We’ve all had a bit of fun joking about how absurd this national obsession with microagressions has become. We’ve called college students “special snowflakes” and ridiculed how they need campus ”safe spaces.” We’ve pointed out how ludicrous it is to accuse someone of subconsciousness racism – or any “ism” – simply for asking a question.

But the problem is not going away, and in fact it’s getting worse.

The University of Washington’s “academic student employees” are voting this week on whether hurting someone’s feelings should be “grievable” under their union’s contract with the school, The College Fix reports.

If approved, it would be the first known university union contract in the country to protect teaching assistants, tutors, readers and similar student employees against “microaggressions” in the workplace. Recognizing microaggressions as grievable represents “the next level of discourse in this country around racism, sexism, and homophobia” and will advance the cause of “a more inclusive campus for all academic student employees,” a union spokeswoman told The Fix.

This is where it gets real, setting precedent with detrimental effects. Once word gets around about the University of Washington, it’s only a matter of time before other student unions across the nation demand their right to be free of microaggressions, per union contract.

Now that’s no laughing matter.