Greetings, Sanche. Thank you for a cordial reply.

Perhaps my understanding of microaggression might be a little different than yours.

Without insisting that I'm right and you're wrong (because you could be closer to the truth than I am), I'll give you my understanding.

I wouldn't call your example of a microaggression. That's a backhanded compliment, and it seems to me that anyone who says something like that knows exactly what they're doing, and it isn't unintentional at all.

It's rather like Joe Biden's supposed compliment to Barack Obama in 2008, "I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Given Joe Biden's incredibly racist statements throughout his political career, this statement is actually rather tame by comparison. He's said much worse.

Usually, when I hear people describing microaggressions, they give the example of speaking to someone with a foreign accent and asking, "Where are you from? Your English is perfect."

Those who protest microaggressions, would insist that this is an insult, suggesting that person couldn't be from here or that it's shocking to hear someone from outside an English-speaking country who can speak English well.

I would aver that there's nothing offensive about that at all. It's a normal icebreaker to ask where someone is from, whether this person happens to from the U.S. or from some other country. Also, as someone who trained as a linguist, it made me realize I would not like to learn English as a second language. It's a bear for those not born into it. On the positive side, we don't have gendered nouns. However, our spelling is a nightmare for those who speak more phonetic languages (which would be just about any other language).

So, to tell someone who obviously does not have English as a first language that they're English is perfect is a compliment to their hard work and intelligence.

I'm sure we both know native speakers of English whose English still is an incomprehensible mess.