Negative Effects Of Microaggression

I have received racial microaggressions from both Caucasians and other minority groups. Unfortunately, I have experienced unintended and intended racial slights because of people’s ignorance as well as a lack of understanding that skin pigmentation does not define one’s ethnicity. I identified as an Afro-Latina because of my family’s birthplace and roots, which trace back to West Africa. When whites and other minorities asked, what is my race/ ethnicity my response is that “I am Afro-Latina.” When they hear my answer, I am confronted with disbelief in their face. Others without asking, touch my hair and refer to it as “good.” In my opinion, it is the daily care and products that produce unhealthy or healthy hair, not your race or ethnic origin. Additional racial micro-aggressive remarks include, “No, where are you really from?”, “What are you?”, “How come you speak Spanish?”, and “It is impossible for you to be Central American because you are too dark.” My response to the last statement is, “Black people created humanity, and because of that reason it is possible for us to live in the world’s most remote

In today’s society curse words and insults are used in many people’s regular vocabulary. Most of these insults, if not all, are being said without prior knowledge of the meaning behind the word. An example of an insult like this is porch monkey, a derogatory term for African Americans. The people that use derogatory terms like this are often ill-informed and unaccepting of other cultures.

But [she] didn’t ‘hear’ it until it was said by a small pair of lips that had already learned it could be a way to humiliate [her]” (Naylor, 411). This not only supports the fact that the boy had been taught or heard this word by someone older like a parent, but it is also sad that a nine-year-old had to be taught that such a nasty, ugly word was created to make her and people like her feel ashamed and embarrassed to be black, or that are worth less as human beings, which is absolutely false. That is why slurs are created though, to make groups of people feel less “human”. This essay explored the most infamous slur against the black community. The fact that slurs like this are prevalent in today's society is extremely upsetting and wrong. There are plenty of racial slurs that are so casually used today, it makes one's stomach ache in distress. Ableist slurs are even less reprimanded, a high school student walking through the hall will hear the r-word too many times to count during the course of a day. Just as commonly used are homophobic and anti-LGBT slurs. A high school student will hear the f-slur and the q-slur plenty of times, and even more will “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” be whipped from the mouth of students without a second thought. It’s disheartening.

I consider myself one who holds morals and values at the forefront; and my friends, regardless of race, know this about me. If you were to ask my Venezuelan friend if I offended her, I can guarantee you she would say, “not at all”. However, I do not deny that if another white person would have made the same inquiry as to her cultural background, the results could have been significantly different in that she could have taken offense (although I don’t believe she would because she is one of the most open-minded person I know). The bottom line, though, is that I did not offend her because of who I am, what I stand for, and what I believe in. The article, then, really agitates me as it seems to stereotype all whites as microaggresors. As a matter of fact, I found it very difficult to actually tune-in and absorb the material.

This paper serves as a personal reflection of the implication of racial microaggressions in daily life. Three journal articles and a book chapter are explored in an effort to obtain a greater understanding of the effects of racial microaggressions experienced by people of color and to bring light to how often racial microaggressions are committed by White Americans without notice or accompanied by attempts to explain away the offenses. The sources used provide examples of obvious acts of discrimination as well as subtle microaggressions which are often unconsciously or naively perpetrated and go on to offer recommendations for professional counselors in order to both provide a framework for helping clients of color to cope with encounters of microaggressions and highlight the need of awareness of possible racial microaggressions present during counselor-client interactions which may result in negative impacts on the therapeutic process. Racial microaggressions are broken down into subcategories of microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations, providing a deeper explanation of my own experiences with such discriminatory actions. This ultimately leads to a decision of continuation of training with a necessary focus on increasing mindfulness and field experiences in respect to the subject of racial microaggressive behaviors and attitudes.

This made me perceive myself as if I were subordinate or not enough, later on I found out that was not it; but for a while that was my battle. Daniel Munczek Edelman in his short academic journal also writes about the fear his mother had of him being different and not being able to speak the language (English), “My immigrant mother freaked out when I couldn't speak English at the beginning of nursery school.” (Edelman 59.40). His mother knew how hard it would be for him not knowing the language, how the difference of his culture would and could affect him. This article was written in two-thousand thirteen, it is a recent article proving that the differences in cultures are still relevant. His anecdote is essential because he gives background to what goes on in the differences of culture and examples of how culture has perceptions and how it can shape oneself. “My boss, half African-American and half white herself, jokingly called me "half-caste," insisting that I would one day admit that I wasn't totally white.” (Edelman 59.40) This justifies my point that the way we look does have an influence on the way others view “us”. Daniel Munczek Edelman’s boss did joke about his ethnicity because of the way he looked, he didn’t totally look like his other ethnicities and didn’t really involve himself

