“A tone-deaf inquiry into an Asian-American’s ethnic origin. Cringe-inducing praise for how articulate a black student is. An unwanted conversation about a Latino’s ability to speak English without an accent.

This is not exactly the language of traditional racism, but in an avalanche of blogs, student discourse, campus theater and academic papers, they all reflect the murky terrain of the social justice word du jour — microaggressions — used to describe the subtle ways that racial, ethnic, gender and other stereotypes can play out painfully in an increasingly diverse culture.”

Thus began a lengthy article in the March 21st New York Times on “microaggression,” and its relatively recent migration from theory/discipline to “word du jour.”   Good article for those for whom the word is new.

Has it hit the workplace (yet) in any way?  Is it a distant cousin to the “Broken Windows” theory?