Page 122 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

96 microaggressive stress

visited upon them. Just like Jews who also suffer from a historical trauma
(the Holocaust), Japanese Americans remember their internment experience
during World War II, and African Americans remember their enslavement.
Thus to equate microaggressions with only everyday hassles may be an
inaccurate comparison.
In a revealing study exploring stressful life events and race - related stress,
the researchers found that the latter was a more powerful predictor of psycho-
logical distress than everyday hassles (Utsey et al., 2008). In other words,
racial microaggressions were more impactful, harmful, and distressing to
African Americans than ordinary stressful life events. This may be true for
several reasons: (1) microaggressions are symbols and reminders of racism,
sexism, and heterosexism; (2) microaggressions are continual and perpetual
while stressful life events are time - limited; (3) microaggressions impact
nearly all aspects of the target ’ s life — education, employment, social inter-
actions, and so forth; and (4) stressful life events have a recognizable cause
while microaggressions are often ambiguous and invisible. If this fi nding and
assumptions hold true for other marginalized groups, it means that qualitatively,
microaggressions occupy a class by themselves; they are more detrimental
for disempowered groups than ordinary life stressors. Further, it has been
found that people of color report experiencing discriminatory incidents at a
very high rate (being ignored, overlooked, not given service, treated rudely,
reacted to in a fearful manner, made fun of, taunted, called names, and
harassed) (Klonoff & Landrine, 1995; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996; Sellers &
Shelton, 2003). In other words, marginalized groups are not only exposed to
greater number of stressors, but also a more potent and powerful form than
those experienced by majority individuals. When one realizes that devalued
groups in our society not only contend with ordinary stressful life events but
must also cope with additional stressors associated with race, gender, and
sexual orientation, one can only conclude that they are being asked to endure
an inhuman amount of stress.

THE EFFECTS OF MICROAGGRESSIVE STRESS

Microaggressive stressors can be defined as race - related, gender - related, or

sexual - orientation - related events or situations that are experienced as a per-
ceived threat to one ’ s biological, cognitive, emotional, psychological, and social
well - being, or position in life. The effects and severity of microaggressive stressors

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