"You're Pretty for a Black Girl!" and other Microaggressions

“Wow, you’re so well spoken!” “I love your hair. Can I touch it?”

“You’re pretty, for a Black girl!” “But where are you really from?”

I can remember the moment I heard each of these phrases spoken to me. All of them seemingly in a complimentary way, but coming across entirely as insulting. Let’s talk about microaggressions, fam.

Microaggressions are defined as the everyday, subtle, intentional — and oftentimes unintentional — interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups (NPR).