Page 294 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

268 microaggressive impact on mental health practice

• Publication of The Bell Curve by Hernstein and Murray in 1994 set off
a firestorm of controversy concerning recommendations that allocation

of funds to Head Start and Affirmative Action did little good because
intelligence was inherited. Instead, such funds should go to White

Americans who could profit from increased enrichment.

While many of these beliefs are now recognized as falsehoods and stere-
otypes on a cognitive and rational level, a number of surveys continue to
reveal that many White Americans continue to hold such beliefs in varying
forms. Frighteningly, approximately 20% of Whites expressed public beliefs
that Blacks are innately inferior in thinking ability and that they have thicker
craniums (Plous & Williams, 1995). It is disturbing to think about how many
Whites privately hold such beliefs and how many well - intentioned people
may be unaware that they hold them.

UNDERUTILIZATION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
AND PREMATURE TERMINATION

Given the historical and continuing embeddedness of bias and prejudice that
reside in most helping professionals, we can ask the question, “ How do expe-
riences of microaggressions with their accompanying feelings of invalidation,
insult, denigration, and disrespect impact clients of color, or those contemplating
seeking help? ” In a series of groundbreaking studies on the utilization of
mental health services by American Indians, Asian Americans, Blacks, and
Hispanics, it was found that (1) all four groups of color underutilized traditional
mental health services and (2) they terminated after only one contact with the
therapist at a rate of over 50% in comparison to a 30% rate for White clients
(S. Sue, Allen, & Conaway, 1975; S. Sue et al., 1974; S. Sue & McKinney, 1975).
While there are variations and differences in other studies (public vs. private
services, types of problems presented, etc.), these findings are supported

by more recent ones as well (Barnes, 1994; Burkard & Knox, 2004; Kearney,
Draper, & Baron, 2005; S. Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, & Zane, 1991).

Underutilization
A number of reasons have been proposed for why people of color are less
likely to utilize mental health services. First, people of color may perceive
mental health providers as lacking in understanding of their lifestyles and
experiences and unable to relate to them (Sue & Sue, 2008). This perception

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