Page 36 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

10 racial, gender, and sexual-orientation microaggressions

African American psychologist, in the late 1970s produced the first edition of

his now classic book Even the Rat Was White, which took psychology to task
for being primarily a White Eurocentric fi eld, neglecting the contributions of
people of color in historical storytelling, and for unintentionally elevating the
contributions of one group (primarily White males), while denigrating Asian,
African, and Latin American contributors through “ benign neglect. ” The
hidden message to students of color was that American psychology is supe-
rior (other psychologies are inferior), that it is universal, and that students
of color should accept this “ reality. ” White students are affirmed in this curricu-

lum, but students of color feel that their identities are constantly assailed in
the classroom. Black students are likely to expend considerable emotional
energy protecting their own integrity while at the same time being distracted
from fully engaging in the learning process (Sue, Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, &
Rivera, 2009).
Second, Professor Richardson seems to equate rational discourse with
approaching topics in a calm and objective manner. When he tells the Black
student to “ calm down ” or implies that they are “ too emotional, ” the Professor
may unintentionally be delivering another racial microaggression with mul-
tiple hidden fears, assumptions, and biased values: (a) Blacks are prone to
emotional outbursts, can get out of control, and may become violent; (b) emo-
tion is antagonistic to reason and conversations should be unemotional and
objective in the classroom; and (c) the communication style of many Blacks
is dysfunctional and should be discouraged (Sue & Sue, 2008). Pathologizing

Black communication and learning styles has been identified as a common
microaggression directed toward African Americans (Constantine & Sue,
2007; Sue, Capodilupo, Nadal, et al., 2008). Studies suggest that communica-
tion and learning styles of Black Americans may differ from those of Whites
(DePaulo, 1992; Kochman, 1981); for example, affect, emotion, and passion
are considered positive attributes of the communication process because they
indicate sincere interest and seriousness toward the material or subject matter,
while objectivity and unemotional responses indicate insincerity and lack of
connection.
Third, Professor Richardson ’ s compliment toward Justin ’ s intelligent
analysis of both perspectives and his ability to articulate the issues well was
found to be offensive by some of the Black students. Why? To answer this
question requires an understanding of historical racial stereotypes and their
interactional dynamics. This situation is very similar to what occurred in
the 2007 to 2008 democratic presidential primaries when both Senators Joe

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