Microaggression Article Summaries1

Article: Racism, College and the power of Words: Racial Microaggressions

Reconsidered
Author: Julie Minikel-Lacocque
Independent Variable: Race, Educational Level, and Community Makeup
Dependent Variable: Experience of Microaggressions
Date: June 2013
Link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23526109

Summary:
Minikel Lacocque's qualitative study on microaggressions was based on
interview data and field notes from a collective case study. She interviewed six
Latino/a students about their experiences at Midwestern University, a
predominantly white institution (PWI). The author's initial intent was to study their
transition to college. After she heard the participants' responses, she observed that
many of them chose to discuss racism in their universities, particularly the kind of
racism that is not often considered "overt". As a result, she decided to pursue a
different scholarly focus: microaggressions 2. In forming her arguments, the author
uses critical race theory as a framework3. The author's main arguments about
microaggressions are 1) That we should as a society and as educators, specifically
in higher education, have a greater understanding of the term microaggressions
and use it more often 2) That we should make specific changes in the framework of
microaggressions because the term microaggressions has been misused in
academia. The arguments she makes for a change in the discourse of
microaggressions are based on 1) The introduction of the concept of
microaggressions set forth by Chester Pierce 4 and 2) the discourse of
microaggressions set forth by D.W. Sue, et al in Racial microaggressions in everyday
1See additional information about all articles on the attached spreadsheet, including
additional citation information.
2 It is important to note, then, that the participants' stories and comments about
racism and microaggressions came up organically during the study. Participants also
had a lot of say in the process of Minikel-Lacocque and she consulted with them
frequently during her research, giving each student an opportunity to be as involved
in the research as they wanted to be. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and
analyzed along with field notes.
3 This theory is worth looking into as many articles I have found on
microaggressions use or include the mention of this same theory in their research.

life, Implications for clinical practice5. Minikel-Lacocque argues for the term
"microassault" to be jettisoned from the list of subcategories of microaggressions
due to the often conscious nature of the microassault. The other two categories,
microinsult and microinvalidation, are often unconscious and are explained further
in the same chart on page 43. In reference to her findings, Minikel-Lacocque
also calls for more discussions about racism6 as well as specific changes
on college campuses, which are "1) the inclusion of students, faculty, and
administrators of color, 2) a curriculum that reflects the historical and
contemporary experiences of people of color, 3) programs to support the
recruitment, retention, and graduation of students of color, 4) a
college/university mission that reinforces the institution's commitment to
pluralism, and 5) programs designed to explicitly address racism." 7

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Article: Racial Battle Fatigue and the MisEducation of Black Men: Racial
Microaggressions, Societal Problems, and Environmental Stress
Authors: William A. Smith, Man Hung and Jeremy D. Franklin
Independent Variables: Educational Level, Race, and Gender
Dependent Variables: Point values of survey responses
Date: Winter 2011
Link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41341106

Summary:

4 Chester Pierce is a crucial figure to do further research because he introduced the

concept of microaggressions. Many articles I have read delve into, quote from, or at
least mention Pierce's work as significant.
5 There is a helpful chart explaining Sue's categorizing of microagressions on page
436 of Minikel-Lacoque's article.
6 Minikel-Lacocque states specifically that there need to be more studies on
microaggressions in the field of education. Most studies on microaggressions are
from the field of psychology.
7 It is important to note that Minikel-Lacocque pulls the first four changes to make
on campus from Solorzano et al's article whom she cites on page 460. The fifth
change is an addition to the list made by Minikel-Lacocque herself.

This study is one of the few quantitative studies I found that addresses
microaggressions and education. The data was taken from telephone interviews of
2,864 adults across the U.S. (see breakdown of participants on pg. 69) conducted by
the International Communications Research from African American Men Survey
(2006) conducted in collaboration with the Washington Post and resulted in the final
sample size of 661 black males (N = 661). This study measured MEES which is
Mundane, Extreme, Environmental Stress (pg. 67) and symptoms of both MEES and
racial battle fatigue (figure on pg. 68) in black males. 8 The authors argue that
"Social, educational, and professional institutions...must realize that there is an
emotional, physiological, and psychological cost of gendered racism" which is found
on page 64. Also In this article, the concepts of individualism vs. collectivism are
discussed with explanations of each and an argument in favor of collectivism,
defending in the belief of the existence of institutional racism and it's effects
(measured in MEES). The central finding from this study is that Mundane,
Extreme, Environmental Stress is higher in black males with a college
degree than black males without one. This finding is worthy to include in our
results as an eye-opener about the oppression and institutional racism that exists
within education, especially affecting black males, preventing them from receiving
the education and educational support they deserve.

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Article: Race and Racism in the Experiences of Black Male Resident Assistants at
Predominantly White Institutions
Authors: Shaun R. Harper. and Ryan J. Davis. and David E. Jones. and Brian L.
McGowan. and Ted N. Ingram. and C. Spencer Platt.
Independent Variables: Resident Assistant Status, Race, Gender, Educational
Level, Community Makeup
Dependent Variable: Experiences of racism
Date: 2011
Link:
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_college_student_development/v052/52.2.ha
rper.html

Summary:

8 See detailed survey questions asked of the participants on pg. 70-74.

This article by Harper, et al examines the racialized experiences of AfricanAmerican resident assistants (RAs) who work at predominantly white universities.
The qualitative data was gathered from focus group interviews of 52 black male RA
from six large predominantly white universities who shared their experiences with
racism in the position. Also discussed is "the paradox" that black student leaders
face of "being seen as too radcal by White administrators and advisors, but not
radical enough by their same race peers" as well as the problem of stereotype
threat (pg. 182). Critical race theory, described on page 185, serves as the analytic
framework for this study. The findings of this study include stereotypes and
microaggressions based on race, the complex nature of "onlyness" in the
RA position, and the difficulty that comes with being scrutinized by white
supervisors more often than white colleages who take the same actions
(whether good or bad), all of which are explained in further detail on
pages 188-193. Throughout the study, it was also found that most of the
people interviewed had consider quitting the RA position on more than
one occasion due to the complex and significant difficulties of being a
minority in charge. Because of these struggles, this article states that
because of the struggles faced, black men are often dissuaded from
student leadership and from other "out of class engagement venues" (pg.
180). This article addresses not just the challenges faced by black male residents,
but ways in which to affect change. These ways include educators examining their
assumptions about students of color more critically and not putting them in the
position of being and/or feeling "spokespeople for their race" (page 194).

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Article: Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate:
The Experiences of African American College Students
Authors: Daniel Solorzano, Miguel Ceja and Tara Yosso
Independent Variable: Race and Educational Level
Dependent Variable: Experiences of Microaggressions
Date: Winter-Spring 2000
Link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696265
Summary:

This study's focus is studying microaggressions and the campus racial climate
through the lens of critical race theory using data from focus group interviews of
African American students at three American universities who describe how they
"experience and respond to racial microaggressions" (pg. 60). Solorzano et al

defines microaggressions as "subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal, and/or visual)

directed towards people of color, often automatically or unconsciously" (pg. 60).
This article also discusses the problem of microaggressions often being seen or
spoken as compliments; an example of a microaggression that is perceived as a
compliment is, "I don't see you as a black person," a statement that this article
shows is problematic and insulting toward both the receiver of the microaggression
and to black people as a whole (pg. 60-61). Other issues regarding rasicim that this
article delves into are stereotype threat which is when students of color are so
afraid of being stereotyped that it negatively effects their standardized test scores
as well as many other aspects of their life (pg. 62). Solorzano et al also asserts that
"racism is about institutional power" (pg. 61). Findings of this study reveal that
racial microaggressions exist in the college environmentboth in
academic and social spacesand that these microaggressions effect
campus racial climate negatively as demonstrated in Figure 1 on page 66.

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Article: Are They Not All the Same?: Racial Heterogeneity Among Black Male
Undergraduates
Authors: Shaun R. Harper, Andrew H. Nichols
Independent Variable: Race, Gender, Education
Dependent Variable: Within-Group Differences
Date: 2008
Link: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/csd/summary/v049/49.3.harper.html

Summary:

This study conducted by Harper and Nichols uses Celious and Oyserman's
(2001) Heterogeneous Race Model as its conceptual framework, exploring the
differences within a group of 36 black male undergraduates from three private
institutions. They explored these differences by engaging in focus groups with these
men and collecting qualitative data based on their expereinces. Particularly, this
research's findings are the "stereotypes, competition, and social distance
associated with racial heterogeneity," delving into what biases and
misconceptions that black students of different backgrounds can often
have about each other. For instance, one of the examples this article gives is of a
middle-class black person associating a lower-class black person with aggression,
based on negative stereotypes. Another example given by the article is a lower
class black person seeing a middle class black person as being snobby, another

negative stereotype. Both of these examples were discussed in detail via personal
stories and insights from the participants of this study. This study is significant to
our research because 1) it gives insight into colorism and internalized racism which
are effects of institutional racism not as often spoken of and 2) it argues that merely
increasing the amount of people of color on campus isn't enough; we actually have
a lot more work to do than that.