Microaggressions Addressed

MICROAGGRESSIONS

On this page, we will cover:

  1. What Are Microagressions?
  2. What Messages Do Microaggressions Send?
  3. What Feelings Come Up For You When You Experience or Witness a Microaggression?
  4. How Can I Respond to Microaggressions?
  5. How Can I Learn More?
  6. Resources

 

What are Microaggressions?

"Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” 

— Derald Wing Sue, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, 2010.

"Micro" in microaggression doesn't mean small or insignificant. Instead it speaks to the level at which the offense takes place—at the micro level, between individuals vs. at the macro or system level.

What Messages Do Microaggressions Send?

The first step in addressing microaggressions is to recognize when a microaggression has occurred and what message it may be sending. Below are common themes to which microaggressions attach.

Common Themes and Examples of Microaggressions

THEMES

MICROAGGRESSION

MESSAGE

Pathologizing Cultural Values/Communication Styles
The notion that the values and communication styles of the dominant/White culture are ideal/”normal.”

  • To an Asian, Latino or Native American: “Why are you so quiet? We want to know what you think. Be more verbal.” “Speak up more.”

  • Asking a Black person: “Why do you have to be so loud/animated? Just calm down.”

  • “Why are you always angry?” anytime race is brought up in the classroom discussion.

  • Dismissing an individual who brings up race/culture in work/school setting.

Assimilate to dominant culture.

Leave your cultural baggage outside.

There is no room for difference.

Second-Class Citizen
Occurs when a target group member receives differential treatment from the power group; for example, a White person being given preferential treatment as a consumer over a person of color.

  • Faculty of color mistaken for a service worker.

  • Not wanting to sit by someone because of their color.

  • Female doctor mistaken for a nurse.

  • Being ignored at a store counter as attention is given to the White customer.

  • Saying “You people...”

  • An advisor assigns a Black post-doctoral student to escort a visiting scientist of the same race even though there are other non-Black scientists in this person’s specific area of research.

  • An advisor sends an email to another work colleague describing another individual as a “good Black scientist.”

  • Raising your voice or speaking slowly when addressing a blind student.

  • In class, an instructor tends to call on male students more frequently than female ones.

People of color are servants to Whites. They couldn’t possibly occupy high status positions.

Women occupy nurturing positions.

Whites are more valued customers than people of color.

You don’t belong. You are a lesser being.

A person with a disability is defined as lesser in all aspects of physical and mental functioning.

The contributions of female students are less worthy than the contributions of male students.

Sexist/Heterosexist Language
Terms that exclude or degrade women and LGBTQ+ persons.

  • Use of the pronoun “he” to refer to all people.

  • Being constantly reminded by a coworker that “we are only women.”

  • Being forced to choose Male or Female when completing basic forms.

  • Two options for relationship status: married or single.

  • A heterosexual man who often hangs out with his female friends more than his male friends is labeled as gay.

Male experience is universal. Female experience is invisible.

LGBTQ+ categories are not recognized.

LGBTQ+ partnerships are invisible.

Men who do not fit male stereotypes are inferior.

Traditional Gender Role Prejudicing and Stereotyping
Occurs when expectations of traditional roles or stereotypes are conveyed.
  • When a female student asks a male professor for extra help on an engineering assignment, he asks “What do you need to work on this for anyway?”
  • “You’re a girl, you don’t have to be good at math.”
  • A person asks a woman her age and, upon hearing she is 31, looks quickly at her ring finger.
  • An advisor asks a female student if she is planning on having children while in postdoctoral training.
  • Shows surprise when a feminine woman turns out to be a lesbian.
  • Labeling an assertive female committee chair/dean as a “b____,” while describing a male counterpart as a “forceful leader.”

Women are less capable in math and science.

Women should be married during child-bearing ages (because that is their primary purpose).

Women are out of line when they are aggressive.

Alien in One’s Own Land
When Asian Americans, Latino Americans and others who look different or are named differently from the dominant culture are assumed to be foreign-born

  • “Where are you from or where were you born?”

  • “You speak English very well.”

  • “What are you? You’re so interesting looking!”

  • A person asking an Asian American or Latino American to teach them words in their native language.

  • Continuing to mispronounce the names of students after students have corrected the person time and time again. Not willing to listen closely and learn the pronunciation of a non-English based name.

You are not a true American.

You are a perpetual foreigner in your own country.

Your ethnic/racial identity makes you exotic.

Ascription of Intelligence

Assigning intelligence to a person based on their race/gender

  • “You are a credit to your race.”

