What are racial microaggressions?

There's a growing phenomenon of cancel culture and retiring things that people believe are outdated.?As a society, we've become overly sensitive and less astute when it comes to looking at issues beyond the surface. Instead of doing our due diligence through research to better understand the "Why," we'd rather rewrite history.

Take this article in Harvard business review entitled We need to retire the term microaggressions .

The article suggests that the term needs to be more adequate to describe the long-term effects of the subtleties that people of color experience regularly in the workplace.

While the article's sentiment is clear, the historical context is not.?

In 1969 renowned Black psychiatrist Dr. Chester Pierce first coined the term racial microaggressions to describe the subtle and reoccurring slights and insults experienced by Blacks in America. He was the first person to recognize racism as a public health problem based on his research of the Black-White dichotomy and race relations. Further, his theoretical discourse examined how environmental factors battered black bodies and minds into submission, causing trauma. As a researcher, he challenged the status quo by being vocal with Whites on how Blacks should be treated.?

Over the last 50 years, the phenomenon of racial microaggressions gave birth to an entire body of research on how Blacks were treated. In fact, Kimberle' Crenshaw and Derrick Bell discuss microaggressions in their development of intersectionality and critical race theory.?Given the long history of microaggressions and its importance in scholarship about the Black experience, it should not be retired.?

While the term is used to describe the experiences of other groups, no other group of people has suffered from racial microaggressions as much as Blacks in America. The blood-stained history of 400 years of slavery and persistent systemic racism continues to plague this country resulting in inequities in every facet of society, including housing, education, healthcare, and wealth, to name a few.

What are Racial Microaggressions?

Racial microaggressions represent a class of terms describing Black people's everyday experiences. They are further broken down into microinsults, microinvalidations, and micro assaults. Each becomes increasingly worse and contributes to racial trauma.

Microinsults

Microinsults are rude remarks that degrade a person’s racial identity. They are rooted in white superiority. These are the most common form of microaggressions that most people experience in the workplace. There are numerous microinsults, but perhaps the most common is referring to a Black person as articulate.?

Microinvalidations

Microinvalidations occur unconsciously and negate the experiences of people of color. They manifest when individuals excuse behaviors that the dominant culture would not experience. Stating “I don’t see color" or "we live in a post-racial society" because we have made significant gains invalidates the lived experiences of Black people.?

Microassaults

The most severe form of microaggressions is microassaults. The assaults are blatant displays of racism designed to harm Blacks and other people of color. They include racial epithets, hate speech, symbols, lynching, police brutality, etc.

On the surface, the term racial microaggressions may appear to be no longer needed. However, given that they occur daily for Blacks in this country and worldwide, there needs to be a common language to describe those lived experiences.

So, before we suggest canceling a term that is still valid, let's dig deeper to understand the history.

?

About The Perry Report:

The Perry Report newsletter is a monthly LinkedIn newsletter dedicated to stimulating conversations on race, equity, leadership, and everything in between. The newsletter is authored by Venessa Marie Perry, writer, consultant, executive coach, and speaker. Venessa’s work focuses on partnering with people and organizations that want to advance racial equity through systematic, institutional, community-based, and societal change. If you want to learn more about our work and how we can assist you, visit us?here .

The waitlist for DEI group coaching is open . Do you have a pressing issue that you need help with? Sign up for a Strategic Breakthrough Session .

Lastly, if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with others.