David A. Victor is a tech analyst on the Application Cloud Technologies team at Capgemini. He was a soccer student-athlete at NYU, where he majored in applied physics with a minor in creative writing/poetry. He served as president of NYU’s Society of Undergraduate Physicists and was the co-founder and co-president of Ritmo, the school’s Urban Latin Dance Club.
The UAA “Conversations About Race and Racism” series seeks to lift the voices of people of color and recognize the challenges faced in both athletics and academics at the collegiate level. By sharing personal stories, we hope to elevate the conversation about race to raise awareness and bring about change.
Microaggressions
Microaggressions are the everyday, subtle interactions that reflect bias toward historically marginalized groups of people. But to Victor and others, there is nothing “micro” about them. In his New York Times #1 best seller How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram Kendi said microaggressions are, in fact, “racial abuse.”
“I’m a very personable person. In college I found myself having many friend groups comprised of people from a wide variety of different cultures and backgrounds. With that kind of social adaptability, I became close with friends of all races,” Victor described. “At first, I didn’t experience the microaggressions (which aren’t “micro” at all) or hear blatant racist remarks, but as they became more comfortable with me, their ally-facades lifted. From ‘Black jokes’ to being called the ‘n word,’ I experienced racism from virtually every angle.”
“Through my experiences I decided to educate myself on where these ideologies came from and the psychology behind their reinforcement,” Victor elucidated. “This self-education helped me become a more controlled and mature person — both of which have enabled me to achieve my goals from an athletic and academic level with a lot more to come.”
READ DAVID'S FULL STORY:
