Page 45 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Microaggressions, Marginality, and Harmful Impact 19

ultimate indignity and insult. Showing reluctance at stepping out of his
home as requested by Crowley may have evoked images of the shoot-
ing of Amadou Diallo, a Black man. In that event, police offi cers rushed
toward an entryway to question a man whom they believed to be acting
suspiciously. When Diallo reached into his pocket and pulled out his
wallet, he was shot and killed because the offi cers thought he was reach-
ing for a weapon. Even if unstated, Gates ’ s belief that he was viewed
more suspiciously than a White resident would not be unfounded or
without merit. Yet Sergeant Crowley probably believed that he acted
within legal guidelines, that his actions were free of racial bias, and that
he was not racially profiling. His racial reality and the inability to under-

stand that of people of color are major barriers to racial harmony.
• The Henry Louis Gates, Jr., incident does represent an opportunity to
open a dialogue about race in the United States. As some have said,
it represents a teachable moment. How do we begin to understand the
racial realities of one another? The fact that many White Americans
are unable to bridge their worldviews with those of people of color
represents a major challenge to our society. The subtext to this inci-
dent involves the observation that a national dialogue on race is much
needed, but it brings on so many fears, defenses, and antagonisms that
even President Obama retreated from taking it on.
As long as microaggressions remain hidden, invisible, unspoken, and
excused as innocent slights with minimal harm, we will continue to insult,
demean, alienate, and oppress marginalized groups. In the realm of racial
microaggressions, for example, studies indicate that

• Racial microaggressions are oftentimes triggers to difficult dialogues on
race in the classroom (Sue, Lin, Torino, et al., 2009).
• White students and professors are confused and uncertain about what
is transpiring (Sue, Torino, Capodilupo, Rivera, & Lin, 2009).

• White students and professors are very “ hung up ” about clarifying these
racial interactions for fear of appearing racist (Apfelbaum, Sommers, &
Norton, 2008).
When critical consciousness and awareness is lacking, when one is
fearful about clarifying the meaning of tension - fi lled interactions, and when
one actively avoids pursuing an understanding of these dynamics, the
offenses remain invisible (Goodman, 1995; Henry, Cobbs - Roberts, Dorn,

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