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Racial Microaggressions in the Life Experience of Black Americans
Abstract
Racial microaggressions cause considerable psychological distress among Black Americans and are manifested in nearly all interracial encounters. They set in motion energy-depleting attempts to determine whether incidents were racially motivated. Reactions can be classified into 4 major themes: healthy paranoia, sanity check, empowering and validating self, and rescuing offenders. Microaggressions result in high degrees of stress for Blacks because of denigrating messages: "You do not belong," "You are abnormal," "You are intellectually inferior," "You cannot be trusted," and "You are all the same." Feelings of powerlessness, invisibility, forced compliance and loss of integrity, and pressure to represent one's group are some of the consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... This vignette illustrates a dilemma commonly identified in the dynamics of racial microaggressions, in the clash of racial realities (Sue, 2008a). Where the majority of white people do not view themselves as racist or capable of racist behaviour, minorities can perceive them to be racially insensitive and prejudiced (Sue, 2008a). ...
... This vignette illustrates a dilemma commonly identified in the dynamics of racial microaggressions, in the clash of racial realities (Sue, 2008a). Where the majority of white people do not view themselves as racist or capable of racist behaviour, minorities can perceive them to be racially insensitive and prejudiced (Sue, 2008a). Research confirms the widespread existence of unconscious racism in well-intentioned White people (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000). ...
... Americans (Nadal et al., 2012), Black Americans (Sue et al., 2008a), and university students of Indigenous Canadian descent (Canel-Çınarbaş & Yohani, 2019;Clark, et al., 2014). Racial microaggressions were experienced by all minority groups studied, with both global themes and others which appeared 'race' specific. ...
Unintentional racial microaggressions towards indigenous and minority peoples while injurious to recipients, are often not recognised by the perpetrator, and when challenged, are commonly met with defensiveness. The difference in racial realities exposed in these encounters can lead to breakdowns in recognition, and polarizing dynamics which perpetuate racial division. They also represent missed opportunities for greater understanding. In this dissertation, I use a vignette of events that occurred during a training course in psychotherapy as an entry point into considering the question, "what meaning may be made regarding unconscious racialisation from making, encountering and challenging unintentional racial microaggressions as a person of mixed 'race' in Aotearoa New Zealand". Through my subjective consideration of the intrapsychic, interpersonal and societal aspects of this phenomenon through heuristic inquiry, I contribute to the therapist's consideration of the mutual influence of unconscious racialisation on the therapeutic encounter. I explore the interplay of subjectivities within the racialised transference-countertransference matrix, and consider how reparational 'I and thou' engagement can be facilitated when unintentional racial microaggressions occur.
... Microaggressions are stress-inducing and may lead employees to feel devalued, threatened, and isolated, as well as perplexed (Sue et al., 2008). In illustration, Sue et al. (2008) theorize that "a potential microaggressive incident sets in motion a perceptual questioning aimed at trying to determine whether it was racially motivated. ...
... Microaggressions are stress-inducing and may lead employees to feel devalued, threatened, and isolated, as well as perplexed (Sue et al., 2008). In illustration, Sue et al. (2008) theorize that "a potential microaggressive incident sets in motion a perceptual questioning aimed at trying to determine whether it was racially motivated. During this process, considerable psychic energy is expended" (p. ...
... 106). Relevant to vigilance in response to racial microaggressions, Sue et al. (2008) qualitatively showed that "healthy paranoia" (p. 332) was common after an experienced microaggression-participants spoke about a general suspiciousness as a necessary reaction to the overwhelming number of microaggression incidents that occur in a given day. ...
Although overt racism is condemned by many organizations, insidious forms of racism persist. Drawing on the conservation of resources framework (Hobfoll, 1989), this article identifies forms and outcomes of racial microaggressions-daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that denigrate individuals from racially minoritized groups (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007). Leveraging survey data from 345 Black employees, open-ended question qualitative insights delineate three overarching themes of workplace microaggression toward Black employees: anti-Black stereotype expression, racialized role assignment, and interactional injustice. We also detail how these themes manifest in nine distinct ways. Then, we model the cognitive and emotional resource recovery and protection processes that Black employees engage in to overcome workplace microaggressions. Quantitative results demonstrated that workplace microaggressions related to subsequent resource replenishment (i.e., co-rumination, or discussing feelings and venting about problems with coworkers; Rose, 2002) and protection (i.e., racism-related vigilance, or mentally preparing for anticipated racism; Clark et al., 2006) efforts. Further, results suggested undesirable effects of microaggressions on burnout and job satisfaction. Finally, we found a positive relationship between resourcing efforts and job satisfaction but found no support for trait resiliency or organizational support as buffers of microaggression effects. Implications for future research and direct interventions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Exploration of all the factors in recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, especially Black students, to grow the nursing workforce is warranted (AACN, 2021b). Studies have shown that Black and other minoritized students experience microaggressions in college (Ellis et al., 2019;Mills, 2020;Ogunyemi et al., 2020;Sue et al., 2008;Walls & Hall, 2018;Williams et al., 2020). These experiences contribute to symptoms of psychological trauma (Pieterse et al., 2010), self-doubt, alienation, invisibility, a sense of not belonging (Morales, 2021), feeling othered or marginalized (Avant et al., 2020), depletion of cognitive resources-the inability to effectively focus on cognitive task (Salvatore & Shelton, 2007) and a greater allostatic load-the amassed burden of chronic stress (Guidi et al., 2021). ...
... Work on microaggression in nursing academia alludes to its undesirable impact on students' success Hall & Fields, 2012;Murray, 2015;Ro & Villarreal, 2021). Although the construct of microaggression was first described by Chester Pierce (1974), a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and educator in the 1960s, the use of the term to describe subtle verbal and nonverbal insults has evolved rapidly over the last decade and a half with the work of Sue et al. (2007Sue et al. ( , 2008. ...
... In this study, we identify and highlight the need to further explore microaggressions in nursing academia and clinical experiences and their impact on retention, graduation rates, and the overall mental health of those who experience them. Although these experiences of microaggressions are not completely different from what other Black students experience in other university settings (Ellis et al., 2019;Ogunyemi et al., 2020;Sue et al., 2008;Walls & Hall, 2018;Williams et al., 2020), nursing has long claimed to subscribe to caring as a core value and essence of the profession (Karlsson & Pennbrant, 2020;McCance et al., 1999). This study sheds light on experiences of Black advanced practice and prelicensure nursing students that have left them with a long-lasting sense of not belonging or being accepted. ...
Background
Studies in other disciplines have shown that Black college students experience microaggressions on campus. This affects campus learning climates, posing a risk to students' success.
Purpose
The purpose of this secondary analysis is to describe Black nursing students' experiences with microaggression at a predominantly white institution.
Methods
In this secondary analysis of a descriptive qualitative study, principles of thematic analysis were used to code, categorize, and synthesize interview data from 16 nursing alumni participants specifically to examine microaggression.
Results
The thematic analysis of the data revealed microaggressive behaviors experienced by Black nursing students. Three salient themes emerged: microaggressions among peers, from faculty members to students, and in the clinical setting.
Conclusion
This study offers critical insights into the microaggressions that Black students experience. These microaggressions interfere with students' learning and highlight the need for academic institutions to take measures to dismantle these behaviors. These findings can illuminate to faculty and students the roles they play in perpetuating racism and subjecting students of color to detrimental psychological distress.
... This review, therefore, focused on the multiple forms of stigmatization that caregivers of children with autism and their experiences due to their ethnicity. EM groups whose children with autism often report perceived racial and ethnic discrimination, racial microaggression (people being too sensitive of another person's race) [54], and other multiple forms of discrimination [14]. For instance, parents of non-American children with autism in the USA are more likely to experience stigmatization than American parents [11,23], more likely to experience negative feedback and attitudes from the public [48], receive diagnoses at a later stage, and have less access to services [38,65]). ...
... The two pieces of research mentioned above resonate with our review findings that parents from EM backgrounds reported receiving fewer resources in comparison to the majority and had to fight to access those services. Parents with an EM background experience stigma and microaggression (refers to verbal, behavioral, or environmental slight that conveys hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes towards marginalized or stigmatized groups; [54]) in the healthcare system. Our review also reveals that language is a significant issue which creates barriers for EM parents accessing social services. ...
Multiple forms of stigmatization are experienced by caregivers of children with autism among ethnic minority (EM) groups in various countries. Such forms of stigmatization can lead to delayed assessment and services for mental health among children and caregivers. This review identified the research literature on the types of stigmatization experienced by caregivers of children with autism with an EM background. A total of 19 studies published after 2010 (i.e., 12 from the USA, 2 from the UK, 1 from Canada, and 1 from New Zealand) of caregivers of 20 ethnicities were identified and reviewed, and their reporting qualities systematically also assessed. Four main themes: (1) self-stigma, (2) social stigma, (3) stigma towards EM parents of children on the autism spectrum, and (4) service utilization stigma, and nine sub-themes were identified. The discrimination experienced by caregivers were extracted, synthesized, and further discussed. While the reporting quality of the studies included is good, the depth of the understanding of this under-researched yet important phenomenon is very limited. The multiple forms of stigmatization experiences are complex, and it may be difficult to disentangle whether the causes of stigmatization were autism and/or EM related, and the types of stigmatization can vary enormously among different ethnic groups in different societies. More quantitative studies are needed to quantify the impacts of multiple forms of stigmatization on families of children with autism in EM groups so that more socially inclusive support for caregivers with an EM background in host countries can be developed.
... A common theme in counselling research is that oppression and racism embedded throughout society may be mirrored in the therapeutic relationship through microaggressions (Sue & Spanierman, 2020). Microaggressions have been identified as a contributing factor to early termination of therapy, poor client outcomes, and inadequate support (Sue et al., 2008). Specifically for Black individuals, resulting experiences include poorer therapeutic relationships, lower perceived counsellor competence, and less satisfaction with psychological treatment (Cruz et al., 2019). ...
... Another study found that over time, racialized individuals may develop a susceptibility to developing what is referred to as racial battle fatigue, which is a collection of negative reactions that includes shock, anger, disappointment, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear (Smith & Trimble, 2016). As a result of these experiences, BIPOC individuals may develop a distrust of others, decreased self-esteem, diminished sense of belonging, and specific mental health symptoms (Sue et al., 2008). In addition, racialized individuals are at risk of further harm when they face agencies and practitioners who do not acknowledge the occurrence or detrimental consequences of these incidents (Houshmand et al., 2017). ...
... Albeit indirectly, microaggressions have been shown to impair task and job performance (Pitcan et al., 2018;Sue et al., 2007a, b), contribute to hostile and invalidating campus and work climates (Rowe, 1990;Solarzano & Yosso, 2000), devalue social group identities, e.g., by stereotyping and judging people based on their group membership (Purdie-Vaughns et al., 2008); negatively affect productivity and educational learning (Mena & Vaccaro, 2017;, perpetuate stereotype threat (Bullock et al., 2020;Nadal et al., 2021), and create physical and mental health problems (Solarzano & Yosso, 2000). Microaggression experience has also been associated with lowered self-esteem, increased perceived stress, negative affect, depression, and anxiety symptoms (Hu & Taylor, 2016;Hughes et al., 2016;Ong et al., 2013) and has been shown to affect the standard of living of marginalized groups on a systemic level, such as by creating inequities in healthcare (Sue et al., 2008), education (Bell, 2002), and employment (Purdie-Vaughns et al., 2008). ...
... Despite the prolific rate at which microaggressions research is growing, most empirical examinations of microaggressions have focused predominantly on Black Sue et al., 2008), Asian American (Lin, 2010;Sue et al., 2007a, b), Latina/o American (Rivera et al., 2010), and Native American (Clark et al., 2011) targets. As such, many marginalized and socially undervalued groups have been historically understudied in microaggression research programs. ...
The microaggression concept has been discussed in the academic literature and public discourse, but the nature—and even existence—of microaggressions remains controversial. Here, we introduce an evolutionary psychological theory of how microaggressions may result from an evolved cognitive architecture for intergroup bargaining. According to this theory, microaggressions constitute a form of low-cost, plausibly ambiguous intergroup aggression used in contexts of perceived intergroup power equilibria featuring advantageous inequality. The behavioral output of the system in this context is designed to be indirect because more direct communication should readily create common knowledge on the part of the marginalized target group, thus risking a compensatory coordinated outrage response. This approach helps explain the cross-cultural variance in which microaggressions have been remarked upon and where they have not, individual differences in endorsement of the microaggression concept, features of the psychological response to microaggressions, and the selective deployment of bargaining tactics such as the maintenance of group dominance hierarchies.
... Racial scholarship exploring overt and covert forms of racism as a tool of white supremacy is on the rise (Almaguer 2009;Bonilla-Silva 2014;Chou and Feagin 2008;Essed 1991;Feagin 2006;Solórzano 1998;Sue et al. 2007;Sue et al. 2008). Relative to obscure demonstrations of racism, racial microaggressions are now at the forefront of psychological and sociological discourse (Huynh 2012;Jones and Galliher 2015;Nadal et al. 2012;Ong et al. 2013;Sue et al. 2007;Sue 2010;Pérez Huber and Solórzano 2015;Walls et al. 2015;Yosso et al. 2009). ...
... Mixed-race research often highlights the existence of microaggressions or indirect dehumanizing behavior rooted in prejudice, bias, or discrimination against marginalized groups (Sue et al. 2016;Sue et al. 2008). Studies and the literature that explore Black-Asian experiences reveal the same issue. ...
The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity narratives of online Black–Asian communities concerning their multiracial microaggression experiences. As we are investigating an under-explored population, we utilize a purposive sampling method to narrow forum engagement by Black–Asian users on the popular social media network, Reddit. Our research is guided by multiracial critical theory (MultiCrit) which highlights monoracism as a ubiquitous element of the monoracial paradigm of race. In our research, we employ a content analysis using Black–Asian microaggression narratives to test the existing multiracial microaggression taxonomy. Our findings demonstrate that Black–Asian subreddit communities identified all of the existing multiracial microaggression categories: (1) exclusion or isolation; (2) exotification and objectification; (3) assumption of monoracial or mistaken identity; (4) denial of multiraciality; (5) pathologizing of identity and experiences; and (6) microaggressions based on racial stereotypes. Our analysis also found an emerging microaggression category entitled (7) white-mixed superiority. These multiracial microaggressions drew on monoracist ideologies and the monoracial paradigm of race, which exclude Black–Asian people and aid the maintenance of white supremacy in the United States. As such, we suggest further inquiry and expansion of the multiracial microaggression taxonomy to include how racism, particularly the monoracial paradigm of race, influences non-white multiracial identities.
