Microaggressions

Microaggressions are defined as commonplace verbal and nonverbal slights that communicate denigrating or demeaning messages to people of color based on their racial group membership. In their 1978 seminal research, Chester M. Pierce, Jean V. Carew, Diane Pierce-Gonzales, and Deborah Willis coined the term racial microaggressions. Pierce and colleagues utilized content analysis to empirically investigate the covert, visual, verbal, and nonverbal messages transmitted about Black people through television commercials. Their findings illustrated that Black people were often entirely excluded from media programming. They also identified a preponderance of racially biased images and found that among the limited examples in which Black women and men were represented, they were represented with highly negative and stereotypical characteristics, such as subservient, working for a low wage, unintelligent, and ...