed all that.

It is safer to say nothing

In the new zeitgeist, intent is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that you ask a question out of genuine interest. It doesn’t matter that you are just as likely to ask a white person who grew up in Brantford where he is from as a black person who grew up in Nigeria.

You cannot defend yourself against accusations of unconscious bias and unrecognized, internalized racism because it doesn’t matter what you say, or what you know you meant by the question. What matters is what the receiving party thinks you are implying.

Being unable to read a person’s mind to predict their response, I have decided that it’s better just to not ask in the first place. The best a new doctor gets in the mailroom from me now is perhaps a brief eye contact and a nod. That’s as much as I dare.

But perhaps I’m being too paranoid? After all, things aren’t really that bad, are they?

Microaggressions Codified

A recent proposed new set of professionalism guidelines from the Oregon Medical Board does not allay my fears. Although currently just in Oregon, one can bet that before long similar rules will enter medical regulations in Canada as part of our mad rush to stamp out things like and “unconscious bias” and “systemic racism”. The new Oregon guideline codifies the concept of “microaggressions”, putting doctor’s medical licenses on the line if they commit one.

From the proposed Oregon Medical Board guidelines:

Microaggressions are considered a violation of professional conduct of the same degree as violating confidentiality, or being sexually inappropriate with a patient.

And physicians are duty-bound to report microaggressions, just as they would have to report if they knew a colleague sexually assaulted a patient. In short, their duty is to snitch.

The idea of “microaggressions”, and the threat of punishment for committing them, has created a climate of fear. It encourages us to think the worst of others. It empowers the most sensitive, paranoid, and angry fringe minority to micromanage our communications. It is encouraging us to self-censor: the most subtle and dangerous form of censorship.

The woke left is dividing us. Instead of creating communities, it is creating tribes. When we walk on eggshells and fear interacting with our fellow human beings, we all lose.