... Melaku theorizes the existence of an invisible labor clause, an unwritten clause in the employment contract of Black women, and other marginalized groups, including women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ members, or people with disabilities, that require them to perform unrecognized and uncompensated labor to sustain their positions (Melaku, 2019a: p. 16-19). For Black women, this labor is negotiated through constantly managing daily racial and gender aggressions (Sue et al., 2008) manifested in biases, stereotypes, negative beliefs, and perceptions held by majority of colleagues that implicitly and explicitly work to posit Black women as inferior in white institutional spaces (Branch, 2011;Evans, 2008;Feagin, 2013). Only through repeated and consistent exposure to unrecognized obligatory labor expended is the invisible labor clause revealed. ...
... Women are less likely to be in tenure-track faculty positions, more likely to be overrepresented in junior positions, with less job security (August & Waltman, 2004) and higher wage gaps in comparison to male faculty (NCES, 2018). Numerous studies focusing on gender barriers highlight how women navigate systemic barriers that lead to disparities in terms of rank, recognition, research funding access, and publication productivity (Holliday et al., 2014); review processes (Witteman et al., 2019), stereotypes, implicit biases, and microaggressions (King, 2008;Sue et al., 2007Sue et al., , 2008. All these issues hinder women's access to both informal and formal networks, developing mentor and sponsor relationships, and their overall visibility (Bowen, 2012). ...
Scholars have shown that women of color experience racial and gender aggressions in different workplaces but strategically in predominantly white institutions. This article explores how women of color professionals in academic institutions perceive their experiences during this time of multiple pandemics induced by COVID‐19 and racial violence. By examining research on women of color in academe and other white institutional spaces, we discuss how systemic racism is embedded within organizational practices that sustain racial inequality. Drawing on data from a qualitative online survey of women of color in academe (n = 25), our theoretically grounded research employs Black feminist thought as a methodological practice to examine how COVID‐19 and racial violence have impacted women of color through the continued perpetuation of racial and gender inequities. The findings provide important insights on how institutional responses to public discourses about racism can influence the experiences of women of color and their career trajectories.
... Though recent scholarship on racism examines the experiences of racially oppressed people with everyday racism (Coates, 2011;Dovidio et al., 2002;Sue et al., 2008), most do so through a micro-level/individualizing lens. For instance, Sue and colleagues build on Pierce's (1970Pierce's ( , 1995 individualizing the racial microaggression concept by defining it as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards [racialized Others]" (Sue et al., 2007, p. 273). ...
In this article, we argue that the concept of racial microaggression is a white supremacy construct that is an ideological and discursive anti‐Black practice. We discuss how microaggressions’ reduction of historical and hegemonic white supremacy to everyday relations that are merely performative, not integral to sustaining such larger forces, is an analytical shortcoming. We contend that without the adequate heft of historical white supremacy as a part of capitalist and colonial expansion, genocide, and Indigenous erasure, microaggression scholars will remain enthralled with the idea that individual behavior changes can eradicate anti‐Black violence.
... The FGD recording was transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was carried out in phases as informed by consensual qualitative research (CQR) [31], which has been proven to be useful and suitable for focus groups [32]. First, two researchers (ID, WM) engaged in a process of immersion in, and familiarization with, the transcripts [33] and established preliminary domains. ...
Research suggests that substance use, particularly among adolescents may lead to increased illegal activities as well as physical and social health consequences. Around the world, communities, overburdened with adolescent and youth substance use, are finding ways to address this public health threat. Using a case study based on a focus group discussion with nine founding members, this paper reports on the case of Sibanye—a rural community coalition whose mission is to reduce the burden of adolescent substance use on families in rural South Africa. The focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using Nvivo 12. This work highlights the power of an engaged collective effort in addressing key community issues, even in rural areas of emerging economies where health and community infrastructure may be limited. The Sibanye coalition taps into its collective wealth of community knowledge to provide social contributions and aesthetics to help adolescents abstain from substance use and sexual risk behaviors. These activities offer adolescents safe places to meet each other, health education, and the ability to structure their free time meaningfully. Engaging community residents, particularly disadvantaged groups, should be central to any local and national strategies for promoting health and well-being.
... Byrd & Tharps (2020) noted that women who choose to wear their hair naturally fear being stereotyped as "radical," which could lead to a loss of career opportunities. Black women often feel that wearing their hair naturally is seen as some political radical statement (Sue et al., 2008). Mary explains: ...
This qualitative research study examines Black women’s leadership experiences in Canadian banks and their perceptions about opportunities for mobility and advancement to executive management positions. The purpose of this research study is to explore and contextualize the epistemic complexities of Black women’s leadership experiences in the Toronto banking sector. The study’s data are collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups with Black women working in leadership positions. Further, this study seeks to examine: (1) the lived experience of Black women’s leadership in Canadian banks; (2) the perceived incongruity between Black women as leaders and those who are seen as possessing characteristics, qualities, and social capital for leadership roles; and (3) how the discourse of multiculturalism, employment equity policies, and corporate climate has impacted Black women’s mobility and advancement opportunities to executive management positions. This study utilizes theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory, Black Canadian Feminist Thought, and Intersectionality Theory to explore and examine Black women’s leadership experiences. My analysis engages with discussions of race, gender, class, sexism, and how the construction of whiteness is manifest in institutional power, and how that construction is written and read upon Black women’s leadership to understand the absence of Black women in executive management positions. The findings indicate that being Black and a woman in banking sector negatively impacts their career mobility and advancement. Black women remain locked out of leadership opportunities as they encounter institutional climate of anti-Black racism and sexism, which deems them unfit and incompetent for senior and executive roles based on negative racial stereotypes and lack of sponsorship. Ultimately, these findings relate to the factors and conditions that make Black women’s executive leadership in the Toronto banking sector so exceedingly rare. This study is one of the few Canadian examinations of Black women’s leadership experience in the banking sector.
... Gendered microaggressions are defined as "subtle forms of sexism towards women in daily interactions experiences" (Sue et al., 2008, p. 336). These norms marginalize women students; thus, BWU experience objectification, intellectual belittling, and other dehumanizing attacks on the basis of race and gender (Basford et al., 2014;Sue et al., 2008). ...
This disquisition is a phenomenological exploration of the lived experiences and identity construction of Black women undergraduates (BWU) at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). While recent literature has focused on Black women and graduate studies, this article's explicit focus on BWU provides a needed perspective in the field, contributing to our growing understanding of the experiences of Black women at PWIs. The purpose of this study was to examine BWUs' academic, social, and cultural lived experiences and the ways in which they constructed their identities within their respective PWIs environments. Situated upon a critical race feminist theoretical framework, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven participants. Findings reveal that BWU engage in various degrees of negotiating contexts, managing subjectivities, and (re)defining identities while navigating their respective campuses. This study supports extant and emerging literature centered on the experiences of BWU at PWIs, and extends the field's understanding of the intersection between their lived experiences and their identity construction while attending PWIs, specifically. Our findings illuminate PWIs' responsibility to transform systems and practices in order to foster positive academic and social experiences for BWU.
... Because of this, anxiety is likely to be elicited following benevolent sexism during job search-a discrete emotion that typically occurs in response to threats that are uncertain in terms of their source or underlying meaning (e.g., Lazarus, 1991;Smith & Lazarus, 1990). Consistent with this, work on micro-aggressions has noted that subtle discrimination akin to benevolent sexism is associated with "uncertainty regarding the accuracy of perceptions of prejudice" (Basford et al., 2014, p. 341; see also, Sue et al., 2008), increasing anxiety among minority groups (Banks et al., 2006). ...
