Humber’s Bridge Program launch micro-aggression social media campaign

Mar 1, 2018 | Campus News

Keysha Watson

Humber College’s Bridge Program has launched a new student-led social media campaign titled “That’s A Problem.”

The student engagement and retention program focuses on encouraging the success of African and Caribbean students.

The campaign, created by Bridge students, aims to bring awareness to some of the commonly disregarded  racialized micro-aggressive comments and attitudes that Black students face in social settings such as schools and workplaces.

Bridge Program Advisor Jessica Rayne, said the goal of the campaign is to start a dialogue and conversation about the realities of micro-aggressive behavior that Black Humber students face daily.

“This issue has really been swept under the rug. We don’t speak about it, we don’t confront it, and we don’t really address it,” she said.

There has been an outpouring of support within the black Humber community towards the #ThatsAProblem movement online. Some students took the opportunity to share some common micro-aggressive comments that have been said to them on Twitter.

Rayne said in many cases the people who make these underlying offensive comments are completely unaware of their hurtful undertone.

“I don’t think they understand the impact that it has on someone over time. It feels very belittling and it can make you very irritated. That’s whats so great bout this campaign its brining awareness to this issue,” she said.

The campaign includes posters that explain some commonly used micro-aggressions.

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“This is something that needs to be talked about,”said Early Childhood student, Quianna Isreal.

“I feel like a lot of the time were so conditioned to brush these things under the rug,” she said.

Isreal said she has dealt with micro-aggression on numerous occasions regarding her hair and cultural background.

“This campaign is great because we can respond to some of these things without feeling like were fulfilling the stereotypes of being aggressive or overly emotional,” she said.

The Bridge Program plans to continue the #ThatsAProblem movement  into future years following the success they have had thus far.

“We’re constantly having discussions about this,” said Rayne.

“We have have workshops on Wednesdays, we collaborate with the LGBTQ+ centre to do diversity labs featuring hot topics around racialized issues and gender issues. It’s all about just bringing these topics to the population at large so that they have an understanding of it as well.”

The Bridge program will be coming to North Campus for a self care event on March 22nd at 2pm in the Concourse.