Sources report Sandra Williams had only just begun explaining an incident of sexism to classmate Samuel Meyer when Meyer, a self-proclaimed subject matter expert, interrupted. “No, right, I hear you,” said Meyer halfway through Williams’s sentence. “You’re good, I totally get what you’re saying.” Williams and Meyer were introduced when they were asked to write a report together on the prevalence of sexist microaggressions in professional and educational settings. “I would definitely consider myself a feminist, and I know how women struggle to be heard or whatever,” said Meyer, “But I have mixed feelings about the idea of ‘microaggressions’ or ‘emotional labor’. I’m not saying it’s not real, but I just haven’t ever seen it happen.” Williams took it upon herself to try to explain these apparently foreign concepts to Meyer, while also pointing out to him that he had, in fact, just participated in one. Meyer apparently knew exactly where she was going before she even had a chance to finish, possibly indicating that he suddenly grasped that which he had claimed to be bewildered by mere moments before. “I mean, I get it,” he said, not allowing Williams to continue. “I totally get what you’re saying, but maybe this is just a case of different perspectives.” Williams, a gender studies major, had hoped collaborating on the assignment with Meyer would have better results. “He told me he only signed up for this class because he needed an easy credit for something he already understood,” Williams explained. “Maybe I’m in the wrong for having held out hope that he would learn something from this, instead of defaulting to immediately lowering my expectations of him?” However, despite this unfortunate snag, Williams has remained optimistic not only about the assignment, but also about her future in her field of study. “I’d like to someday be the founder of a nonprofit organization that helps uplift marginalized women,” Williams said. “But for now, I just need this report to be good. With the time I’ll save by giving up on my attempts to educate Samuel, I can just knock this thing out.” When asked to elaborate on his astonishingly quick grasp of this subject matter, and to comment on the irony of his exchange with Williams, Meyer confessed that he didn’t understand the question.
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