Page 63 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Microaggressive Themes 37

• Assumption of Abnormality — This theme is related to the perception

that something about the person ’ s race, gender, or sexual orientation
is abnormal, deviant, and pathological. LGBT groups experience these
microinsults frequently, especially in the area of sexual behavior that is
equated with abnormality (Herek, 1998; Satcher & Leggett, 2007). When
a gay man during a physical exam is suspected by a physician to have

HIV/AIDS on the first visit, when students use the term “ gay ” to describe
the odd or nonconformist behavior of a fellow classmate, and when
someone expresses surprise that a Lesbian is in a monogamous relation-
ship, an assumption of abnormality is present. Examples of assumptions
could be “ LBGT people are promiscuous and engage in deviant sexual behavior ”

or “ People who are weird and different are gay. ”
Microinvalidation
Microinvalidations are characterized by communications or environmental
cues that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or
experiential reality of certain groups, such as people of color, women, and
LGBTs. In many ways, microinvalidations may potentially represent the most
damaging form of the three microaggressions because they directly and insid-
iously deny the racial, gender, or sexual-orientation reality of these groups.
As we shall see in the next chapter, the power to impose reality upon margin-
alized groups represents the ultimate form of oppression. Several examples of
microinvalidation themes are given below.

• Alien in One ’ s Own Land — This theme involves being perceived as a
perpetual foreigner or being an alien in one ’ s own country. Of all the
groups toward which such microinvalidations are directed, Asian
Americans and Latino Americans are most likely to experience
them. When Asian Americans are complimented for speaking “ good
English, ” and persistently asked where they were born, the meta-
communication is that “ You are not American ” or “ You are a foreigner. ”

When Latino Americans are told, “ If you don ’ t like it here, go back to
Mexico , ” there is an implied assumption that one ’ s allegiance resides in
another country. Interestingly, studies reveal that African Americans
are perceived by the public as “ more American ” than either Asian or
Latino Americans (Devos & Banaji, 2005). While highly speculative, it
may be that the enslavement of Blacks in the United States is so tightly

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