What a “minor” event looks like to a marginalised person vs a privileged person

 

Left graph shows a graph that shows how trauma accumulates with time like steps that keep going up and is very high. Right graph no accumulation of trauma and thre are no steps at all and only shows the small impact (a single step) an outsider sees that is very low.
alt-text: Left graph shows a graph that shows how trauma accumulates with time like steps that keep going up and is very high. Right graph no accumulation of trauma and thre are no steps at all and only shows the small impact (a single step) an outsider sees that is very low. Want to share this? Use DOI: https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10929158

In the image above, the left figure shows how I react to a “minor” event that triggers deep emotional reactions based on previous trauma that accumulates over time. The right figure is how a person with privilege might view the same “minor” event and judge my reaction as an “overreaction”.

This is why you need to understand how micro-agressions work and accept that over time they become heavy burdens to bear if you want to help people from marginalised groups.

RM