Page 54 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

28 taxonomy of microaggressions

and vulnerability increases. This in turn has a major detrimental impact on
the group identity of the worker and potentially lowered productivity.

FORMS OF MICROAGGRESSIONS

D. W. Sue and colleagues (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007; Sue & Capodilupo, 2008)
have proposed a taxonomy of racial, gender, and sexual-orientation microag-
gressions that fall into three major categories: microassaults, microinsults, and
microinvalidations. All three forms may vary on the dimension of awareness
and intentionality by the perpetrator, but they all communicate either an overt,
covert, or hidden offensive message or meaning to recipients. Figure 2.1 presents
the categorization and relationship of microaggressions to one another, using
race as the example. Chapters 8 and 9 discuss specific microaggressions and

their taxonomy related to gender and sexual orientation.

Microassaults
Microassaults are conscious, deliberate, and either subtle or explicit racial,
gender, or sexual - orientation biased attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors that are
communicated to marginalized groups through environmental cues, verbaliza-
tions, or behaviors. They are meant to attack the group identity of the person
or to hurt/harm the intended victim through name - calling, avoidant behavior,
or purposeful discriminatory actions (Miller & Garran, 2008; Nelson, 2006).
Displaying a Klan hood, Nazi swastika, noose, or Confederate fl ag; burning
a cross; and hanging Playboy bunny pictures in a male manager ’ s offi ce may
all constitute environmental microassaults. The intent of these messages is
to threaten, intimidate, and make the individuals or groups feel unwanted
and unsafe because they are inferior, subhuman, and lesser beings that do not
belong on the same levels as others in this society.
Verbal microassaults include the use of racial epithets: referring to African
Americans as “ niggers, ” Chinese Americans as “ chinks, ” Japanese Americans
as “ Japs, ” women as “ bitches” or “cunts ,” and gays as “ fags. ” Again, the intent
is to assail one ’ s racial, gender, or sexual identity and to communicate to the
recipient that they are “ lesser human beings. ” Telling ethnic, racial, gender,
or sexual-orientation jokes and laughing at them also fall into this category.
With respect to behavior, forbidding a son or daughter from marrying out-
side of one ’ s race, ignoring a group of women who are requesting a table at a

restaurant, and promoting a less - qualified heterosexual employee over a gay
one are a few examples. Again, such actions communicate to the recipient that

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