Page 117 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Microaggressions and Daily Hassles 91

confl icts using specific strategies and/or inner resources. If coping, however, is
ineffective, the person enters into the decompensated adjustment phase, which
is marked by withdrawal, depression, guilt, apathy, anxiety, anger, and any
number of physical illnesses. Likewise, unsuccessful or ineffective means of
coping with microaggressions may lead to a lowered sense of well - being,
heightened physiological reactivity with biological consequences, and psycho-
logical problems.
While these two models of stress and coping (GAS and CDM) appear simi-

lar to the five - phase process model of microaggressions described in the last
chapter, the stressors studied by researchers such as Selye and De La Fuente
have generally concentrated on extreme psychological or physical trauma
(natural disasters, robberies, murders, automobile accidents, terrorist attacks,
airplane crashes, etc.) outside ordinary human experience. Indeed, acute stress
disorders (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) are described
in DSM - IV - TR as having to meet certain criteria: threat of possible death
or injury, and likely to induce intense fear or horror (American Psychiatric
Association, 2000). Racism, sexism, and homophobia in the form of violence,
hate crimes, and rape clearly fulfill these criteria. Women are more likely

than men to suffer from a stress disorder because of their greater exposure to
violent interpersonal situations (Cortina & Kubiak, 2006; National Institute
of Mental Health, 2007) and rape is clearly associated with extreme trauma.
Immediately following a sexual assault, for example, one study found that
74% of the victims met criteria for ASD; and after three months, 35% met the
criteria for PTSD (Valentiner, Foa, Riggs, & Gershuny, 1996).
Yet, the question remains as to whether microaggressions in the form of
insults and invalidations are sufficiently stressful to produce psychological

and physical harm to targets. Are critics correct when they claim people of
color are making a mountain out of a molehill and that these small, petty
humiliations indicate that minorities should simply “ suck it up ” and not
make a big deal of them (Schacht, 2008; Thomas, 2008)? The impact of rape,
they may contend, is not comparable to that of sexual objectification. Or is it?

MICROAGGRESSIONS AND DAILY HASSLES

In the last chapter, we outlined a five-phase process dealing with how mar-
ginalized groups perceive, interpret, and respond to microaggressions:

incident → perception → reaction → interpretation → consequence. The

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