Page 69 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Psychological Dilemmas and Dynamics of Microaggressions 43

to close the hatch, three White men in suits entered the plane, were informed
they could sit anywhere, and promptly seated themselves in the row in front of
us. Just before take - off, the attendant began to close the overhead compartments
and seemed to scan the plane with her eyes. At that point she approached us,
leaned over, interrupted our conversation, and asked if we would mind moving
to the back of the plane. She indicated that she needed to distribute the weight
on the plane evenly.
Both of us (passengers of color) had similar negative reactions. First, balancing
the weight on the plane seemed reasonable, but why were we being singled out?

After all, we had boarded first and the three White men were the last passengers
to arrive. Why weren ’ t they being asked to move? Were we being singled out
because of our race? Was this just a random event with no racial overtones? Were
we being oversensitive and petty?
Although we complied by moving to the back of the plane, both of us felt resent-
ment, irritation, and anger. In light of our everyday racial experiences, we both
came to the same conclusion: the flight attendant had treated us like second - class

citizens because of our race. But this incident did not end there. While I kept
telling myself to drop the matter, I could feel my blood pressure rising, my heart
beating faster, and my face flushing with anger. When the attendant walked

back to make sure our seat belts were fastened, I could not contain my anger any
longer. Struggling to control myself, I said to her in a forced calm voice: “ Did you
know that you asked two passengers of color to step to the rear of the ‘ bus ’ ? ” For
a few seconds she said nothing, but looked at me with a horrifi ed expression.
Then she said in a righteously indignant tone, “ Well, I have never been accused
of that! How dare you? I don ’ t see color! I only asked you to move to balance the
plane. Anyway, I was only trying to give you more space and greater privacy. ”
Attempts to explain my perceptions and feelings only generated greater defensive-
ness from her. For every allegation I made, she seemed to have a rational reason
for her actions. Finally, she broke off the conversation and refused to talk about the
incident any longer. Were it not for my colleague, who validated my experiential
reality, I would have left that encounter wondering whether I was incorrect in my
perceptions. Nevertheless, for the rest of the flight, I stewed over the incident and

it left a sour taste in my mouth. (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007, p. 275)

The example above fully illustrates several of the psychological dilemmas

posed to both the passengers of color and the White flight attendant. Both
parties in the interaction experienced and interpreted the situation in different
ways. Both were attributing meaning to the event through their life experiences

and racial realities. For the White flight attendant, racism does not represent

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