Let’s Talk About

What We’re Saying

A Multicultural Professional Development Workshop

 HELLO!

My name is Lennox Balog

I am the counseling intern here and am currently
pursuing my Masters of Education in School Counseling at
UNC Chapel Hill

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LET’S TALK ABOUT MICROAGGRESSIONS

What are they and how do they affect us?

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 MICROAGGRESSIONS
Defined
Brief and commonplace daily
verbal, behavioral, and
environmental indignities,
whether intentional or
unintentional, which
communicate hostile, derogatory,
or negative racial slights,
invalidations, and insults to an
individual or group because of
their marginalized status in
society
(Sue, 2014)
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Effects
● Evoke powerful emotional
reactions
● Increase stress levels
● Negative associations with
many aspects of well-being (i.e.
educational performance)
● Linked to depressive symptoms
● Can last long after the original
assault
(Yosso, Smith, Ceja, Solo’rzano, 2009)
 MICROAGGRESSIONS:
3 TYPES

MICROASSAULTS MICROINSULTS MICROINVALIDATIONS

Explicit racial More direct verbal and Communications that
derogations nonverbal behaviors exclude, negate, or nullify
characterised by that convey stereotypical the thoughts, feelings, or
primarily verbal and beliefs experiential reality of a
nonverbal behaviors racial-ethnic minority
meant to hurt the individual
intended victim.

Name calling, Rudeness or insensitivity

regardings one’s Injustifying racism and
isolation, purposeful
discriminatory actions racial-ethnic heritage or offensive remarks due to a
identity, Wisecracks supposed “race-free” society
(Keels, Durkee, & Hope, 2017)

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 MICROAGGRESSIONS
Potential Victim
Person in any group based on the
following categories, usually in a
perceived or real powerless,
inferior, subordinate or
vulnerable position:
Race, ethnicity/culture/nationality,
gender, sexual orientation,
religion, mental or physical
disability, SES, age generation, or
any comdonation
(intersectionality)
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Aggressor
Person who holds the power or
believes he or she is in a “superior”
position to the victim, for example a
white heterosexual male, or a white
female directing a microaggression
towards an African American
female
(Berk, 2017)
 MICROAGGRESSIONS
CAN HAPPEN:

Student-Student Instructor-Student Instructor-Instructor

I’m the only Asian An instructor calling on A male instructor who
student in the class male students more than always talks over women in
and everyone expects female students, and on meetings, even when it’s the
me to be a math whizz white female students woman leading the meeting
and help them with even more than black
their math problems female students

(Berk, 2017)

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 COMMON
MICROAGGRESSIONS
By Teachers & Students

● Hearing/reading stereotypes in ● Being called on to offer the “student

context or lecture or other of a particular race, gender, LGBTQ,
reading materials etc. perspective”

● Being dismissed or ignored by the ● Receiving hostile reactions during

instructor before, during, or after participation in class
class

● Being excluded from participation

● Listening to the perpetuation of in group activities and projects
unaddressed stereotypes during
classroom discussion

(Harwood, Choi, Orozco, Browne, & Mendenhall, 2015)

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Let’s Try an Activity
Can we recognize how different audiences may
interpret these microaggressions?

(Kite, 2017)

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 ACTIVITY

1. Get into small groups (2-4 people)

2. Read each item in column A
3. Think critically about how a person could
interpret the statement as a “put down”
4. Draw a line connecting the statement to what
you believe is the best possible interpretation
from column B

(Kite, 2017)

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 INTENT VS. EXTENT

INTENT EXTENT
The intentions behind The impact of the
what was said speech on others

Your words carry weight.

(Oluo, 2018)

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 ACTIVITY

1. Choose a microaggression from column A

2. In your group, discuss the following
questions:
a. What do you think the possible intent of the speaker
was?
b. Does the intent change the impact of the statement for
the person who experiences the microaggression?

(Kite, 2017)

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 “
“Set your intentions aside. Your intentions
have little to no impact on the way in which
your actions may have harmed others. Do not
try to absolve yourself of responsibility
with your good intentions”
- Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to
Talk About Race

(Oluo, 2018)

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 ACTIVITY

1. Now, rewrite the statements in column A so

that they do not contain a hidden or negative
message
a. Example:
i. Statement: “How long have you lived in this
country?” - this implies that the speaker believes the
person was born in another country
ii. Revised: “Where did you grow up?” or “How long
have you lived in this town?”
(Kite, 2017)

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 2

TAKEAWAYS
Where do we go from here?

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 TAKEAWAYS

Be informed
&
Stay informed

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 TAKEAWAYS

Microaggressions can...
● Create feelings of isolation, loneliness, and exclusion

● Lower an individual’s work productivity and problem-solving abilities

● Devalue an individual’s contributions to class and other activities

● Undermine and put into question another’s qualifications and credentials

● Subject an individual to bias and unfair reviews for performance

● Result in feelings of being ignored, overlooked, unappreciated, unrespected,

misrepresented, and devalued

(Berk, 2017)

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 TAKEAWAYS

Microaggressions can also...

Undermine the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion practices and

efforts.

The effectiveness of inclusion can be sabotaged by individual

bombardment of microaggressions.

(Berk, 2017)

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 TAKEAWAYS

For Microaggressions to decrease...

● Minority students and faculty need to feel comfortable self-disclosing their
experiences of microaggressions in ways that elicit individualization and build
empathy

But this also takes...

● Being accompanied by support from allied bystanders
● Confronting microaggressions when they happen (reference handout)

Although people anticipate feeling upset and taking action upon witnessing a racist act
against another, they actually typically respond with indifference.

(Berk, 2017)

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LET’S GO BE
CHANGE

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 THANKS!

Any questions?
You can reach me at
lennox.balog@ncssm.edu

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 REFERENCES
Beliefs. (2017). The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.Website.
Berk, R. A. (2017). Microagressions trilogy: Part 1 why do microaggressions matter?. The Journal of Faculty
Development, 31(1), 63.
Berk, R. A. (2017). Microaggressions trilogy: Part 3. microaggressions in the classroom. The Journal of Faculty
Development, 31(3), 95-110.
Byrd, C. M. (2018). Microaggressions self-defense: A role-playing workshop for responding to microaggressions. Social
Sciences, 7(6), 96. doi:10.3390/socsci7060096
Harwood, S. A., Choi, S., Orozco, M., Browne Huntt, M., & Mendenhall, R. (2015). Racial microaggressions at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Voices of students of color in the classroom.Urbana-Champaign, IL:
University of Illinois.
Keels, M., Durkee, M., & Hope, E. (2017). The psychological and academic costs of school-based racial and ethnic
microaggressions. American Educational Research Journal, 54(6), 1316–1344.
https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217722120
Kite, M. E. (2017). Microaggressions activity. Breaking the Prejudice Habit.
Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race. New York: Seal Press
Sue, D. W. (2014, September 16). Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation, dynamics, and impact. Invited
address at Penn State University, State College, PA.
Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the blacks kids sitting together in the cafeteria and other conversations about race:
Revised and updated. New York: Basic Books.
Yosso, T. J., Smith, W. A., Ceja, M., & Solo ́rzano, D. G. (2009). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and
campus racial climate for latina/o undergraduates. Harvard Educational Review, 79(4), 659–690.
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