Page 153 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Relationship of Implicit Bias to Microaggressions 127

participants in the study were not only less distressed about racist incidents,
but also less likely to take any action at all!
What, therefore, keeps Whites from acting against racism when they no
longer deny its existence within themselves and fellow Whites? Don ’ t these
insights demand action? Sue and Constantine (2007) summarize the over-

whelming insights that may flood the person at this level and provide a clue

of the forces that make change difficult. The magnitude of the change is so
overpowering that helplessness and hopelessness may ensue.

Most White Americans who come to this realization find the implications fright-

ening. It means seeing some family and friends in a different light; for example,
a favorite relative could engage in racist comments or jokes. It may mean real-
izing you may have been offered a job over a candidate of color because you had
the “ right ” (White) skin color and not because of your qualifications. It means

understanding how systemic societal forces produce segregation, allowing only
certain groups to purchase homes in affluent neighborhoods. It means knowing

that you participate in perpetuating segregated schools that dispense inferior
education to one group, but advantaged education to another. It means seeing
how your school uses biased curricula, textbooks, and materials that reaffi rm the
identity of one group while denigrating other groups. It means knowing that hir-
ing policies and practices that utilize the “ old boy ’ s network ” to recruit and hire
prospective employees work to your advantage.
To accept responsibility for combating racism and injustice means actions that
would forever change their lives because it means constant vigilance and action
against the forces of oppression. It means potentially alienating family, friends,
or colleagues when you confront them about their biases. It means risking their
position at work (not getting a promotion or being fired) by speaking up against

unfair employment practices. It means making new friends that include people
of color in an attempt to change their experiential reality. It means confronting
forces in our society that constantly attempt to have them move back to a stance
of denial, to once again enter into a conspiracy of silence and to maintain a na ï ve
posture. (Sue, 2005, pp. 141 – 142)

Each of these layers of awareness has their own unique challenges, but all
represent the herculean task of getting White Americans to understand rac-
ism. When seen from this perspective, it becomes clear why denial, anger,
defensiveness, guilt, and helplessness/hopelessness represent unpleasant
emotional roadblocks that prevent Whites from recognizing racial microag-
gressions. To do so changes their self - concept and shatters the false racial

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