An academic librarian at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst recently encouraged her fellow librarians to fight microaggressions by hugging students or telling them “I love you.”

According to Isabel Espinal, the school librarian for students majoring in Afro American Studies, these small acts of kindness are called “microaffections,” and can help create a more “empowering” learning experience for students of color.

"Note someone’s unique fashion sense or new haircut."

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A “Microaffections Rubric” that Espinal created for a presentation at the Dartmouth Library Conference in October recommends that librarians “note someone’s unique fashion sense,” “smile at students,” “hug someone,” say “I love you,” and even “admit when you commit a microaggression and apologize.”

Librarians can also “publically appreciate something a coworker or student did,” “help a coworker get promoted,” or “invite a colleague out for coffee,” Espinal recommends.

The rubric specifically notes that one should “say or do these things to students of color” and “colleagues of color,” but the presentation also cautions elsewhere that practicing microaffections isn’t “easy,” calling it a skill that can “take practice” to learn.

Jim Burklo, a religious life official at the University of Southern California, coined the term microaffection in a 2015 blog post for The Huffington Post, defining it as an “endearing or comforting comment or action directed at others that is often unintentional or unconsciously affirms their worth and dignity.”

Presenting microaffections as the polar opposite of microaggressions, Burklo argued that “universities and institutions of all kinds have work to do...to prevent microagression and to encourage microaffection.”

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Espinal’s “Microaffections Rubric” was discussed as part of a workshop at the Dartmouth Library Conference about how to “proactively improve library experience by focusing on hospitality, microskills, and microaffections,” which also featured UMass-Amherst librarians Tom Paige and David Mac Court.

Mac Court told Campus Reform in an email that Espinal wrote the section on microaffections independently, but Espinal did not respond to inquires from Campus Reform.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen