Counseling the Culturally Diverse. Laura Smith L.

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2012; Nadal, Griffin, Wong, Davidoff, & Davis, 2017).

      What makes the phenomenon of racial, gender and LGBTQ microaggressions particularly complex is that ambiguity and alternative explanations obscure the true meaning of the behavior not only for the person who engages in it, but also for the person on the receiving end.

      Microaggressions are “brief and commonplace daily verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults that potentially have a harmful or unpleasant psychological impact on the target person or group” (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007). They can also be delivered environmentally, as in the case of Melanie, through the physical surroundings of target groups, where they are made to feel unwelcome, isolated, unsafe, and alienated.

      The term “macroaggression” (Huber & Solorzano, 2015; Sue, Calle, Mendez, Alsaidi, & Glaeser, 2021) refers to systemic and institutional forms of discrimination that impact an entire class of individuals. They are said to reside in the policies, programs, practices, and structures of institutions that disadvantage or oppress socially devalued groups, while benefiting others. Some of them are codified into law such as the former travel ban on Muslim‐majority countries, the former Family Separation Policy, and new voter suppression laws. As explained by Sue et al. (2021), racial macroaggressions represent an overarching umbrella that validates, supports, and enforces the manifestation of individual acts of racial microaggressions.

      Based on the literature on subtle forms of oppression, one might conclude the following about microaggressions: they (a) tend to be subtle, unintentional, and indirect; (b) often occur in situations where there are alternative explanations; (c) represent unconscious and ingrained biased beliefs and attitudes; and (d) are more likely to occur when people pretend not to notice differences, thereby denying that race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or ability had anything to do with their actions (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007). Three types of microaggression have been identified: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation.

      MICROASSAULT

      MICROINSULT

      MICROINVALIDATION

      BY THE NUMBERS

      African Americans experience frequent microaggressions in their daily lives:

       32% of Black adults said people behaved as if they were “better than you.”

       27% of people acted as if they were afraid of them.

       23% of people acted as if Blacks were dishonest.

      With the rise in Anti‐Asian sentiment in the United States, the experience of microaggressions by this group has also increased.

       3,800 hate crimes were recorded against AAPI groups from March 2020–February 2021. Although hate crimes are not racial microaggressions, they are harbingers of implicit bias.

       31% of Asian Americans reported they were objects of racial slurs and jokes.

       64% believe the political rhetoric (reference to Covid‐19 as the Wuhan virus, China virus, and Kungflu) unmasked beliefs that AAPI groups are foreigners and blamed.

       67% of adults, and 47% of youth were concerned with their safety.

       Sources: Asian American Psychological Association (2021); Gallup Poll (2020).

      REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

      1 In looking at Table 4.1, can you identify how you may have committed microaggressions related to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or ability?

      2 Compile a list of possible microaggressions you may have committed. Explore the potential hidden messages they communicated to their recipients.

      3 What do your microaggressions tell you about your unconscious perception of marginalized groups?

      4 If microaggressions are mostly outside the level of conscious awareness, what must you do to make them visible? What steps must you take to personally stop microaggressions?

      5 What

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