The heart of these micro aggressions is the assumed status to evaluate, to judge. A boss has the status to judge your job performance, that power does not necessarily extend to judging your apparel. Parents do this all the time with their teens, offering "compliments" that imply they still have the right to evaluate and judge the choices their nearly adult kids are making.

Compliments always carry the risk of being power statements. "You're very intelligent" is a judgement, one that implies the speaker's power to make personal assessments of the person being addressed. "Your writing fascinates me" is not a judgement, it's an acknowledgement of the effect the work has had on the the person offering the complement. Of course adding race generalizations to judgements borders on the macro aggression. Making that kind of judgement implies a superior position, not only to the person being addressed but to all members of the generalized group.