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Racial Microaggression
Racial microaggressions are daily hostile, derogatory, and negative insults that can be covert or overt and encompass behavioral and verbal slights against a person or racial group. The literature first identified African Americans as a race that is often associated with microaggressions; however, these behavioral and verbal slights can be directed at any racial group. Racial microaggressions are often used as a form of racism and to perpetuate racist views about a specific racial group. Microaggressions reflect the conscious and unconscious worldview that is racist in nature, first used to oppress African Americans.
The understanding of racial microaggressions as racism is important because much of the overt displays of racism have become more unacceptable, thus more covert forms of racism, such as racial microaggressions, have become more common. Racial microaggression is linked to racism in environments and situations that limit opportunities and access to people of color. Racism is the false belief that a person is inferior based on the color of his or her skin, specifically, the darker the skin color, the more inferior. Microaggressions are deliberate and explicit in nature, and the person issuing the aggression is conscious of the impact.
Psychological Impact
Microaggressions serve to perpetuate the belief that people of color are somehow intellectually inferior and hold some inferior status than the dominate culture and that each person of color making up each racial group is monolithic rather than accounting for the wide diversity that occurs within groups. The intent of the microaggressor is to oppress and discriminate against people of color, hence there is a deep psychological impact associated with microaggressions. The psychological harm caused by microaggressions calls into question the integrity and cultural identity of the person of color, while causing increased psychological distress. Because racial microaggressions are daily and can have multiple microaggressors, the psychological distress is constant and is often linked to increased exhaustion, low self-esteem, anxiety, and increased levels of depression in people of color. Experiencing racial microaggressions can foster feelings of not belonging and feeling isolated in people of color.
The psychological consequences and feelings of those experiencing racial microaggressions in their everyDay lives encompass a sense of invisibility, powerlessness, and personal sacrifice of culture in order to better conform to United States and dominate culture beliefs and values. Another psychological consequence often expressed by people of color is the feeling of being forced to be responsible for representing the entire racial group. The increased interest in the psychological impact of racial microaggressions on various populations has opened the study of the topic in the field of mental health care.
Professional Training
Historically, there has been a mistrust of the mental health professionals and the medical field due to long-standing racism in the health care field in regards to studying and providing care to people of color. Racial microaggressions have been studied extensively in all fields of human service, often being discussed regarding the relationship between the health professional and those they are helping. The impact of microaggressions on the helping relationship has been linked to fostering a weaker alliance between the helping professional and the patient. Racial microaggressions have also been linked as a predictor of health outcomes for the patient. Additionally, helping professionals that are unaware of their use of microaggressions were linked to demonstrating less awareness of how culture and environment impacted their patients.
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