Microaggression

Although I had a harder time thinking of specific examples of microaggression that I've witnessed this week, but many times I have seen acts of microaggression between children in the classroom, similar to the examples seen in the readings from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). I remember one time in our small full day Kindergarten classroom when two girls wanted to play "house" in the dramatic play center. When one of the young boys also wanted to join in with them in their play, the other boys in the class said "Oh, Rosbin wants to play with the girls!" You could see in his face that their comments triggered a concern in his mind as he made a defensive comment like "I'm not a girl!", but he continued his play with them and didn't seem to mind what the boys thought. Thinking back to that scenario now I can't help but wonder how this experience is effecting his opinions of himself within his group of peers and the identity he is forming. In the same classroom, 9 of the children were white and only one had come to the country recently from Guatemala and spoke Spanish as his primary language. He was a very eager student, willing to learn, especially the English language, and very interested in showing his abilities and interests to his teachers and classmates. He always wanted to be seen and part of the group, often making up stories about having siblings or pets at home to feel welcomed by his peers. I think after a while the other children caught on to his elaborate storytelling and began to seclude him from play, didn't want him to sit with them at lunch, and didn't want to include him on the playground. Now, Rosbin's personality accounts for a great many factors, including his family culture and dynamics. The other children in the class might not be specifically targeting his cultural background when they criticize his character traits, but they are creating a negative barrier between themselves and Rosbin that has and will continue to effect his development in many ways.
I once recall being a target of microaggression when our ice cream supplier delivered to our location one hot afternoon last summer and, although we had never met before, I happened to be the only person nearby to open the snack bar and sign for the delivery, so I introduced myself as the director and offered to help. He didn't like that. He immediately asked for my husband, who he had previously been in contact with, and when I said he wasn't available he was extremely standoffish and rather rude that I was the person he had to deal with at the time. I felt as if my being a woman was extremely displeasing to him and that he was offended and annoyed to have to work with a lesser person because of my gender. Overall my emotions were surprised, offended, confused, and building up to defensive against his behavior.  
Both of these experiences have shown me that discrimination, prejudices, and stereotypes can place a huge affect on individuals and groups of people who are targets of either intentional or unintentional microaggression. Although I was rather startled by this delivery man questioning my capabilities, I can only imagine that having to deal with forms of microaggressions on a daily basis would become exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally.
References 
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.