Page 14 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

xii foreword

reading Microaggressions in Everyday Life, my sensations and feelings were in

my stomach — I could feel anger and frustration at the myriad injustices being
unveiled by Dr. Sue ’ s careful dialogic deconstruction; I felt guilt as I realized
how I have and continue to microaggress against others. When reading the
many real-life vignettes and scenarios throughout each chapter, I had a sense
of verisimilitude; that is, I felt as if I were in the vignette seeing what was
happening, while also now understanding what was happening and knowing
what the destructive impact would be.
3. Validity and Credibility . These terms are used in quantitative and qualitative
research, respectively, to describe the accuracy, interpretability, and substantive
nature of empirical inquiry. Impressively, each chapter in this new text is marked
by high levels of validity and credibility as Dr. Sue integrates a varied interdis-
ciplinary body of research with the results of his own mixed methods research
program to arrive at a model for understanding and intervening in daily micro-
aggressions. A particular strength of this new book is the inclusion of direct
quotes, dialogues, and mini – case studies in each chapter that serve to give voice
to those regularly subjected to microaggressions and shed light on the thinking
and behavior of the majority of us who perpetuate daily microaggressions.
Dr. Sue does a clear and crisp job in first presenting the dialogue, quotes,

or case study, and then logically deconstructing and analyzing the material
so that readers can vividly see what microaggressions are, how they operate,
the prejudicial thinking that powers them, and the spoken words and subtle
behaviors that operationalize the aggressions.
4. Conceptual and Theoretical Understanding . Dr. Sue ’ s mastery of a wide and
interdisciplinary body of theoretical writing and empirical research on racism
and oppression is almost impossible to comprehend. He has been able to inte-
grate and subsume multiple theoretical models and bodies of research into his
overarching theory of microaggressions. Rather than add his own piece to the
puzzle of understanding oppression, he has completed the puzzle through
his comprehensive outline of microaggressions in everyday life.
Groundbreaking and integrative theoretical advances in this new work include
Dr. Sue ’ s Taxonomy for Understanding Microaggressions — microassaults
(conscious), microinsults (unconscious), and microinvalidations (uncon-
scious) — as well as his five - phase model for deconstructing the microaggres-

sion process: experiencing the incident → attributing the aggressor ’ s intent
→ immediate cognitive, behavioral, and emotive reaction to the incident →
interpreting and processing the incident and reaction → consequences of and
consideration in coping with the microaggression. Through his systematically

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