An example of a microassault would be intentionally serving a Caucasian family at a restaurant first before serving an African American family (Neville, Spanierman, & Lewis, 2012). Microinsults are depicted by communications that express insensitivity and rudeness. They also disgrace an individual’s racial heritage. Microinsults comprise of insensitive comments that are made on the basis of a range of racial assumptions about citizenship, intelligence, criminality, and cultural values and aesthetics. While microinsults are subtle insults that are unknown to the perpetrator, they communicate a hidden insulting message to the recipient. The context of what is communicated is very important. Microinsults can be communicated nonverbally. An example of a microinsult would be when an employee asking a coworker of color how they got their job, suggesting that they only got the job because they needed a minority in the group (Neville, Spanierman, & Lewis, 2012). The last form of microaggressions, microinvalidation are communications that negate or minimize the racialized experiences of people of

Speech is often associate with race because some individuals believe that if the person does not sound “educated” enough the person comes from a lower class and was brought up in the so called “ghettos” and this association is often made towards someone that forms part of a minority group. The author illustrates that race is tight up with speech

o) Insolence, putting on airs: blacks didn’t move out of way of whites and didn’t answer to the basic names given

They can tend to convey rudeness and insensitivity. Even the most well intentioned person can let out some sort of microaggression, being unaware that their conduct was harmful. Unfortunately a lot of microagression is conscious in the intention to oppress people not similar to them. Microassaults are intentional aggressive actions that involve race such as denying ones children to date someone of a different race. Lastly there is microinvalidation, where one excludes a persons thoughts or feelings, such as colorblindness, to the disregard of the characteristics of race. The process of microgression is order of five phases. Phase one, the incident, is where the participant experiences the situation. Phase two, the perception is when the participant has the belief whether the situation was racial or not. Phase three, the reaction, is where they respond to the situation. Then there is phase four where the participant interprets the meaning. Lastly is phase five, consequence, where behavior or thought processes happen over time as an outcome of the situation.

Microaggressions have been further generalized under a category of racism identified as aversive racism, where discriminating parties tend to find security by associating with those similar to them, thus marginalizing other parties. While working with his colleagues, Sue further categorized microaggressions into three different divisions: microassaults, microinsult, and microinvalidation. This further categorization has let those guilty of using microaggressions how they have the negative effect that they do.

You may not know any bigots, you think “I don’t hate black people, so I’m not racist”, but you benefit from racism. There are certain privileges and opportunities you have that you do not even realize because you have not been deprived in certain ways. Racism, institutional and otherwise, does not always manifest itself in a way that makes it readily identifiable to onlookers, victims, or perpetrators; it is not always the outward aggression typically associated with being a hate crime. Racial microaggressions are a type of perceived racism. They are more subtle and ambiguous than the more hostile or overt expressions of racism, such as racial discrimination (CITE). Microaggressions are everyday verbal, visual, or environmental

For instance, the meaning of racial microaggression is brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards people of

However, the historical significance of the word nigger is deeply rooted in American History. For example, Kennedy’s book presents historical examples of nigger in its most pejorative context: “Michael Jordan was suspended from school for hitting a white girl who called him a nigger” and “Tiger Woods was tied up in kindergarten by his older schoolmates who called him nigger” (Kennedy 22). It is precisely because of this history that many African Americans are in favor of banning the word from the English language. Although the historical significance of the word nigger often triggers deep-rooted hostility in the African Americans, it has also progressively evolved into a term of endearment in the modern day African American culture. Consequently, a fine line exists between past and present definitions of the word nigger that opens up the possibility of misinterpretation and the potential of further damage.

A time that I was a recipient of a microaggression was about a month ago, I was in the store called Just Save. I was in need of a bagged rice and potatoes. So i grabbed my items and I was waiting in the checkout line which was out of this world long. And there was only one register open. And I was just wishing that someone would open up another line because people had buggies full of items and I only had to two things. However, my wish came true this and a older white lady open up register number 6. Before, I got out of the line I made sure she flicked her light on, which is confirmation that she is open. once , her light was on I jetted to her line and was the third person in line 6. In front of me was a white man, then a white lady with her 2 kids.