A new view on racism, sexism, and heterosexism.
by Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., and David Rivera, M.S.
Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life
Is subtle bias harmless?
too long ago, I (Asian American) boarded a small plane with an African
American colleague in the early hours of the morning. As there were few
passengers, the flight attendant told us to sit anywhere, so we choose
seats near the front of the plane and across the aisle from one another.
the last minute, three White men entered the plane and took seats in
front of us. Just before takeoff, the flight attendant, who is White,
asked if we would mind moving to the back of the aircraft to better
balance the plane's weight. We grudgingly complied but felt singled out
as passengers of color in being told to "move to the back of the bus."
When we expressed these feelings to the attendant, she indignantly
denied the charge, became defensive, stated that her intent was to
ensure the flight's safety, and wanted to give us some privacy.
we had entered the plane first, I asked why she did not ask the White
men to move instead of us. She became indignant, stated that we had
misunderstood her intentions, claimed she did not see "color," suggested
that we were being "oversensitive," and refused to talk about the
matter any further.
Were we being overly sensitive, or was the flight attendant
being racist? That is a question that people of color are constantly
faced with in their day-to-day interactions with well-intentioned White
folks who experience themselves as good, moral and decent human beings.
The Common Experience of Racial Microaggressions
incidents have become a common-place experience for many people of
color because they seem to occur constantly in our daily lives.
a White couple (man and women) passes a Black man on the sidewalk, the
woman automatically clutches her purse more tightly, while the White man
checks for his wallet in the back pocket. (Hidden Message: Blacks are
prone to crime and up to no good.)
- A third generation Asian
American is complimented by a taxi cab driver for speaking such good
English. (Hidden Message: Asian Americans are perceived as perpetual
aliens in their own country and not "real Americans.")
stop a Latino male driver for no apparent reason but to subtly check his
driver's license to determine immigration status. (Hidden message:
Latinas/os are illegal aliens.)
- American Indian students at the
University of Illinois see Native American symbols and mascots -
exemplified by Chief Illiniwek dancing and whooping fiercely during
football games. (Hidden Message: American Indians are savages,
blood-thirsty and their culture and traditions are demeaned.)
our 8-year research at Teachers College, Columbia University, we have
found that these racial microaggressions may on the surface, appear like
a compliment or seem quite innocent and harmless, but nevertheless,
they contain what we call demeaning meta-communications or hidden
What Are Racial Microaggressions?
term racial microaggressions, was first coined by psychiatrist Chester
Pierce, MD, in the 1970s. But the concept is also rooted in the work of
Jack Dovidio, Ph.D. (Yale University) and Samuel Gaertner, Ph.D.
(University of Delaware) in their formulation of aversive racism
- many well-intentioned Whites consciously believe in and profess
equality, but unconsciously act in a racist manner, particularly in
Racial microaggressions are the brief and
everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages sent to
people of color by well-intentioned White people who are unaware of the
hidden messages being communicated. These messages may be sent verbally
("You speak good English."), nonverbally (clutching one's purse more
tightly) or environmentally (symbols like the confederate flag or using
American Indian mascots). Such communications are usually outside the
level of conscious awareness of perpetrators. In the case of the flight
attendant, I am sure that she believed she was acting with the best of
intentions and probably felt aghast that someone would accuse her of
such a horrendous act.
Our research and those of many social psychologists suggest that most people like the flight attendant, harbor unconscious
biases and prejudices that leak out in many interpersonal situations
and decision points. In other words, the attendant was acting with
bias-she just didn't know it. Getting perpetrators to realize that they
are acting in a biased manner is a monumental task because (a) on a
conscious level they see themselves as fair minded individuals who would
never consciously discriminate, (b) they are genuinely not aware of
their biases, and (c) their self image of being "a good moral human
being" is assailed if they realize and acknowledge that they possess
biased thoughts, attitudes and feelings that harm people of color.
To better understand the type and range of these incidents, my research team
and other researchers are exploring the manifestation, dynamics and
impact of microaggressions. We have begun documenting how African
Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians and Latina(o) Americans who
receive these everyday psychological slings and arrows experience an
erosion of their mental health, job performance, classroom learning, the
quality of social experience, and ultimately their standard of living.
In my book, Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation
(John Wiley & Sons, 2010), I summarize research conducted at
Teachers College, Columbia University which led us to propose a
classification of racial microaggressions. Three types of current racial
transgressions were described:
• Microassaults: Conscious and
intentional discriminatory actions: using racial epithets, displaying
White supremacist symbols - swastikas, or preventing one's son or
daughter from dating outside of their race.
