Microaggressions, Racial

Overview of Racial Microaggressions

More than 40 years ago, Chester Pierce first described racial microaggressions as the subtle, daily, and cumulative forms of racism that negatively impact the mental and physical health of African Americans over time. Today, researchers in various fields acknowledge the importance of examining the role of racial microaggressions in the lives of people of color. For example, legal scholar Peggy Davis used this concept to describe how racial biases have become embedded within the U.S. justice system, which disadvantages African Americans. Derald Wing Sue and colleagues examined various types of racial microaggressions experienced by African Americans and Asian Americans, based on perceptions of racial inferiority held by Whites.

In the field of education, Daniel Solorzano first explored how Chicana and Chicano scholars experienced racial microaggressions in their undergraduate and graduate training. He found these scholars were targeted by microaggressions through experiences with exclusion, lower academic expectations, and racist and sexist attitudes by Whites. In later work, Solorzano and colleagues confirmed similar findings in the experiences of African American undergraduates. These researchers found that racial microaggressions were a reflection of a negative campus racial climate, where students of color frequently felt marginalized and unwelcome on campus. Tara Yosso and colleagues have supported such findings in the undergraduate experiences of Latina/o students, who were targeted by racial microaggressions in ways similar to African Americans. Research on racial microaggressions in education highlights the importance of examining educational institutions as key environments where microaggressions occur and can impact the educational and perhaps life trajectories of students of color.

A Model of Racial Microaggressions in Education

Based on the literature developed within the field of education, Figure 1 illustrates a model for data collection and analysis of racial microaggressions. There are four main components of this model:

• 1.
  Types of Racial Microaggressions: How an individual is targeted by microaggressions (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, class, language, sexuality, immigration status, phenotype, accent or surname)
• 2.
  Context of Racial Microaggressions: Where the microaggression occurs (e.g., schools, classrooms, laboratories)
• 3.
  Effects of Racial Microaggressions: The physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of microaggressions (e.g., self-doubt, anger, stress, racial battle fatigue, poor academic performance, poor health outcomes)
• 4.
  Responses to Racial Microaggressions: How the individual responds to interpersonal and institutional racial microaggressions (e.g., denial, self-policing, proving them wrong, resistance, counterspaces)

People of color experience various types of microaggressions in a range of contexts. The types [Page 1490]and contexts of microaggressions lead to or result in negative effects for those targeted by them. The double arrow between the “effects” and “responses” in Figure 1 illustrates how an individual's response can also influence how she or he experiences the effects of microaggressions.

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