Page 269 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Racial Dialogues in the Classroom 243

(Solorzano et al., 2000; Sue, Lin, et al., 2009). In many cases they are delivered
by White students and professors, either through a comment, tone of voice,
nonverbals, insinuations, or the content of the course (curriculum). The
microaggressions are found offensive by students of color, who may directly
or indirectly confront perpetrators who attempt to avoid the topic and/or
react defensively because they feel falsely accused of racism. While diffi cult
racial dialogues can be triggered by other causes, it seems that racial microag-
gressions are the most common and prevalent instigator. Some of the most
common racial microaggressions identified in the classroom are consistent

with the thematic ones found in other formulations and studies in general
(Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007; Sue, Capodilupo, Nadal, & Torino, 2008; Sue,
Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007). Examples in classroom situations for
four of them — “ ascription of intelligence, ” “ alien in one ’ s own land, ” “ denial
of racial reality, ” and “ assumption of criminality ” — are given below. The
following student quotes are taken from Sue, Lin, et al. (2009).

1. Ascription of intelligence — The following was reported by a Black
student about a classroom incident where a fellow classmate asked her a
question. She relates the following:

“ I started to explain, and the White girl said, ‘ Well, what she means is ’ — and she
tried to talk for me. That I don ’ t know what I ’ m talking about. I can ’ t even articu-
late my own, my own idea. And I had to tell her, I can speak for myself, I can
articulate my idea better than you can, you know? And only — I could not believe
that she tried to speak for me. ” (p. 186).
The Black student was outraged and insulted because the White student
assumed she was incapable of expressing her own ideas and wanted to do it
for her.
2. Alien in one ’ s own land — Although he did not show it, one Asian
American male expressed controlled rage at another White female student
because she assumed he could not speak or understand English well (per-
petual foreigner association).

“ But she looked at me and spoke extra slow, like to explain what the professor
had just said. And I was kind of like, okay. So when I spoke and I spoke in regu-
lar speech, she was kind of shocked . . . um, like wondering if I actually speak
English. ”
3. Denial of racial reality — The following classroom incidents were
reported to happen continually and would often trigger a diffi cult dialogue.

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