University N. Carolina Employee Forum:'I Love Your Shoes!' a Microagression

So is golfing and asking students to "stand and be recognized."

6.28.2016

Academia's crusade against "microagressions" has reached a fever pitch. The next thing you know people will be scolded that simply breathing the air is offensive -- it has quite simply become that insane.

Rob Shimshock of CampusReform recently uncovered a set of guidelines suggested by members of University of North Carolina's "Employee Forum." The guidelines were presented as ways university faculty and staff can avoid engaging in microagressions against students and peers alike.

According to members of the forum, simply saying "I love your shoes!" constitutes a microagression. As does talking about your weekend golf outing. CR reports:

To help staff members avoid microaggressions, the University of North Carolina advises gender-neutral dress codes and avoiding phrases like “husband/boyfriend.”

The guidelines, which were posted to UNC’s Employee Forum website Thursday, also warn against such potentially offensive behaviors as complimenting a woman’s shoes, asking people to “stand and be recognized,” and even scheduling vacations around religious observances.

[...] The document asserts, for instance, that “referring to ‘husband/boyfriend’ of women, ‘wife/girlfriend’ of men who are coworkers instead of partner/spouse … sets the expectation that people do not identify as LGBTQ until they say otherwise or disclose their sexual orientation.”

Similarly, saying “I don’t know any LGBTQ people” implies that “you have to openly declare your gender identity and sexual orientation for me to care about LGBTQ issues.”

Even a simple compliment like “I love your shoes,” at least when addressed to a woman in leadership during a Q&A after a speech, really means “I notice how you look and dress more than I value your intellectual contributions. How you look is really important.”

Self-deprecating humor, like saying you have "ADD" or "OCD" and asking students to "stand and be recognized" are also considered offensive. Apparently it is insensitive to people with mental and physical disabilities:

“Please stand and be recognized,” the school explains, “assumes that everyone is able in this way and ignores the diversity of ability in the space,” while using expressions such as “I’m totally OCD about my files” and “I get ADHD sometimes” “minimizes the experiences of people who live with mental health issues.”

Since outing this ridiculous set of proposed employee guidelines, University of North Carolina has since made the Employee Forum online page password protected, thus inaccessible to the general public.