Despite the growing attention devoted to women's experiences of sexism within organizational contexts, there is comparatively less work elucidating the affective and behavioral self‐regulatory processes that unfold following sexist incidents that happen before organizational entry—that is, during the job search process. In the current study, we integrate ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) with self‐regulation theory to explore the differential impact of experiences of hostile (i.e., overt, derogatory, expressions of female inferiority) and benevolent sexism (i.e., subtle, seemingly positive, expressions of female incompetence) during the job search. Further, drawing from research on discrimination, we also consider whether reactions to sexism are shaped by the extent to which women identify with their gender. We tested our conceptual model through a weekly study of 103 female new labor market entrants. Findings indicated that while weekly experiences of hostile sexism related to heightened anger, experiences of benevolent sexism elicited anxiety; these effects were exacerbated for highly gender‐identified female job seekers. Anxiety—but not anger—prompted next‐week job search effort and intensity, which yielded distinct effects on search success and well‐being. Notably, exploratory analyses demonstrated that these affective responses to weekly experiences of hostile and benevolent sexism did not emerge for male job seekers, suggesting that such experiences of sexism can be more impactful for women on the job market. Thus, our work highlights the critical self‐regulatory processes that unfold weekly following female job seekers’ exposure to sexism. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... Microaggressions happen at a more interpersonal level and are described as subtle insults directed towards minorities to implicitly communicate or at least engender hostility (Sue et al., 2007;Torres et al., 2019). When first encountered, there is an initial tendency for those experiencing it to question whether it even occurred at all (Sue et al., 2008): ...
The establishment of a culturally diverse surgical workforce, largely on the basis of gender, has been highly promoted in Australasia in the last decade. Despite this, discussions of gender diversity in surgery have largely excluded Indigenous women. This study presents the experiences of wāhine Māori and Pasifika doctors in Aotearoa, who formed a surgical sisterhood to support them towards applying for advanced surgical training. Utilising mana wāhine and Masi methodologies, semi-structured interpersonal interviews were undertaken with five wāhine who formed the surgical sisterhood. Following transcription and analysis of all interviews, four key themes were identified. These were mana wāhine, unity, our why and change on the horizon. These themes illustrate the complex and varied experiences of wāhine Māori and Pasifika and how they have navigated their surgical pathways amidst multiple layers of discrimination towards being in a position to apply for advanced surgical training.
... Racial microaggressions are "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards people of color" (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007, p. 271). Microaggressions are associated with heightened emotional distress (Sue et al., 2008;Wang et al., 2011) and elevated somatic symptoms (Ong et al., 2013). Anticipatory stress is common among individuals with marginalized racial identities who have experienced frequent microaggressions (Hicken et al., 2013(Hicken et al., , 2014, and prolonged stress from racial microaggressions leads to racial battle fatigue (the emotional, psychological, and physical exhaustion individuals with marginalized racial identities may experience as a result of the cumulative effects of microaggressions over time; Smith et al., 2006). ...
This two-part study examined the effects of intervener’s race (White vs. Asian) and intervention format (high-threat—emphasizing the act of racism, low-threat—emphasizing the norm of justice, support-based—emphasizing a nonjudgmental attitude) on perceptions of microaggression interventions for White observers and Asian American targets. In separate 2 x 3 experimental designs, Asian Americans participants ( N = 187) and White American participants ( N = 185) were recruited through Qualtrics panels and randomly assigned to one of six conditions (three formats of intervention and two intervener groups). Participants read a vignette, imagined themselves as targets of the microaggression (Asian sample) or witnesses of the interaction (White sample), and completed a set of questionnaires assessing positive and negative perceptions of the intervener and aggressor. Asian American targets and White witnesses had more negative perceptions of interveners in the high threat condition. Covariates were relevant in interpreting reactions to intervention.
... Such experiences are likely to reduce feelings of inclusion. Research on microaggressions, which are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages (Sue, Capodilupo, & Holder, 2008;Sue, Lin, & Rivera, 2009), may provide a good starting point, not only to explore how such microaggressions from team members are related to feelings of inclusion or exclusion, but also to uncover the reasons why people display microaggressions. The uncertainty perspective suggests that uncertainty and anxiety about whether in particular diverse team members threaten the identity of the team causes team members to display microaggressions and related exclusive behaviors. ...
This chapter advances an uncertainty perspective to better understand and address the challenges of enhancing performance and inclusion in diverse teams. Decades of research on diversity in teams has spawned very useful insights, but is also riddled with inconclusive findings. Because diversity research tends to rely on and recycle the same theories, this chapter proposes that a better understanding of diversity can be fostered by applying a different perspective. In considering diversity as enhancing uncertainty and corresponding anxiety, this chapter proposes that diversity causes members to manage uncertainty by relying on cognitive shortcuts to make inferences about each other, which is likely to yield inaccurate attributions of intentions and competence and can harm performance. Moreover, in trying to create certainty, diverse and majority team members are likely to behave in conflicting and antagonizing ways, which harms inclusion. As such, the uncertainty perspective provides a novel understanding of the perceptions, behaviors, and corresponding dynamics that shape the performance of diverse teams and members’ experienced levels of inclusion. In suggesting that perceptions and experiences of uncertainty and anxiety underlie processes and outcomes in diverse teams, the uncertainty perspective also offers a number of suggestions to manage diversity-infused uncertainty and enhance team performance as well as inclusion.
... Racism has been recognized as a potential stressor for African-Americans that harm their physical and mental health (Clark, Anderson, et al. 1999). The survey-based research on racial microaggressions among African-Americans in U.S. and Northeastern migrants in India emphasizes that microaggressions work as chronic stressors and lead to cumulative physical and psychological damage (Sellers and Shelton 2003;Sohi and Singh 2016;Sue, Capodilupo, and Holder 2008). In addition, an emerging line of social neuroscience research has started examining the intra-individual impact of humiliation. ...
Psychology limits the scope of raising questions important in the caste context. While psychology focuses on why and how people feel humiliated, the question in the caste context is why and how people do not feel humiliated despite incessant and gratuitous attacks on their dignity and self-worth. This article argues that psychology needs to adopt a critical orientation to address the experience of caste-based humiliation. The anti-caste perspective of B. R. Ambedkar provides a critical orientation and psychological insights to build a meaningful psychology of caste-based humiliation. Ambedkar rejected individualist, essentialized notion of human self and emphasized the dimension of intergroup emotions to understand caste relations. I develop this argument by analyzing the experience, impact, and resistance to caste-based humiliation among Dalits. I describe caste-based humiliation in extreme (caste atrocities) and less extreme (caste microaggressions) forms and show that the experience of caste-based humiliation is pervasive, direct, but also vicarious. I then examine the psychological impact of caste-based humiliation on the health, social vitality, and appraisal process among Dalits. I show that caste-ridden context makes it difficult to interpret humiliation and affects Dalit life narratives through retrospective feelings of humiliation. Finally, I consider the issue of resistance to humiliation and show that mere appraising of humiliation could also be a form of resistance. The article concludes with an emphasis on exploring the scope of psychological resistance to caste-based humiliation through individual and collective acts of meaning that seek to interpret and transform humiliating existence.
