E for Empathy -- and how being aware of Microaggessions can help

Chester Pierce coined micro-aggression as
offensive mechanisms

I am expanding my e-learning to include empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else.  Over the last few weeks I have been in discussions, have read lots of articles, opinion pieces, and blog posts that very much lament the lack of understanding between different groups in the US population.
Empathy, to me, appears to be a skill many of us can practice more.  A couple of weeks ago Jaena Alabi, one of Auburn University's wonderful librarians, gave a talk on "An Introduction to Racial Microaggession," and what struck me about the talk were the specific incidents of microaggessions that were readily recognizable to me as things I have witnessed or even done myself.
Fortunately for all of us, the talk was recorded, and you can learn more about racial microaggessions by listening to Jaena herself.
I am adding some info that may be tough to read on her final slides to make sure we can all benefit from some of the sources she was referring to and the activities she is encouraging us to work through:
Start identifying your own unconscious biases by taking the Race Implicit Association Test.
Read

• McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and Freedom Magazine, July/August, 10-12.Available online here:
  http://nationalseedproject.org/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack
•  Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Tatum, B. D. (2003). "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" And Other Conversations About Race (Rev. ed.). New York: Basic Books.
• Mills, C. W. (1997). The Racial Contract. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (2013). Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. New York: Delacorte Press.