Racial Discrimination : A Multicultural Nation

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

I have read and fully understand the article Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: the Implications for Clinical Practice. However, I must admit the article does not sit well with me and I have learned I have been a microaggressor since my early days; specifically, I have offered microinsults many times over without even realizing it. Through the years, I have thought of myself as one who consciously believes in equal rights for “all”; not just the American people, but people of all races across the entire globe. Granted, I have never

Microaggressions manifest in many ways such as, “You’re lucky that you're black”, “Don’t you wish you were white”, and “What are you”. These comments can be very insulting to a person. “Don’t you wish you were white” can be very insulting to an African American or Hispanic person. In other words, this example illustrates that the colored person is viewed down upon since they are not white. An African American is viewed down because they were slaves and since they are not white, whites are seen as rich and powerful. Sometimes a simple insult like, “You’re smart,” can offend a person without you knowing it. When someone says, “You’re smart,” people can start questioning themselves about their abilities and intelligence, but there is a way to respond.

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.

Do you ever believe that you have been a victim to a microaggression and there was nothing ever done about it? A victim of institutional racism that made you feel doleful and surly? Institutional racism happens a lot, but not as much as microaggressions, but a lot of people wonder why they get this type of vibe from white supremacist. These are the same people in the same country, with the same daily schedule but somehow they judge people based on their skin color. Some reason you aren’t allowed to lead this country if you are any other skin than white. There's a lot of racism in America, and a lot of people really wonder will the microaggressions, microinsults, the institutional racism will ever stop. People look at our president Donald J. Trump with his campaign of “Make America Great Again” does he mean the bad times for the African Americans? The bad times, for the Asian Americans? Do white people in general categorize all cultures/ ethnicities other than white as minorities? There are two articles that come together, to grow on this idea, to answer the questions above and to explain in full detail. Both of these articles, compare on what and how plenty of “minorities” feel in America. The speech essay “Analyzing Some Thoughts On Mercy” and the argumentative essay “6 Reasons We Need to Dismantle the Model Minority Myth of Those ‘Hard-Working ‘ Asians” by Ross Gay and Rachel Kuo deal with the problem with racism shown by white supremacy. Through these texts the

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.

From the reading “Racial Formation in the United States” Racial formation is the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed and destroyed. Micro-racial formation: To see micro-racial projects operating at the levels of everyday life, we have only to examine the ways in which, often unconsciously we “notice” race. One of the first things we notice about people when we meet them (along with their sex) is their race. Our ability to interpret racial meanings depends on preconceived of a racialized social structure e.g. Afro patois, the unending faux pas committed

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

“Microaggressions are little phrases that sugarcoat or enhance stereotypes,” said Thalia Mercado, senior mathematics major.

Almost everyone has heard the famous hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” but not all understand the true meaning when it says, “Red, and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The moment sin entered into the world, perfection no longer existed. This loss of perfection changed the way humans viewed each other. It made one ethnicity view another ethnicity as inferior, and in doing so, created what people now know of as racism. For centuries, racism has been a part of society, shaping the way humans view each other, but with the aid of Young Women 's Christian Association (YWCA) - Stand Against Racism, racial discrimination and injustice can be eliminated.

Microaggression is a statement or action that is indirect and/or subtle that discriminates an ethnic minority. While micro-invalidation is a subset of microaggression that excludes a person's thoughts or feelings. After hearing my guidance counselor say those things to me, my confidence was slightly shaken. I left his office feeling like I wasn't good enough to take a simple math class and mostly annoyed I had to go through this in the first place. To make matters worse my peer who was also in the same boat as me was picking out classes. He wasn't on the advanced math track he never had taken an AP class before and all around was an okay student but he was able to easily sign up for AP calculus because our guidance counselor thought it would be a nice challenge for him. A challenge for him but too hard for me, I couldn't believe that this was actually happening to

Racial Microaggression can be lead back to our country's heinous history of slavery. One writer explains a situation when she was waiting to board the New York City subway, as the doors open a “young white male” exited the train wearing a shirt that said “If we had known it was going to be this much trouble, we would have picked the cotton ourselves.” The writer then says “As a young black woman, you can imagine my total offense to his shirt and the message he sent to anybody and everybody who could read.” Another writer explains how she who is of color and her mother who is white were at Target. Her mother was approached by a white male “as if I was trying to take something from her”. In addition to slavery many more common practices have

The problem of defining the line between individual and institutionally racist behaviour is encountered due to the fact that the working of the institution is encountered as actions performed by individuals within it, therefore making it difficult to defer between the two. Macpherson struggled in many respects in showing that racism he identifies is institutional as opposed to individual.

In the article “College students confront subtler forms of bias: slights and snubs”, by Teresa Watanabe and Jason Song, published by Los Angeles Times (November 12,2015) talks about “microaggression” and “victimhood culture”. Microaggression is verbal, nonverbal and environmental slights that communicate hostile towards others by their characteristics (race/beliefs). Watanabe and Song shows us that we have an increase of attention to microaggression in our society today. In my opinion, there has been a dramatic increase of microaggression today. However, it can also be part of victimhood culture.

Discrimination comes in many forms. Discrimination and diversity are closely linked considering the reasons behind discrimination are what makes up the definition of diversity. Not only is discrimination made against gender, race, and religion, but it is also made of age, disabilities, appearance and in a lot of cases, women who are pregnant too. This is very much a reality for many employers. There are laws protecting acts of discrimination. This topic is so sensitive, that many employers implement diversity and discrimination into their mission statements. Many companies make it their practice to host training sessions to prevent discrimination from happening, then there are many companies who can’t afford such training for their