Page 12 - Anti-Racism Pocketbook for Schools and Academies

Microaggressions and Subtle Acts of Exclusion

Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal,

behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or
unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative

racial slights and insults toward ethnically diverse people.

Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they

engage in such communications when they interact with
ethnically diverse people. A taxonomy of racial microaggressions

in everyday life was created through a review of the social

psychological literature on aversive racism, from formulations
regarding the manifestation and impact of everyday racism, and

from reading numerous personal narratives of counsellors (both

White and ethnically diverse.) on their racial/cultural awakening.

Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms:

1.Microassaults.

2.Microinsult.

3.Microinvalidation.

Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions.

Microaggressions can be defined as: everyday, subtle, intentional

– and oftentimes unintentional – interactions or behaviours that

communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalised

groups.

Microaggressions can also be called Subtle Acts of Exclusion
(SAEs) as they can unintentionally make individuals feel excluded

or alienated by others.

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