Page 37 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Gender Microaggressions 11

Biden (White) and Barak Obama (Black) announced their candidacies. After
announcing his presidential run, Mr. Biden was asked by a reporter about
the public ’ s wild enthusiasm for a Black candidate, Barak Obama. Joe Biden
responded, “ I mean, you got the fi rst mainstream African - American who is
articulate and bright and clean and a nice - looking guy. I mean, that ’ s a story-
book, man. ”
There was an immediate uproar from many in the Black community who
considered the statement insulting and offensive. To them, it represented a
racial microaggression. Senator Biden, for his part, could not understand why
a positive comment toward a fellow Democrat would evoke anger from Black
Americans. It is important for us to understand that messages oftentimes
contain multiple meanings. While on the surface the comment by Biden can
be interpreted as praise, the metacommunication (hidden message) commu-
nicated to Blacks is “ Obama is an exception. Most Blacks are unintelligent,
inarticulate, dirty, and unattractive. ” Such a racial microaggression allows the
perpetrator to acknowledge and praise a person of color, but also allows him
or her to express group stereotypes. In other words, while praising the Black
student might have come from the professor ’ s best intentions, the comment
was experienced as a microaggression because it seemed to indicate that the
professor was surprised that a Black student could be capable of such insightful
and intelligent observations.

GENDER MICROAGGRESSIONS

Like racism, sexism can operate at an overt conscious level or at a covert and
less conscious one (Swim & Cohen, 1997). Blatant, unfair, and unequal treat-
ment toward women can be manifested in sexual harassment, physical abuse,
discriminatory hiring practices, or in women being subjected to a hostile, pre-
dominantly male work environment. Like overt racism and hate crimes,
such sexist acts are strongly condemned by our society and many men have
become increasingly sensitive to their sexist actions (Sue & Sue, 2008). As our
society has become more aware of what constitutes sexism and its harmful
impact on women, the conscious, intentional, and deliberate forms of gender
bias have seemingly decreased, but also continue in the form of subtle and
unintentional expressions (Butler & Geis, 1990; Fiske, 1993; Swim & Cohen,
1997). These subtle forms of sexism are similar to aversive racism in that they
come from well - intentioned men who believe in gender equality and would
never deliberately discriminate against women. Yet, they unknowingly engage

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