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This Story Is a Microaggression

Brian Farnan sent a link to a viral video to McGill University’s 22,000 undergraduates. One took offense, and that was enough to get Farnan, vice president for internal matters for the Montreal, Que., Canada, university’s student government, investigated under the student government’s equity policy. He has apologized for making the undergraduate e-mail list “the site of microaggression” — a forced apology. “The fact that a complaint did come forward does prove that someone was harmed and did feel harm,” said Joey Shea, vice president of university affairs of the university’s student government. What was the harmful message Farnan sent? “Honestly midterms get us out of here,” he wrote, and linked to a video of an actor playing President Obama kicking through a door to get out of a press conference. So? “The image in question was an extension of the cultural, historical and living legacy surrounding people of colour — particularly young men — being portrayed as violent in contemporary culture and media,” wrote Farnan in his apology, also sent to the 22,000 undergraduates. “I am deeply sorry.” (AC/National Post) ...Can’t he just be microsorry?