... 12 Racial microaggressions are an everyday manifestation of oppression that brings psychological consequences to target groups. 13 Sue et al. define microaggression as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards people of color." 14 The goal of this analysis is to describe how all students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison perceive microaggressions and how students of color experience them and its relationship with alcohol culture. ...
Objective: Microaggressions are brief verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities toward people of color. Methods: Cross-sectional study examining the association between demographics, alcohol culture, and witnessing or experiencing microaggressions among undergraduate students. Analysis based on the “Color of drinking” study data collected at University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI between November 2017 and January 2018. Results: African-American/Black students significantly witnessed and experienced more microaggressions than other students, with a Relative Risk Ratio (RRR) of 9.5 (CI 95%: 4.7–19.1) and a RRR of 7 (CI 95%: 3.4–14.3). For students of color, experiencing microaggressions was associated with considering leaving (RRR = 3.5, CI 95%: 2–6.2). Additionally, the witnessing and experiencing of microaggressions appears to be associated with the alcohol culture on campus. Conclusions: African-American/Black was the racial group that witnessed and suffered more microaggressions. The percentage of students witnessing microaggressions increased with the year in school. Alcohol use in the last 30 days, feeling impacted by other’s use of alcohol, and avoiding certain areas due to alcohol consumption were associated with experiencing microaggressions among students of color.
... Additionally, the lived experiences of the four researchers as current and/or former undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators at PWIs served as a form of interrater agreement and validation of students' experiences conveyed in the sample tweets. The scholarship on racial microaggressions (Huber and Solórzano 2015;Sue, Capodilupo, and Holder 2008;Sue et al. 2007), served as a useful tool for interpreting and organizing the emergent themes from the sample of tweets posted to the #Blackatpwi site. Environmental microaggressions as defined by Sue et al. (2007, 278) as macro-level 'racial assaults, insults and invalidations which are manifested on systemic and environmental levels' were prominent in tweets communicated by the students that posted on #Blackatpwi. ...
In the 1960s, Black student protests of racism through sit-ins, building occupations, and demands for the resignation of university top administrators spurred the creation of ethnic studies and diversity programs on white university campuses in the United States. These efforts did not, unfortunately, dismantle entrenched structural racism. Black student activism continues to confront racial inequi-ties using digitized campaigns on social media platforms to reach a global audience. This study uses critical race theory to explore how Black students at a white-dominant university give meaning to their racialized experiences as communicated using the twitter hashtag campaign #Blackatpwi. The results illuminate the magnitude of anti-Black racism and conditions under which Black students are expected to learn, the myriad ways white institutions reproduce and reinforce white supremacy and the students' mobilization efforts to resist anti-Black racism. We provide recommendations to promote racial equity in higher education. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Nevertheless, conversations with White coworkers about racist societal-level events may create tense work environments due to differences in perceptions about anti-Black racism in policing and society at large (Chopik & Motyl, 2016). Such conversations may exacerbate Black employees' trauma and vulnerability to racial microaggressions (i.e., verbal and nonverbal slights; Solorzano et al., 2000;Sue et al., 2008). The race-related nature of police shootings heightens many Black individuals' concern about being the target of prejudice, which has been shown to elevate the perceived threat of engaging in interracial interactions (Sanchez et al., 2022;Trawalter et al., 2009). ...
Despite increased media coverage of police using lethal force against Black civilians, little research aims to understand how such events affect employees, particularly Black employees, at work. We draw on spillover—transferring emotions and/or behaviors from one domain to another—to examine how collective, indirect trauma, or trauma experienced by a large group of people not directly involved in an event, affected employees at work. Across two studies, we investigated Black and White employees’ differential cognitive (Study 1), emotional, and interpersonal reactions (Studies 1 & 2) to hearing about police officers’ use of lethal force against Black civilians (i.e., collective, indirect racial trauma). Results from a survey with open- and close-ended questions (Study 1) supported our predictions that Black (vs. White) employees would be more upset about police shootings and would think about, talk about, and be more distracted by these incidents while at work. Open-ended responses revealed social support, seeking advice and comfort from our social networks, as a strategy Black and White employees may use to cope with collective, indirect racial trauma at work. Importantly, support communicating mutual understanding—or shared perspective—was particularly important for Black employees. An experiment (Study 2) further probed the emotional and relational consequences of interactions with coworkers and, counter to predictions, found coworkers who expressed pro-police attitudes (i.e., not communicating mutual understanding) in the aftermath of a racially biased shooting were negatively evaluated by Black and White employees. Our findings provide implications for research on spillover and understanding coworker/team dynamics in organizations.
... Lack of personal experience with harassment and discrimination does not preclude such behavior from existing. Study [7] after study [9] after study [8,[60][61][62][63][64] have demonstrated the stark disparities in experiences of minoritized populations within STEM, including physics specifically. This problem is not unique to nor excludes HEPA spaces. ...
How are formal policies put in place to create an inclusive, equitable, safe environment? How do these differ between different communities of practice (institutions, labs, collaborations, working groups)? What policies towards a more equitable community are working? For those that aren't working, what external support is needed in order to make them more effective? We present a discussion of the current climate of the field in high energy particle physics and astrophysics (HEPA), as well as current efforts toward making the community a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment. We also present issues facing both institutions and HEPA collaborations, with a set of interviews with a selection of HEPA collaboration DEI leaders. We encourage the HEPA community and the institutions & agencies that support it to think critically about the prioritization of people in HEPA over the coming decade, and what resources and policies need to be in place in order to protect and elevate minoritized populations within the HEPA community.
... There is likely to be a lack of understanding amongst clinical social workers about how to help clients navigate situations where faith communities are simultaneously settings of support and trauma. This simultaneity is particularly difficult given the seemingly innocuous nature of microaggressions that may be not readily identified as significant (Sue et al., 2008). ...
Christian communities teaching traditional theology and ethics, which treat diverse sexualities and gender expansive identities as sinful, can be places where faithful LGBTQIA + people are subject to spiritual abuse. This paper explores the complex dynamics and multilayered mechanisms of this abuse in Australian Evangelical Christianity. It is based on a qualitative research project using 24 semi-structured interviews with LGBTQIA + people who have spent two or more years in Evangelical church settings. The project found that participants were subject to mischaracterization and viewed as a moral threat, and consequently experienced erasure, social distancing, and suffered psychological trauma. The paper uses minority stress and micro-aggression theory to conceptualize these experiences and inform social work practice. It also shows the rich resilience and spiritual growth of participants who navigated trauma and sometimes emerged with a more nuanced and deeper faith. These findings will help queer people coming out in Evangelical churches to understand their experiences, and provide clinicians and others supporting people that have experienced spiritual trauma with conceptual tools and practical examples to aid in therapy and informal recovery settings.
... Racial slights mirror the attitudes and beliefs of individuals who, knowingly or unknowingly, hold beliefs that align with white supremacy (Sue et al., 2008). Themes of racial slights include "assumption of intellectual inferiority," "second class citizenship," "assumption of criminality," "assumption of inferior status," "alien in own land," "color blindness," "myth of meritocracy," and "denial of individual racism" (Sue et al., 2008, p. 278). ...
