Page 148 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

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same socialization process, but there may not be a one - to - one correspondence
with one another. In other words, it is possible for someone to consciously
denounce racism, and believe they would never willingly discriminate against
others, but still harbor unconscious racist beliefs and attitudes. In one of the
fi rst studies to measure the development and change of implicit and explicit
racial attitudes over time, the investigators sampled three different age groups:
6 - year - olds, 10 - year - olds, and adults (Baron & Banaji, 2006). The 6 - year - old
age group was chosen because studies indicate that children between 3 and
6 years of age begin to form attitudes about specific social groups, and by age

5 usually have an adultlike concept of race (Aboud, 1988; Hirschfeld, 2001).
The investigators created a children ’ s version of the adult IAT and adminis-
tered it to the children. They found the following: (1) at age 6, implicit and
explicit race bias attitudes were relatively similar; (2) at age 10, a dissociation
began to occur between implicit and explicit race bias — explicit bias tends to
decrease, but implicit bias remains unchanged; and (3) at adulthood, explicit
bias dropped even further, but implicit bias remained unchanged.

These findings are extremely meaningful because they suggest that implicit
biases (pro - White and anti - Black attitudes) among all three age groups remained

constant, but that explicit biases were significantly decreased. Implicit racial
biases appear to be highly resistant to change, as indicated in another study
that explored the relationship between level of training, implicit bias, and cul-
tural competence (Boysen & Vogel, 2008). Boysen and Vogel studied the effects
of multicultural training on implicit bias associated with African Americans,
lesbians, and gay men. While multicultural competence increased with more
training, implicit biases toward these groups remained untouched!

These findings are extremely disturbing and indicate the “ nature of the
beast. ” Microaggressions reflect a worldview of inclusion – exclusion, and

superiority – inferiority at both the implicit and explicit levels. At the explicit
and conscious levels, we have made great strides in combating racism, sexism,
and heterosexism, but our task is daunting at the implicit level. To adequately
address implicit racial, gender, and sexual - orientation attitudes, however,
means to somehow understand the mindset of unintentional oppressors —
their psychological defenses and resistances.

Confronting Implicit Biases and Microaggressions

I was deeply troubled as I witnessed on a daily basis the detrimental effects of
institutional racism and oppression on ethnic - minority groups in this country.

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