The Latina/o students’ Coping with Racial Microaggressions theory is a theory grounded on participants’ experiences of racial microaggressions at a Hispanic Serving Institution. The theory is congruent with Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, due to the importance of appraisal in the context of coping with discrimination. Lazarus and Folkman noted that when encountered with a stressful event, individuals engage in primary and secondary appraisals of the event, and eventually engage in problem focused and emotion focused coping strategies. However, discrepant from Lazarus and Folkman’s model, the key component of the current theory is the extreme importance of context in the experience of discrimination and
discrimination. For instance, Maria explained that she has had a long journey of feeling confident in her racial identity and did not experience negative emotional reactions to her experiences of microaggressions. In addition, Silver also noted that he was secure in his ethnic identity and did not view discrimination as hurtful. Palm Tree also noted that she has become proud of her ethnic identity and did not experience negative emotional reactions to her experiences of racial microaggressions. Thus, it is possible that ethnic identity may have played a role in the emotional reactions experienced when encountered with microaggressions. Conversely, it is possible that different participants are at different places in their ethnic identity development
Three sociological perspectives used in the study of minorities are: Structural functionalism, symbolic interactionalism and conflict theory. These perspectives offer "theoretical paradigms" for explaining how society influences people, taking into account the social factors that impact on human behavior. However, different theories, ideas, and prejudices can influence a sociologist's conclusions. Each of these theories has a contribution to make with a distinct focus.
In recent years and in light of recent tragedies, police actions, specifically police brutality, has come into view of a large, public and rather critical eye. The power to take life rests in the final stage of the criminal justice system. However, the controversy lies where due process does not. While the use of deadly force is defined and limited by departmental policies, it remains an act guided chiefly by the judgment of individual officers in pressure situations. (Goldkamp 1976, 169). Many current studies have emphasized the racial disparities in minority deaths, primarily black Americans, killed by police through means of deadly force. The history of occurrences reveals the forlorn truth that police reforms only receive attention in wake of highly publicized episodes of police misconduct. The notorious 1992 Los Angeles riots brought the matter to mass public attention and prompted improved law enforcement policy. Significant local reforms resulted, for instance, ending the policy of lifetime terms for police chiefs. Additionally, on a broader platform, in 1994, Congress approved provisions to the Crime Control Act in effort to tackle police abuse in a more structured way.
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.
As freed black men escaped their captivity as being enslaved in the South, racial equality in society was not reciprocated by white Americans. Even though African Americans were away from the constraints of slavery, they held a lower social status and were racially inferior by their community. Racial hierarchies were not only imposed in society but also in the military during the Civil War. As the Civil War broke out between the Union and the Confederate, President Lincoln believed that an all-white army had the capability of fighting off the Confederate units and that this war would be swift. The war progressed and the Union soon realized that they needed more reinforcements which would come from the freed black men in the North. During the Civil War, black soldiers would challenge and reinforce the existing racial hierarchies because the dispute of manhood amongst races would be enforce by violence that deterred black men from challenging their social status.
In the article “Racial Microagressions in Everyday Life”, Derald Wing Sue and his colleagues highlight racial microagressions that occur in a therapeutic relationship. As defined in the article, microagressions are brief verbal, behavioral, or environmental actions that convey hostility, derogatory, or negativity towards a certain group of people. Microagressions can be subtle such as assuming an Asian American or Latin American is foreign born. It can also be obvious such as specifically going to an Asian person in a group of black and white students for help with a math or science problem. These actions can occur with or without intention of the person portraying the microagression.
Microaggressions are committed constantly, among numerous people without them realizing it. I must say I am completely guilty of also playing part in this act. These acts are done constantly and no one understands the affects it has on people. Miller and Garran (2008) states, “Racial microaggressions are similar to aversive racism. They are “subtle, stunning, often automatic,” verbal and nonverbal putdowns and social assaults that wound people of color unbeknownst to the perpetrator” (p.97). This is what produces pain and anger inside countless of people. Many individuals need professional help in order to surpass the neglect they have been summited to.
Over the past few decades, there have been a series of African Americans killed by law enforcement officers. Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, John Crawford III, Eric Garner and countless others. The aftermath: the officers who murdered the unarmed men have either been acquitted or there was no indictment. What happened in Ferguson is years, if not decades in the making. African Americans are simply tired of having to bury friends and family and discovering the officers, meant to protect the law and serve the people, are killing black lives and are almost always found not guilty.
The United States of America has become a police state. Racism, in America, is not dead, but rather revived and practiced through the criminal justice system; blacks were the main targets of police brutality and patrols. The prison system has been manipulated to put people of color in jail, more than whites. Hispanics, now, are also becoming targets of the American policing system. How can America change its policing strategies to being more just and fair? The United States should stop making racially biased legislation and patrol all neighborhoods equally. The legal system should implement punishments that do not create more criminals, but rather help rehabilitate those who are deemed criminals.
Studies have demonstrated that these feelings of frustration and anger as a result of experiencing racial microagressions are common among students of colors who attend colleges with a majority population that is white. The research suggests that Black college students experience race-related stress differently than general daily hassles associated with college. As a result Black students typically report higher levels of life events stress, like racial discrimination and financial stress,
When one is exposed on a daily basis to racial micro assalut it has psychological consequences. In a study examining harassement in the workplace conducted in four different facilites minority women were significantly
At the time I was 20 years old. Being underage I had of course bought liquor through someone older, and back then, due to the hurdles it took to obtain decent alcohol even a pack of Corona was regarded as a great drink. It was the kind of days where every party was a remake of the film Project X and you never knew who or what you would end up with at the end of the night. Needless to say, we were all young back then and saw the world as our oyster; it was up to us to pry it open with our own hands. As Wiz Khalifa put it, we were young, wild, and free. Looking back, it never crossed our minds that at the end of the night we would be a lot older, controlled, and oppressed.
Despite the prevalence of racial discrimination in higher education, not enough is known about Latina/o students’ experience with racial discrimination and racial microaggressions in higher education. The extant explorations of racial discrimination on university campuses have primarily focused on the experiences of White, African American and Asian American college students. The research that has examined Latina/o experiences of racial microaggressions in higher education has largely focused on non-HSIs. Consequently, it is imperative to understand the unique challenges of Latina/os in higher education, including how university racial climate and experiences with discrimination/oppression influence
This week article deals with keeping race in place with macroaggression’s and campus racial climate. Macroaggression can cause unnecessary stress to people of color. This article was written in 2002 were many people were still being affected by race and the way people perceive them to be like. The article states “We know that it causes stress, which has a great impact on the day to day lives of these students.” College is already stressful to the average college student therefore African Americans have twice the amount of stress on them to succeed.
The effects of racial microaggression are gaining more attention in both theory-based psychology literature, as well as empirically based applied research. The growth of awareness of the effects of racial microaggression is of utmost importance because these variegated communications of racial injustices were once thought to be incalculable. However, more research is being conducted and new facets of measurability of such racial microaggressions are being published and used as educational sources to understand racial microaggression and its effects on persons of color. The advancement of research on racial microaggressions is also a helpful resource to train White counselors to be more aware of their own expressions of racial microaggressions and how to eliminate such injustice towards their clients of color. While Sue et al. (2007) discuss the dynamics, need for awareness, and detrimental clinical effects of such microaggressions; Torres-Harding and Turner (2015) gathered data using the Racial Microaggression Scale (RMAS) distress subscales, “which measure the perceived