I see and hear about this sort of stuff a lot and I see both sides of it and mostly side on those who're on the receiving side of the "micro-aggression" but sometimes it seems to me like it's being too sensitive.
I can see how women probably have to suffer *a lot* when it comes to being on the receiving end of a lot of questions, comments and unwanted attention. Mostly why I leave women alone, I don't want to pile on. I've learned my lesson about that the hard way. It's unwanted attention... Unless it's wanted. It's hard to know if your attention is wanted or unwanted so it's better to default to no giving attention.
This is where male-privilege comes-in as by and large we don't have to deal with constant incomings of attention that's not wanted.
White privilege comes in and, perhaps, not having to deal with a constant incoming and presumption about your background or intents. And in this day and age everyone who is white should be aware that being white brings with it a whole lot of privilege and that being part of any other race can be a burden in our society in numerous, numerous ways. Sadly, many people thing we've overcome the whole "race thing" simply because things like Civil Rights and Affirmative Action exist. But pay attention to the news and see how many black people are arrested, shot, killed, etc. as opposed to how many white people are apprehended without incident or are left a lone in potentially questionable situations and you see the problems in society that still exist.
I saw a video recently where a "social experiment" was done -arguably a non-scientific one- where a white man was walking down the street with an assault rifle strapped to him (carrying it on his back, not holding it in a threatening manner) in an open-carry state. At one point he's stopped by an officer who's fairly polite, doesn't get testy with the guy when he asks for ID and isn't shown any (the guy refused to show it since he wasn't in a car and, thus, not required to have ID or to show any) he's asked some simple questions and, I believe, to show his open-carry permit. And more-or-less left the guys alone when they said the reason why they were walking down the street with the gun was basically because they could.
In the next segment of the video a black man carries the weapon the down the street in a similar manner and a police car pulls up at a safe distance, officer gets out of his car and using the door as a shield orders the man to lay on the ground and to place the gun on the ground just out of reach. Other units are brought in and the man is handcuffed and made to sit on the curb/aside and it's pretty much treated as a potential arrest. The whole time the police acting like this a threatening situation. The guy is eventually released because, well, he wasn't doing anything wrong. But it was an interesting demonstration on the "white privilege" thing and how a change of skin-color changes a lot of things.
(Though it can be argued there's some variables here, different area (meaning potentially different crime rates, potential, different cops, etc.) But, really, the only variable that matters is skin color of the focus participant.
Sometimes, though, I think the hyper-sensitivity can go a *bit* far. Someone above mentioned asking someone of Asian decent where they're from, originally. I can see how it might be something to get offended from, "What, because I'm Asian I can't be from America?" But at the same time I think it's also easy to "see through" the question and know what is being asked. "Are you Korean, Japanese or Chinese?"
Is it the person's business, does it matter? Perhaps not, but knowing a person's ethnic background could aid in conversational topics. And other than asking, there's not a whole lot of ways to know which "type" of Asian someone is.
But, again, I see how it's certainly a slippery slope, a touchy topic and does fall on "why does it matter?" After all how many white people do you meet and ask where their ancestry originates? Though, at the same time, I *have* had this conversation with fellow white people, talking about what our ancestry is. Many aren't sure, some have "pure" backgrounds from Europe, some are like me and are "American Mutts."
I think both sides could do well to try and see things *from* the other side. Those on the receiving end could maybe not automatically assume that the other person is being "passively aggressive," trying to offend, trying to be a nuisance, or is actively doing anything wrong of any decision of their own. It's just, somehow, due to societal constructs coming across that way.
Again, I'm sure dealing with this crap everyday is a pain in the ass. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Those who're often the "givers" or coming from a point of privilege could do well to put their-self in the other's shoes and maybe see that this other person probably deals with this sort of stuff a lot. Women get his on a lot. Black people get treated differently and with suspicion a lot, people of different ethnicities get asked "where they are from" a lot. Why pile on and let any truths come out through natural interaction.
