A journal article by two sociologists suggests the rise of microaggressions stems from a culture of victimhood that celebrates the aggrieved and perceives them as virtuous martyrs – most notably on college campuses.
Making matters worse, this perception is fostered by administrations that coddle and support such grandiose notions for self-serving purposes, including to exert control of students, the scholars argue.
“In the settings such as those that generate microaggression catalogs … where offenders are oppressors and victims are the oppressed, it also raises the moral status of the victims,” the scholars state in their article. “This only increases the incentive to publicize grievances, and it means aggrieved parties are especially likely to highlight their identity as victims, emphasizing their own suffering and innocence. Their adversaries are privileged and blameworthy, but they themselves are pitiable and blameless.”
The scholarly article, “Microaggression and Moral Cultures,” was written by sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, professors at Cal State Los Angeles and The University of West Virginia, respectively.
Published in The Journal of Comparative Sociology, the 2014 article gained traction this month after NYU professor Jonathan Haidt covered it in his blog, The Righteous Mind.
Haidt co-authored a cover story for The Atlantic this month which argued that college students’ increasing demands for protection from words and ideas they don’t like is disastrous for their education and mental health.
As for the sociologists’ analysis, Haidt stated on his blog regarding their article that “it is the very presence of such administrative bodies, within a culture that is highly egalitarian and diverse (i.e., many college campuses) that gives rise to intense efforts to identify oneself as a fragile and aggrieved victim.”
