Microaggressions

Microaggressions are short, often subtle, statements or actions that disparage others based on their background, appearance, personal characteristics, or perceived association with a marginalized group (Harrison & Tanner, 2018). Professor Ibram X. Kendi emphasizes that there is nothing ‘micro’ about these actions and thus prefers the term ‘abuse’ as being more descriptive of the “distress, anger, worry, depression, anxiety, pain, fatigue, and suicide” that is being experienced. When people speak negatively about students’ identities it can elevate their levels of stress and anxiety and can make them feel unwelcome (Harrison & Tanner, 2018).  In his seminal book “How to Be Antiracist” Professor Ibram X. Kendi emphasizes that there is nothing ‘micro’ about these actions and thus prefers the term ‘abuse’ as being more descriptive of the “distress, anger, worry, depression, anxiety, pain, fatigue, and suicide” that is being experienced (Kendi, 2019). Microaggressions are usually verbal, but they can also take on many nonverbal forms expressed through actions or body language. Non-verbal forms of microaggressions could include sitting as far as possible from minorities or securing your wallet, purse, or backpack when a person of color enters the classroom.

Microaggressions can be broadly divided into three types: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations (Sue, 2010). Microassaults occur when an individual deliberately expresses biased attitudes, beliefs or behaviors about marginalized groups. In contrast, the perpetrator of microinsults unconsciously expresses rudeness, insensitivity, or stereotypes towards a person’s identity. Microinvalidations occur when an individual seeks to dismiss or negate the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of certain groups in ways that suggest that the perpetrator understands another person’s feelings and experiences better than the affected person does. Instructors who practice colorblindness and attempt to ‘not see color’ can inadvertently commit microinvalidations when they deny that race is having an effect in the class. Microinvalidations are likely to be even more damaging when they come from someone from within the very group being targeted (e.g., a female student telling her classmates that “girls just are not good at math”) (Harrison & Tanner, 2018).

Frequent microaggressions can cause harm to a student’s success and sense of wellbeing. They can be very distracting and take lots of cognitive effort as students attempt to 1) determine whether a microaggression has in fact occurred and 2) whether and how they should respond. Aside from being a stressful situation, microaggressions can also trigger stereotype threat (Harrison & Tanner, 2018).