  • “Wow! How did you become so good in math?”

  • To an Asian person, “You must be good in math, can you help me with this problem?”

  • To a woman of color: “I would have never guessed that you were a scientist.”

People of color are generally not as intelligent as Whites.

All Asians are intelligent and good in math/science.

It is unusual for a woman to have strong mathematical skills.

Color Blindness
Statements that indicate that a White person does not want to or need to acknowledge race.

  • “When I look at you, I don’t see color.”

  • “There is only one race, the human race.”

  • “America is a melting pot.”

  • “I don’t believe in race.”

Assimilate to the dominant culture.

Denying the significance of a person of color’s racial/ethnic experience and history.

Denying the individual as a racial/cultural being.

Denying the experiences of students by questioning the credibility/validity of their stories.

Criminality/Assumption of Criminal Status
A person of color is presumed to be dangerous, criminal, or deviant based on their race.

  • A White man or woman clutches their purse or checks their wallet as a Black or Latino person approaches.

  • A store owner following a customer of color around the store.

  • Someone crosses to the other side of the street to avoid a person of color.

  • While walking through the halls of the Chemistry building, a professor approaches a post-doctoral student of color to ask if they are lost, making the assumption that the person is trying to break into one of the labs.

You are a criminal.

You are going to steal/you are poor, you do not belong.

You are dangerous.

Denial of Individual Racism/Sexism/Heterosexism
A statement made when bias is denied.
  • “I’m not racist. I have several Black friends.”
  • “As a woman, I know what you go through as a racial minority.”
  • To a person of color: “Are you sure you were being followed in the store? I can’t believe it.”

I could never be racist because I have friends of color.

Your racial oppression is no different than my gender oppression. I can’t be a racist. I’m like you.

Denying the personal experience of individuals who experience bias.

Myth of Meritocracy
Statements which assert that race
or gender does not play a role in life successes, for example in
issues like faculty demographics.
  • “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
  • “Of course he’ll get tenure, even though he hasn’t published much—he’s Black!”
  • “Men and women have equal opportunities for achievement.”

  • “Gender plays no part in who we hire.”

  • “America is the land of opportunity.”

  • “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.”

  • “Affirmative action is racist.”

People of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race.

The playing field is even so if women cannot make it, the problem is with them.

People of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder.

*Table adapted from Sue, D. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender and sexual orientation. Wiley & Sons.

What Feelings Come Up For You When You Experience or Witness a Microaggression?

Recognizing that many of the experiences people in this video share may resonate with you on a personal level, we'd like to invite you to watch this 4-minute and 34-second video in which Pacific Lutheran University students, faculty, and staff share their experiences with microaggressions in higher education.

After watching the video, please take a moment to reflect on the feelings that came up for you.



How Can I Respond to Microaggressions?

Your response to a microaggression will vary by situation, context, and positionality, and in FacDev we offer a number of frameworks for you to consider. Here, we share one framework aimed at responding to a microaggression in a way that opens the door for conversation and learning to happen.  Dr. Diane Goodman points out that “if we want people to hear what we’re saying and potentially change their behavior, we have to think about things that will not immediately make them defensive" (Yoon 2020).  The three tactics below from Dr. Goodman's list of prepared statements convey that the aggressor is not under attack for their comment, and therefore may pave the way for learning to happen.

Ask for more clarification

“Could you say more about what you mean by that?”

“How have you come to think that?”

Separate intent from impact

“I know you didn’t realize this, but when you __________ (comment/behavior), it was hurtful/offensive because___________. Instead you could___________ (different language or behavior.)”

Share your own process

“I noticed that you ___________ (comment/behavior). I used to do/say that too, but then I learned____________.”

How Can I Learn More?

Please visit the FacDev Programming page to learn about opportunities to take a deeper dive in to navigating microaggressions.

Resources

Goodman, D. (n.d.). Publications: Responding to microaggressions and bias Links to an external site.. Diane Goodman Consulting. Retrieved November 25, 2022.

Pierce, C. (1970). Offensive mechanisms. In Barbour, F. B. (Ed.), The Black seventies (pp. 265–282). Boston, MA: Porter Sargent.

Pierce, C. M. (1974). Psychiatric problems of the Black minority. In Arieti, S. (Ed.), American handbook of psychiatry (pp. 512–523). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Sue, D. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender and sexual orientation. Wiley & Sons. 

Yoon, H. (2020, March 3). How to respond to microaggressions Links to an external site.. New York Times.