Page 11 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation
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Foreword
I feel deeply honored to write this Foreword to Derald Wing Sue ’ s
Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation . Before
I comment on the book itself, I want to provide some context for absorbing the
text by discussing your author, Dr. Derald Wing Sue.
Dr. Sue has been a role model and mentor to me and hundreds of mental
health professionals engaged in multicultural counseling and research. For
this reason, I was personally touched to receive his invitation to prepare this
brief Foreword. It is fair to say that Dr. Sue is the most often cited and quoted
scholar in the field of multicultural counseling. Moreover, his scholarly
impact extends beyond the counseling field, as he has had a profound impact
in clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, social justice, political science,
and education. Furthermore, Dr. Sue ’ s impact has reached far beyond North
American borders, particularly to Europe and Asia, and some of his classic
works of scholarship (e.g., Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice
[Sue & Sue, 2008]) have been translated into multiple languages.
A number of aspects of Dr. Sue ’ s life and career have promoted his global
status as a “ legend in the field. ” Chief among these is that his own personal
processing of life and career experiences have markedly informed his past
and this current work, and have imbued his positions with logic, validity, and
credibility. A few thoughts that I seem to always have in mind when I
am reading and processing Dr. Sue ’ s work (i.e., this new book, and recently,
Counseling the Culturally Diverse [Sue & Sue, 2008] and Overcoming Our Racism:
The Journey to Liberation [Sue, 2003]) are reflected in the following points:
1. There is a marked synergy between Dr. Sue as a scholar and author and as
an individual, authentic person. For example, one definable characteristic of his
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