This article leads off the special issue’s first section on Health, Mental Health, and Well-Being Today Among Marginalized Populations. It draws from multiple disciplines to address COVID- 19 vaccine hesitancy in rural areas of the United States. Presenting a synthesis of literature on rural vaccine hesitancy and emerging research and scientific opinion on COVID-19, we identify likely factors in rural decision-making about COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccination is underway, with plans to provide access to every U.S. resident. However, polls suggest vaccine hesitancy may compromise our ability to reach the goal of herd immunity, and rural residents express more hesitancy than their urban and suburban counterparts. Drawing on Thomson et al.’s (2016) identification of five dimensions of vaccine uptake, we use a social-ecological approach to propose actions to increase vaccine acceptance on individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and cultural levels. This conceptual paper is a starting point for rural health and human services administrators and practitioners seeking to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in their communities in this early stage of COVID-19 vaccination.
https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/journal-of-human-services
... The same stress events may be experienced differently across individuals, yet there are additional, more pervasive and frequent stressors for Black and Latinx adults. These include experiences of day-today microaggressions (Sue, Capodilupo, & Holder, 2008;Wong, Derthick, David, Saw, & Okazaki, 2014) and stressors related to institutionally embedded discriminatory practices in social, educational and occupational settings (Williams, 2018). As a result of these inequities, Black older adults would be expected to have worse mental and physical health (Williams & Earl, 2007). ...
Objectives:
To explain the ethnic paradox of mental health in aging, we evaluated whether Black and Latinx older adults experience (1) fewer depressive symptoms (DepSx), but more physical problems, and (2) greater psychological resilience as a result of life stressors than White older adults.
Methods:
DepSx, physical health, and recent stress were obtained biennially from 25,893 older adults (77% White, 15% Black, 9% Latinx) in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, across 16 years. Psychological resilience, lifetime stress, and discrimination experiences were available for 13,655 individuals. We conducted mixed-effects and linear regression analyses.
Results:
For Blacks and Latinxs, experiencing more-than-usual stress events was associated with less increase in DepSx compared to Whites, although on average Blacks and Latinxs experience more DepSx. Black adults showed worse physical health than White adults and weaker effects of stress on psychological resilience despite experiencing more stress of all types. Findings were mixed for Latinxs.
Conclusions:
Studying effects of time-varying stress on changes in health and multiple stressors on psychological resilience by race/ethnicity elucidates mechanisms for later-age health disparities.
Clinical implications:
Cross-sectional evaluations of stress and psychological health in a clinical setting may provide incomplete appraisals of health risks for Black and Latinx older Americans.
... Lastly, our work specifically contributes to this special issue on understanding anti-Black racism in organizations. Racist incidents at work ranging from subtle microaggressions to blatant acts of racism add significant stress to the lives of Black employees (Clark et al., 1999;Pitcan et al., 2018;Sue et al., 2008). We view confrontation as one key way to reduce negative experiences for Black employees, through both making individuals aware of their hurtful behavior, as well as setting a clear boundary as to what is (un)acceptable behavior in the workplace (Ashburn-Nardo et al., 2008). ...
Directly confronting others’ prejudice has been promoted as an important component in creating an inclusive workplace and motivating individuals to enact more inclusive behaviors. However, confrontations can also result in negative reactions from the confronted such as hostility or withdrawal. Across three studies (one experiment focused on anti-Black racism and two survey studies in which retrospective incidents of any type of racism were collected), we examine the extent to which the focus of a confrontation is associated with immediate constructive (i.e., prosocial) or destructive (i.e., antisocial, withdrawal/avoidant) responses. Specifically, we examine the differential effects of confronting racism in a way that focuses on the specific, temporary, and external behaviors enacted by the individual (behavior-focused) compared to focusing on the global, stable, and internal attributes of the person (person-focused). Across three studies we find converging evidence that behavior-focused confrontations are associated with more prosocial responses (e.g., self-improvement plans, appreciation) and that person-focused confrontations are associated with more antisocial and withdrawal/avoidant responses (e.g., hostility, avoidance). In Study 3, we find that interpersonal motivations (i.e., benevolence, revenge) and relationship repair efficacy help explain the effects of confrontation focus. We also find that the race of the confronter was not a significant moderator of findings, but we see some differences when comparing confronting anti-Black racism to confronting other types of racism (Studies 2 and 3). These results suggest that confrontation focus, and associated interpersonal motivations and beliefs, are important to understanding responses to prejudice confrontations. Implications are discussed.
... At the micro-level, scholars could further examine the ways in which successful initiatives to decrease overt racism may be accompanied by an increase in covert racism (Lennartz et al., 2019). Indeed, race-conscious initiatives (e.g., affirmative action; (Bell et al., 2000;Harrison et al., 2006)) can provoke rebellion (e.g., whitelash; (Kellner, 2017)), micro-invalidations (e.g., "people are people"; (Sue et al., 2008)), and racist misconceptions that advancing equity for Black employees compromises the integrity of organizational decision structures such as selection and promotion. Further, work that examines how people respond when confronted about their prejudiced actions or statements (see (Czopp, 2019)) offers a useful starting point to examine and address resistance, fragility, and denial in response to anti-Black racism in organizations. ...
In the wake of recent, highly publicized examples of anti-Black racism, scholars and practitioners are seeking ways to use their skills, resources, and platforms to better understand and address this phenomenon. Naming, examining, and countering anti-Black racism are critical steps toward fostering antiracist science and practice. To support those efforts, this paper details key insights from past research on anti-Black racism in organizations, draws from critical race perspectives to highlight specific topics that warrant consideration in future research, and offers considerations for how scholars should approach anti-Black racism research. Future research ideas include: specific manifestations of anti-Black racism within organizations, the double-bind of authenticity for Black employees, intersectionality among Black employees, and means of redressing anti-Black racism in organizations. Suggested research considerations include: understanding the history of anti-Black racism within research and integrating anti-Black racism research insights across organizational science. Research insights, ideas, and considerations are outlined to provide context for past and current experiences and guidance for future scholarship concerning anti-Black racism in organizations.
Racial microaggressions are a significant source of stress for people of color. This study identified two support message features for disarming the effects of racial microaggressions and tested reasons for their effectiveness. In a between-groups design, Black/African Americans ( n = 387), and Asian Americans ( n = 374) evaluated a support message crafted by a friend in response to one of six racial microaggressions. Participants perceived high person-centered, racial identity-affirming, and combination support messages as more effective and collective self-esteem enhancing than low quality message versions. Person-centered emotional support and combination messages were partly related to enhanced collective self-esteem through cognitive reappraisal and reattribution, while racial identity affirmation message quality was partly related to enhanced collective self-esteem through reattribution. Conditional process analyses determined that indirect effects were not contingent on participants’ race. Practical and theoretical implications of studying support messages to address racial microaggressions are discussed.
Gendered racial microaggressions reflect historical and contemporary gendered racism that Black women encounter. Although gendered racial microaggressions are related to psychological outcomes, it is unclear if such experiences are related to sleep health. Moreover, the health effects of gendered racial microaggressions dimensions are rarely investigated. Using a cohort of Black women (N = 400), this study employs an intracategorical intersectional approach to (1) investigate the association between gendered racial microaggressions and sleep health, (2) assess whether gendered racial microaggressions dimensions are related to sleep health, and (3) examine whether the gendered racial microaggressions–sleep health association persists after accounting for depressive symptoms and worry. Gendered racial microaggressions were associated with poor sleep quality overall and four specific domains: subjective sleep quality, latency, disturbance, and daytime sleepiness. Two gendered racial microaggressions dimensions were especially detrimental for sleep: assumptions of beauty/sexual objectification and feeling silenced and marginalized. After accounting for mental health, the effect of gendered racial microaggressions on sleep was reduced by 47 percent. Future research implications are discussed.
