What is a Microaggression?
They are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons or groups. Microaggressions happen all around the world; however, they happen frequently on college campuses.
Microaggressions are often confused with an individual or group being too sensitive; however, our findings during the project show that Microaggressions are more than just insults on the surface. They are deeply rooted insults that can cause numerous mental and physical conditions over a period of time.
How It All Began
After Patrick French and Nicolette Camishion brainstormed the idea of creating a documentary for this subject, they approached Dr. John T. Mills in the Office of Social Justice, Inclusion & Conflict Resolution about the idea. After a few meetings, they decided on narrowing the subject for the documentary on Microaggressions.
After they agreed on this subject matter, Patrick approached some of his fellow film colleagues about doing the project. His first two colleagues, Jason Carubia and Matthew Ploch, had worked with him before and were excited to take on the project. Since then, an entire crew and cast was established and the documentary was well on it's way.
However, we needed resources and more equipment. So, after speaking with Ned Eckhardt, the Interim Chair of the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at Rowan University, we were able to come to an agreement. Thanks to Ned Eckhardt, Chris Winkler, and Carl Frandino, we were allowed the studio space and borrowed equipment to help make this production possible.
Forward Thinking
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Our main goal was to create a documentary to educate, inform, and spread awareness of Microaggressions; however, we're not going to stop there. We hope that this production will inspire other colleges, organizations, and groups to take a stand against social, racial, and gender issues. In creating this documentary, we have given an example for others to follow, in hopes that this will give light to this one of many issues that we face today. With #jointheconversation and #projectmicrorowan, we aim to unite people of all backgrounds, genders,and beliefs under one common goal to help stop these injustices.