Page 84 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

58 the psychological dilemmas and dynamics of microaggressions

loudly that many passengers kept looking back. When the flight attendant left, I turned

to her and angrily asked, “ Why didn ’ t you say anything? ” She responded by saying
“ Derald, it just feels so good to not always be the angry Black woman. ”
My colleague ’ s response is representative of what many Black women often
share with me. When they decide to confront the microaggressor, they may
trigger stereotypes that label them as “ angry Black women ” who are overly sen-
sitive and paranoid. Thus, responding in an emotional or angry manner may
be pathologized by the transgressor. Jones (1997) has revealed how stereotypes
are often triggered when protestations by Blacks are made to unfair and discrim-
inatory treatment: an emotional outburst often lends credence to the belief that
African Americans are hostile, angry, impulsive, and prone to violence.
R. D. Laing, an existential psychiatrist, once asked the following question
concerning schizophrenia: Is schizophrenia a sick response to a healthy society
or is it a healthy response to a sick society ? What he was trying to say was that
the symptoms or reactions of individuals must be evaluated or judged from
some standard or context. If microaggressions are acknowledged as patho-

logical and defined as the problem, then reactions like anger and a desire to
strike back become more understandable and normative. However, if the context
and actions (microaggressions) are unseen and considered normative, then
the reactions of those oppressed take on a pathological meaning. As long as
microaggressions remain invisible to the aggressor, reactions to them by
marginalized groups place them in an unenviable position: they are damned
if they don ’ t (not take action) and damned if they do (take action)! This is the
catch - 22 posed by microaggressions.

The Way Forward

Dealing with Psychological Dilemmas

One of the most important questions addressed in future chapters is “What
types of responses would be functional and adaptive for marginalized

groups, and what type of responses would be most beneficial and educational
for microaggressors?” On the awareness and knowledge level, however,
the following may prove helpful to readers.
1. As Chapter 2 indicates, all of us are both perpetrators and targets of
racial, gender, and sexual-orientation microaggressions. We have served
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