Derald Wing Sue - Microaggressions in Everyday Life

1 Defining microaggressions. Microaggressions can be overt or covert, but they are most damaging when they occur outside the level of the conscious awareness of well‐intentioned perpetrators. Most of us can recognize and define overt forms of bias and discrimination and will actively condemn such actions. However, the “invisible” manifestations are not under conscious awareness and control, so they occur spontaneously without any checks and balances in personal, social, and work‐related interactions. They can occur among and between family members, neighbors, and coworkers and in teacher–student, health care provider–patient, therapist–client, and employer–employee relationships. They are numerous and continuous and have a detrimental impact on targets. To define microaggressions and to know the various forms they take, one must begin with a cognitive and intellectual understanding of their manifestations and impact. It is our hope the taxonomy described in this chapter will provide readers with a template that facilitates understanding of the concrete characteristics and qualities of microaggressions.

2 Recognizing microaggressions. Being able to define racial, gender, sexual‐orientation, and other forms of microaggressions is not enough. Recognizing microaggressions when they make their appearance is more than an intellectual exercise. Their manifestations are dynamic, with very real personal consequences that can be ameliorated only when recognized in their interactional or environmental forms. Appropriate intervention can occur only when microaggressions are recognized in the here and now. Recognition may involve two different situations: (a) when they are observed as occurring between external parties (delivered by others), and (b) when you are one of the actors involved (perpetrator or target). When you observe a microaggression being delivered by someone else, the possibility of intervention may present a personal or professional dilemma: “Should I or shouldn't I intervene? If I do, what is the most appropriate way to do so? What are the consequences if I choose to take action?” The second situation involves you as either target or perpetrator. We spend considerable time in future chapters analyzing target impact and response issues as well as strategies for coping with and resisting microaggressions. We also introduce a new concept for targets, allies, and bystanders that we refer to as microinterventions. More important, however, is your recognition that perhaps you have engaged in or now are personally engaging in the delivery of microaggressions. Self‐monitoring, being open to exploring the possibility that you have acted in a biased fashion, and remaining nondefensive are crucial to recognizing when you have been guilty of delivering a microaggression.

3 Deconstructing the hidden meaning of microaggressions. Microaggressions are reflections of worldviews that are filled with ethnocentric values, biases, assumptions, and stereotypes that have been strongly culturally inculcated into our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Microaggressions usually send double messages that are contradictory to one another. A common microaggression directed toward people of color and women is symbolized in this statement: “I believe the most qualified person should be offered the job.” Although few of us would disagree with this statement, in certain contexts, when it is made to a devalued group member by a majority person, there may be a hidden message: “Racial minorities and White women generally are not qualified, so don’t blame me of being biased when the job is offered to a White man.”

Being able to define and recognize microaggressions and being able to deconstruct the metacommunications are challenging goals. They are the necessary preconditions to effective interventions, whether in personal or in professional settings. Only when awareness is present can action be taken in education, training, or remediation to overcome racial, gender, sexual‐orientation, and other forms of microaggressions.

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