The Ideology Of Racial Microaggressions Essay

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

Slurs of racism to suggest that one group is superior will not be mentioned, but the undermining of other groups through various systemic practices of standards by visual/verbal rhetoric will be discussed.

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.

I guess what I gathered most about the article is that microaggression is extremely detrimental to the counseling setting and occurs quite often. Although usually unintentional and unrealized, white therapists are often guilty of microagressions. When this occurs, therapy becomes ineffective and leads to non self-disclosure of the client, early termination of therapy, and failure of the client to return for future appointments. This is because the clients lose trust in their therapists and feel misunderstood and undervalued.

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.

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

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.

In the society we know today, we often believe that it has evolved above racism and all have grown to look past race and see someone only as the person they are. However, in a society where racist messages have institutionalized themselves to the underlying morals of its inhabitants, there is no logic in believing in this archetype of society. Existing since the 1970s when coined by Chester M. Pierce, the term micoaggressions went through serious refining at the hands of Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., professor of counseling psychology at Colombia University. He has solidified the definition of microaggressions as “…brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that

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.

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

Race relations are an ever prominent issue in American society. Controversies focusing around race are a commonly seen smeared across the front page of the newspaper or headlining on the evening news. The opposition is usually between a minority group and "The Man," a colloquialism used by many Blacks to refer to the overwhelming power stemming from white racist tendencies. This racial tension can sometimes can cause the oppressed to band together against the oppressor. Many times, the most prevalent link is between the African American community and the Latino community. Here we find two groups of people with very similar lifestyles who find camaraderie between themselves when dealing

Racism should also be closely examined as it is perceived as the acceptable norm in the society. The book shows that sometimes it may take ridiculous forms such as refusing to serve ice-cream to a Black family or suddenly dismissing a worker after learning that she was Black and not Hispanic. The author portraits the bigotry of the people who blindly follow the norms.

Throughout this course we have learned about many things, one in particular would be Racism. We have learned about many different types of racism along with examples of racism. Before I go into specific examples of racism that I have learn about in this class, I will first define and explain the differences between racism, prejudice or also known as bias, discrimination, race, and racist so there 's a clear understanding of why I picked the specific examples. The definition of racism that we learned in class would be an “Institutionalized system with disproportionate unjust outcomes for a particular race”. Prejudice or also known as bias was defined as “A negative feeling, opinion, or attitude toward a certain category or people” this would be an feeling with no action acted upon, where discrimination is defined as “Action or inaction toward a category of people” which would be acting on the negative feelings or opinions of a certain group. The definition for race is a “Social construct, but a lived reality” while a racist is “Discrimination based on the category of race”. (Disadvantage privilege notes, 2016)