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The Psychological Costs of Oppression (Microaggressions) to Perpetrators 129

of power acutely affects perceptual accuracy and diminishes reality testing.
In the corporate world, for example, women must attune to the feelings and
actions of their male colleagues in order to survive in a male culture. People
of color must be constantly vigilant to read the minds of their oppressors
lest they incur their wrath. Oppressors, however, do not need to understand
the thoughts, beliefs, or feelings of various marginalized groups to survive.
Oppressors do not have to account for their actions to those without power,
and they need not understand the marginalized groups to function effectively.
Therefore, it is not surprising to find that those who are most empowered

are least likely to have an accurate perception of reality (Keltner & Robinson,
1996). Thus, it is clear that racism serves as a clamp on the mind of many
White Americans, distorting their perception of reality. Their obliviousness
to racism, sexism, and heterosexism allows people to misperceive themselves
as superior and other groups as inferior; it allows oppressors to live in a false
reality.

Affective Costs of Oppression

As we have seen, when racism, sexism, or heterosexism is pushed into the
consciousness of oppressors, they are likely to experience a mix of strong and
powerful disruptive emotions. These intense feelings represent emotional
roadblocks to self - exploration and must be deconstructed if oppressors are
to continue in their journey to self - reckoning (Kiselica, 1998). Three especially
disturbing emotional costs are outlined below.
1. Fear, anxiety, and apprehension are common and powerful feelings that
arise when race, gender, or sexual - orientation related situations present them-
selves (Apfelbaum et al., 2008; Pinterits et al., 2009; Spanierman et al., 2009).
The fear may be directed at members of marginalized groups—that they are
dangerous, will do harm, are prone to violence, or contaminate the person
(catching AIDS). Thus, avoidance of certain group members and restrict-
ing interactions with them may be chosen. Fear of people of color has been
found to be related to lower racial awareness, fewer interracial friendships,
less openness to diversity, and many other negative features (Spanierman &
Heppner, 2004).
Fear of seeming racist (strategic color blindness) is another type of fear that
takes a toll because it fosters pretense and inauthenticity (Apfelbaum et al.,
2008; Spanierman, et al., 2009; Sue, 2003) in social interactions. In fact, there
are indications that color blindness as a means to manage impression forma-
tion fails miserably and has the opposite effect; it makes people appear more

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