Verbal, nonverbal, and environmental communications that subtly convey
rudeness and insensitivity that demean a person's racial heritage or identity.
An example is an employee who asks a co-worker of color how he/she got
his/her job, implying he/she may have landed it through an affirmative
action or quota system.
• Microinvalidations: Communications that
subtly exclude negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential
reality of a person of color. For instance, White people often ask
Latinos where they were born, conveying the message that they are
perpetual foreigners in their own land.
Our research suggests that
microinsults and microinvalidiations are potentially more harmful
because of their invisibility, which puts people of color in a
psychological bind: While people of color may feel insulted, they are
often uncertain why, and perpetrators are unaware that anything has
happened and are not aware they have been offensive. For people of
color, they are caught in a Catch-22. If they question the perpetrator,
as in the case of the flight attendant, denials are likely to follow.
Indeed, they may be labeled "oversensitive" or even "paranoid." If they
choose not to confront perpetrators, the turmoil stews and percolates in
the psyche of the person taking a huge emotional toll. In other words,
they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Note that the denials by perpetrators are usually not conscious attempts to deceive;
they honestly believe they have done no wrong. Microaggressions hold
their power because they are invisible, and therefore they don't allow
Whites to see that their actions and attitudes may be discriminatory.
Therein lays the dilemma. The person of color is left to question what
actually happened. The result is confusion, anger and an overall draining of energy.
some research and testimony from people of color indicate they are
better able to handle overt, conscious and deliberate acts of racism
than the unconscious, subtle and less obvious forms. That is because
there is no guesswork involved in overt forms of racism.
racial microaggressions are so subtle that neither target nor
perpetrator may entirely understand what is happening. The invisibility
of racial microaggressions may be more harmful to people of color than
hate crimes or the overt and deliberate acts of White supremacists such
as the Klan and Skinheads. Studies support the fact that people of color
frequently experience microaggressions, that it is a continuing reality
in their day-to-day interactions with friends, neighbors, co-workers,
teachers, and employers in academic, social and public settings.
are often made to feel excluded, untrustworthy, second-class citizens,
and abnormal. People of color often describe the terrible feeling of
being watched suspiciously in stores, that any slipup they make would
negatively impact every person of color, that they felt pressured to
represent the group in positive ways, and that they feel trapped in a
stereotype. The burden of constant vigilance drains and saps
psychological and spiritual energies of targets and contributes to chronic fatigue and a feeling of racial frustration and anger.
does not allow me to elaborate the harmful impact of racial
microaggressions, but I summarize what the research literature reveals.
Although they may appear like insignificant slights, or banal and
trivial in nature,
studies reveal that racial microaggressions have powerful detrimental
consequences to people of color. They have been found to: (a) assail the
mental health of recipients, (b) create a hostile and invalidating work
or campus climate, (c) perpetuate stereotype threat, (d) create
physical health problems, (e) saturate the broader society with cues
that signal devaluation of social group identities, (f) lower work productivity and problem solving abilities, and (g) be partially responsible for creating inequities in education, employment and health care.
realize that I have left many questions unanswered with this posting,
but my research team and I plan to continue updating our findings for
readers to consider. For readers who desire a more thorough understanding of microaggressions, I recommend two major sources on the topic published this year (2010): Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation and Microaggressions and Marginality: Manifestation, Dynamics and Impact. Both can be accessed through the John Wiley & Sons, publisher's website.
blogs will deal with questions such as: How do people of color cope
with the daily onslaught of racial microaggressions? Are some coping
strategies better than others? How do we help perpetrators to become
aware of microaggressions? What are the best ways to prevent them at an
individual, institutional and societal level? Do other socially
marginalized groups like women, LGBTs, those with disabilities, and religious
minorities experience microaggressions? In what ways are they similar
or different? Is it possible for any of us to be born and raised in the
United States without inheriting the racial, gender
and sexual orientation biases of our ancestors? Are you personally a
racist, sexist, or heterosexist? What is the best way for the average
U.S. citizen to overcome these biases?
The first step in
eliminating microaggressions is to make the "invisible" visible. I
realize how controversial topics of race and racism, gender and sexism
and sexual orientation and heterosexism push emotional hot buttons in
all of us. I am hopeful that our blogs will stimulate discussion,
debate, self reflection, and helpful dialogue directed at increasing
mutual respect and understanding of the multiple social identities we