Cultural competence and cultural humility are hallmarks of social work practice. Cultural competence focuses on the clients’ lived experiences. Cultural humility centers the lived experiences of the clinician and the client. However, few resources are available to illustrate how to apply cultural competence and cultural humility separately. Even fewer opportunities are available to apply both. We illustrate how to employ both, cultural competence and cultural humility in practice with Black women with depression. When used together, cultural competence and cultural humility appears to be more valuable than when used individually. Based on research information presented, implications for practice are discussed.
The article is part of a Master’s thesis, completed in Brazil, 2021. The research aimed to study the intersubjective racial relations, arising from the transference relationship between Black psychologists and their White clients. The study deals with the encounter and clinical management of the mentioned dyad. This is a qualitative clinical research, using Bardin’s content analysis, with ten interviews conducted in a remote environment. This paper analyzes interpersonal relationships in the construction of bonds with patients, as well as psychic structures, considering them crossed by structural racism. From the literature on racial relations, and especially on Whiteness, it also considers the symbolic care between Blacks and Whites. As a result, the authors highlight the need to deepen the studies, training and research of psychology on the topics mentioned making possible processes of intervention for a psychology attentive to the maintenance of mental health from the diversities and their singularities in the Brazilian structural racism.
Objective: Black librarians account for just 5.4% of academic librarians in the U.S. in a period in which enrollments for Black students steadily increases. While national programs aimed at recruitment exist, too little attention is focused on the environments and cultures that influence the attrition of racially minoritized groups. This study investigated the experiences of Black librarians at public, 2-year colleges in the U.S. to better understand how they navigate, cope, and succeed amongst the challenges of academic librarianship. The following question guided the study: what are the experiences of Black librarians at public, 2-year colleges? Methods: Using Critical Race Methodology’s composite counterstory (CCS) and through two, ninety-minute interviews with four narrators, the experiences of Black librarians were leveraged to construct and reconstruct the storied lives of Black librarians in community college libraries. Results: The findings show the hostile environments Black librarians encounter in their work as educators at community colleges. Across and within their stories, four themes were found: retaliation, derailment, gendered racism, and violence. The narrators reported their work is made difficult in these environments, often creating barriers to retention (profession), promotion (organization), professional acknowledgment, and success. Conclusions: Implications for practice and research suggest bold action to counter the cultures of white supremacy to include intersectional audits for the organization, changes in HR policies, training and practices, and an emphasis on cohort hiring from national organizations among other recommendations.
Rassismus ist Realität - auch in der pluralen Gesellschaft Deutschlands. Doch was braucht es, um Rassismus zu erfassen, zu erforschen und politische sowie zivilgesellschaftliche Antworten auf ihn zu finden? Die Beiträger*innen liefern einen interdisziplinären Überblick zu grundlegenden Perspektiven, Theorien und Forschungsansätzen für eine zeitgemäße Rassismusforschung. Die im Rahmen des Nationalen Diskriminierungs- und Rassismusmonitors (NaDiRa) entstandenen Analysen bieten unverzichtbare und einzigartige Erkenntnisse zu Ursachen, Ausmaß und Folgen des Rassismus in Deutschland.
This chapter will examine standards of whiteness that are embedded in current organizational cultures and how these standards impact Black women (BW) in the workplace; particularly after the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and the racial reckoning of 2020. The authors widen the perspective beyond the confines of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a role, to discuss cultural issues that universally diminish the power of BW, and that DEI practitioners should inherently be charged to recognize, name, and be empowered to eradicate. The work introduces microdevaluation as a construct encompassing an array of racial aggressions often experienced by BW in public settings. The authors further examine the effects on innovation caused by the lack of inclusion of the voice of the BW within organizations. The chapter ends by providing recommendations that organizations and institutions must adapt in order to transform and achieve equity for BW and reap the benefits afforded by diversity and inclusion.
This article problematizes the concept of “Black Don’t Crack” and challenges the universal desirability of youthfulness. This study is driven by two research questions: (1) How does the perceived youthfulness of professional Black workers shape their subjective experience of workplace interactions? and (2) What strategies do Black workers use to assert their expertise and legitimacy when confronted with prejudicial attitudes and interactions based on perceptions about their age? Drawing on 18 semi-structured interviews with professional Black women who are perceived as younger than they actually are, this article describes Black women’s experiences with ageism and their specific strategies for combating age bias in the workplace. The focus of this study diverges from most ageism studies focused on bias against older adults. Rather, this article contributes to our understanding of how gendered racism and ageism intersect when Black women’s chronological ages differ from how they are perceived.
This article explores how existing issues of systemic racism in academia were heightened for Black women faculty during COVID-19 which coincided with high-profile killings of Black people in 2020. Several theories of cultural taxation have created space to discuss the nuanced experiences of marginalized groups in white spaces. In reflecting on academia, this article highlights “the inclusion tax” – the various labours exerted to be included in white spaces and resist and/or adhere to white social norms. While the 2020 pandemics reveal the deeply entrenched nature of systemic racism, they did not create the inequities Black women faced but worsened and exposed them. Using data from an exploratory, online open-ended survey of sixteen (n = 16) Black women faculty, we demonstrate how the inclusion tax heightened during that time. We argue that the inclusion tax negatively impacts Black women, adding significant invisible labour that further perpetuates racial and gender inequality.
Racism increases the amount of uncertainty in daily life, which may differentially affect the mental health of individuals from racial minority groups who score high on trait intolerance of uncertainty (IU), or the tendency to experience uncertainty as highly aversive. We examined associations between trait IU and current symptoms of common mental disorders in community samples of Black (N = 125) and White (N = 125) adults ages 18-55 who were matched on age, gender, and educational attainment. Given that data were collected between 2017-2021, we also examined pandemic exposure as a moderator of these associations. No mean differences emerged between Black and White adults on trait IU measured with the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 or on current psychiatric symptoms assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5. Trait IU was more strongly associated with current psychiatric symptoms in Black than White adults, a racial difference that dissipated following pandemic exposure. Present results extend prior work by suggesting the dispositional tendency to find uncertainty aversive is a stronger predictor of mental health symptoms in Black than White adults outside the context of pandemic-related stress. Implications of these findings for understanding the impact of racial- and pandemic-related environmental uncertainty on mental health is discussed.
Over one in ten heterosexual married couples are interracial and close to 10% of marriages are transnational. Even with the increasing rates of intermarriage there continues to be opposition to such marriages and their families. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of transnational couples, where both partners hail from different countries, as they navigate life in the U.S. Six heterosexual transnational couples across the country were interviewed separately and together using a phenomenological design, and within and across case analyses were conducted. Race, skin color, visibility, nativity, gender, and language interconnected to engender experiences that were different across every couple as they conceptualized how best to protect their families while navigating through varying social narratives, and familial and societal expectations about their relationship. The emergent themes organized into three intersecting processes -internal, intermediary, and external- as these couples navigated their different values, each other, and other systems in their lives. Implications for research and clinical practice follow.
Introduction
Studies suggest that higher rates of excess adiposity in Black women may in part be driven by experiences of racism. Racial microaggressions, which include unintentional and subtle slights and insults, and responses to racism such as racism-related vigilance, may contribute to adiposity in this population. This study examined these understudied racism-related facets as well as interpersonal racial discrimination in relation to adiposity in a cohort of Black women with systemic lupus erythematosus.
