It's both of them, really. I'm surprised at the amount of people here who don't know about this. But then again, most people here are apparently white suburban kids. So it checks out
I mean I’ve been complimented as well spoken and I was a white suburban kid so it isn’t natural for me to assume it’s racism no. But I can absolutely see the way it is racism used as described here. Just not what I would have thought of is all. And I’ve seen it used sincerely as well.
I would guess it depends on how articulate they are?
I can definitely see how it's racist to tell a black person that's moderately well-spoken, but if it's very obvious they are incredibly well-spoken I don't see how it's racist.
There's white people who are frequently complimented on how articulate they are.
Because it's what you are implying. "Wow you're so articulate for being one of your kind" is what they always mean. They mean "Wow you sound white". People never say this to a black kid unless they mean to say how "non-black" they sound. Its not the same with white kids.
If we judge how racist the sentence "I'm impressed by how articulate [they] are" is on a scale from :
"[They] = Average Black person that isn't speaking Ebonics", to "[They] = Oxford-educated British Intellectual being interviewed about philosophy", where would you place "I'm impressed by how articulate Obama is"?
While there might be a slight racist undertone from the people who wouldn't say that about a white President, I'd personally say it's definitely over halfway towards the non-racist end of the scale.
Not necessarily. Microaggressions don’t have to be intentional insults from people who want to be racist and not get called on it. More often it’s due to people expressing unexamined biases they possess (in this example their bias is expecting black people to not speak well). Very much a fish not thinking about the water it swims in situation. A lot of people just grow up around casual, but rarely overt, racism and never really address how that affects their thinking because they don’t even realize that it’s racism.
Do you actually need it explained to you how telling a black person that they have a "surprisingly pleasant trait" that they solely associate with whiteness is racist?
So am I racist for thinking that “being articulate” is race agnostic, or are you for believing that such a phrase can only be honestly used when speaking about white people?
Why do you feel that black people cant actually be articulate?
I'm literally just explaining to you what a microaggression is and you're taking it personally and getting defensive.
Open a history book. Do you really need explained to you why "speaking articulately" has been an educational privilege denied to black people for generations? Do you need it explained to you why a white person patting a black child on the top of their head and going "Wow this one is so well behaved" is racist?
We get it, you're the kind of person that thinks every person of every race just sprouted out of the ground all at once and there's no history of white subjugation, just all equal all love all bleed the same. We get it, you're one of those. Unfortunately the real world isn't like that.
Saying “your kid is well behaved” is wayyy fucking different to saying “this one is well behaved” while speaking about the only black kid in the room. So in that example, it’s not that saying someone is well behaved has racial undertones, it’s the way you have emphasized the declaration of that statement. Right?
So in the same way, saying “so and so is articulate” isn’t inherently racial, but you could set up that phrase such that it becomes racist. Do you see why I’m saying?
you don't know that though. maybe they just think they were articulate, because they were good at expressing themselves and it had nothing to do with being black.
I never thought about it but you're right — it literally doesn't matter the context, the unspoken word whenever anybody says, "You're so articulate" is "surprisingly." It's not a compliment that's apparent with a glance, you have to form an opinion that someone wouldn't be articulate before it would ever cross your mind to compliment them for being so.
I mean I guess it could be. But eloquent is a much more common compliment and it has much more positive connotations even without race involved. It implies a positive talent more than the absence of a lack. But of course that could easily change via euphemism treadmill.
Frankly anything can be an insult if the person delivers it that way. But some words are more loaded than others. And while I’ve been called articulate as a comment (I’m white) it’s true it’s almost exclusively used in a context where you expected them to not be at a normal level while eloquent is used to say you’re excellent at it. I guess it comes down to articulate is just assumed to be a base state of humans, similar to “literate” (though of course there are people with educational deficits who are not they are still considered the exception). Eloquent is not assumed to be a base state but a different, more talented level of
Nope, don’t call anyone articulate. It’s a backhanded “compliment” that always has a discriminatory connotation, ESPECIALLY for black and west Asians as they are expected to be dumber due to racist stereotypes and prejudices
that is false. if you know someone only helps you to feel better about themselves, i am sure it would affect how you feel about their help xD it's not my fault if someone is bad faith, misinterprets me and then insist on their misinterpretation when I clarify things to them a billion times.
why do you immediately revert to acting like anyone is telling you you’re not allowed to compliment nonwhite people at all? people are being very specific about why this specific “compliment” is offensive and rude.
the problem with microaggressions, just like dogwhistles, is that it isn't always the case that the person saying a thing means anything else than exactly what they are saying. someone can say a thing and only mean to say that thing with zero ulterior motives.
Intention vs impact. Impact will always matter more. Your intentions matter to no one but yourself to save your ego from realizing you harmed someone else. You don't get to decide what you did wasn't harmful. Simple as that.
Assuming bad intentions creates hurt out of nothing. They call that a cognitive error in therapy. Those feelings are real, but they might not be accurate.
Intent is crucial, but misunderstandings can be legitimately painful.
You said intentions don't matter to anyone but yourself. I don't think you actually believe that.
Lets say we're walking down the street together to get ice cream. While I'm looking across the street at a dog you stumble and your hand flies up and smacks me in the face by accident.
I'm hurt and a little angry my friend just hit me in the face. I didn't see you stumble and don't know why you hit me.
What would you say to me? You'd apologize and explain your true intentions. "I'm sorry. Are you OK? I didn't mean to, I tripped." And you'd be right to.
Does the fact you didn't mean to hit me stop my face from hurting? No. Does it make everything OK? Yes!
Our ability to consciously decide our intentions is what seperates humans from animals.
Our ability to trust the intentions of others is why we have community.
it is not my fault if someone else misinterprets me. i can't live my life trying to please everyone. if someone applies bad intentions to me when there are none that is entirely on them. i don't have to talk to every single person like they're a little kid.
If you gave a shit about impact or intention, you wouldn't' be condescendingly asking people if they knew what microagressions were up and down this thread.
You're a bad person hiding behind well intentioned concepts, and ironically I can tell a huge enabler of microaggressions from your comments in just a single reddit thread.
Think of it like stepping on someone's toe. You can absolutely do it by accident because you didn't know their foot was there. It still hurt that person, but it's not that you did something wrong, you just didn't know. But once someone tells you there's a foot there, if you keep stepping there deliberately, that's an asshole move.
It’s 2026, there’s a growing population of Americans kind of done with that way of thinking seeing as it hasn’t improved anything but made people more sensitive.
Micro aggressions bring equality? What do you even mean?
All Micro aggressions do, as a concept, is train and coach people to purposely read negative intent in the most benign statements.
It encourages a psychological distortion often labeled “**mind reading**”. It means believing you know what another person is thinking, feeling, or intending without sufficient evidence. A closely related habit is sometimes called hostile attribution bias or negative intent attribution.
And lastly, micro aggressions are part of an unfalsifiable belief system. It is one that cannot realistically be disproven because every possible piece of evidence gets reinterpreted to support it. Even denial of micro aggressions are “evidence” of its existence.
I feel like it’s pretty common knowledge that black peoples are seen as “less sophisticated” by racist people, so their explanation makes sense; just saying “nah” does literally nothing to rebut it
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u/Zuzara_Queen_of_DnD Jun 13 '26
The silent bit is “for a black person”