Methods
Data are from the Black Women's Experiences Living with Lupus (BeWELL) Study (2015–2017; n = 432). Linear regression was used to examine adiposity measures (body mass index [BMI], percent body fat, and waist-to-hip ratio) measured during a physical examination, in relation to self-reported measures of racial microaggressions, racism-related vigilance, and interpersonal racial discrimination.
Results
Compared with infrequent microaggressions, very frequent experiences of microaggressions were associated with 2.9 kg/m² higher BMI (95% confidence [CI], 0.63–5.21) and 2.6% higher body fat (95% CI, 0.32–4.80) after adjusting for covariates. Racism-related vigilance, measured continuously, was positively associated with BMI (b = 0.84; 95% CI–0.08, 1.61) and percent body fat (b = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.14–1.64). Very frequent experiences of everyday discrimination were associated with a higher BMI (b = 2.70; 95% CI, 0.58–4.83) and waist-to-hip ratio (b = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.09–0.55) compared with less frequent everyday discrimination.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that various dimensions of racism are associated with excess adiposity. Efforts to address obesity among Black women with systemic lupus erythematosus should consider these multiple aspects to decrease racial inequities in adiposity.
Objective: We assessed the association between gendered racism, the simultaneous experience of sexism and racism, depression, and psychological distress in Black college women using an intersectional instrument, the gendered racial microaggression scale. Participants: Black college women enrolled at a predominantly white institution (PWI) in the southeastern U.S. (N = 164, response rate = 77%, mean age 21.67). Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey to explore the impact of stress appraisal and frequency of gendered racial microaggressions on depression and psychological distress using validated scales. Results: 30% reported depression and 54% reported severe psychological distress. Correlations indicate significant relationships between gendered racism, depression and psychological distress, with the strongest relation reported between the frequency of gendered racism to depression. Regression analyses suggest significant relationships between gendered racism, depression and psychological distress. Conclusion: Gendered racism has significant bearing on the mental health of Black college women attending a PWI. Implications for interventions are discussed.
Anxiety and depression have increased exponentially and can be exacerbated by the ongoing individual and combined effects of the pandemic, ongoing unemployment, and systemic racism. Across the globe, career counsellors see the impact of these mental health concerns on individuals as they engage in career-decision making and problem-solving. Cognitive Information Processing theory (CIP; Sampson et al., 2020) can provide a useful framework for supporting diverse individuals experiencing heightened mental health and career concerns. In this article, we review key components of CIP theory, provide specific case examples that highlight the integration of career and mental health, and offer CIP-based conceptualizations and interventions.
This research and capstone explore how the experiences of Ghanaian and Nigerian first andsecond-generation immigrant women in the U.S. workplace differ from their Black American counterparts. This research specifically focuses on the experiences of millennials (born between 1981 – 1996), Black, women, who had at least three years of work experience. Through interviews including first andsecond-generation Ghanaian and Nigerian women and multi-generational Black American women, the capstone examines issues that include the stereotype threat, emotional tax, and the model minority myth. With the growth in the Black immigrant population over the last century, it is imperative that companies realize the nuanced differences present in these groups (Kposowa, 2002). Many of the women who participated in this study mentioned instances where stereotype threat and emotional tax negatively affected their workplace experiences. In all ten interviews, each woman had at least one instance where she felt that her race played in part in her workplace treatment. All the women felt as though they had to be acutely aware of how they presented themselves in the workplace. There were, however, slight differences in their workplace and educational social experiences, depending on whether they were Black American, or a first or second-generation Ghanaian or Nigerian millennial, immigrant, woman.
This chapter is the first of five data chapters presented in this book. It will draw on the three preceding contextual and theoretical chapters to give voice to the contemporary experiences of Black Africans in Australia. This chapter focuses on the experiences of Black Africans in the workplace. Our findings reveal that the often-accepted narrative of race-free or even race-neutral Australian workplaces is not supported by Black African experiences. Participants in this study reported constant, subtle and covert patterns of racial microaggressions in the workplace. Even though many participants spoke of the love of their jobs and occasional instances of support and belonging at the workplace, all but one spoke of the ways that subtle (and not so subtle) racial microaggressions dominated their experiences at work. These included experiences of social exclusion, gatekeeping of professional opportunities, accent discrimination, presumed incompetence, excessive scrutinisation and constant inferiorisation of Black knowledge and expertise in the workplace. To overcome these microaggressions and maintain their career development, many participants perceived that they had to work ‘twice as hard’ as their white colleagues do to ‘prove’ their competency and expertise.
Using the lifespan biopsychosocial model of cumulative vulnerability and minority health as a theroretical lens, the present study proposed two models to test the relationships among racial discrimination, cognitive–emotional factors, and risky sexual behaviors in a sample of 302 Black college students in the United States. Our models provided support for some of the hypothesized direct and indirect pathways. As expected, overt racial discrimination and subtle racial discrimination (i.e., racial microaggression) were both positively related to cognitive–emotional factors (i.e., anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and hostility). Racial microaggressions were significantly positively related to risky sexual behaviors, but overt racial discrimination was not. Hostility was the only cognitive–emotional factor that facilitated an indirect, significant effect from racial microaggressions to risky sexual behaviors. Potential implications are discussed for practice, training programs, and future counseling psychology research with Black college students using the lifespan biopsychosocial model of cumulative vulnerability and minority health.
Historically, the racialized members of the society, which include Black people, face different forms of prejudices and stereotypes due to conscious and unconscious attitudes or behaviors that stem from social discrimination, also known as microaggression. The society is known for its use of racial categorization to classify individuals based on their personal characteristics such as skin color. As such, people's racialized identity determines the way they are socially perceived, socially accepted, and the form of social relations they will receive from the dominance. This study uses the social dominant theory, social dominance orientation theory, and racial battle fatigue theory to examine how the minoritized individuals, in general, continue to face different forms of conscious and unconscious derogatory attitudes from other races due to their racialized identity. This study uses secondary data from the Project Implicit.org from Harvard University implicit bias dataset to examine if there is any difference in the ways one feels (either warm or cold).
People who have mental health diagnoses are often subject to sanist microaggressions in which pejorative terms to describe mental illness are used to represent that which is discreditable. Such microaggressions reflect and perpetrate stigma against severe mental illness, often held unconsciously as implicit bias. In this article, I examine the sanist attitudes that underlie sanist microaggressions, analyzing some of the cognitive biases that support mental illness stigma. Then I consider what responsibility we have with respect to microaggressions. I argue that all people share in a collective responsibility to engage in acts of epistemic resistance that challenge sanist attitudes so that it is easier for bystanders who witness microaggressions, and targets of microaggressions in particular, to identify microaggressions and to point out biased behavior. The act of pointing out bias is best understood as an act of epistemic resistance that is more effective and meaningful in the context of other acts of epistemic resistance. Ultimately, whether to point out bias is an individual decision that one must make after weighing the risks involved; engaging in a range of acts of epistemic resistance, on the other hand, is a moral responsibility everyone shares.
Objective
Despite evidence linking Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination and youth problem behaviors, little is known about the mechanisms that explain this link. To elucidate these developmental pathways, we tested a serial mediation model in which Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination were hypothesized to predict increased parental depression and parent-child conflict in early adolescence, which in turn would be associated with youth depression, anxiety, and conduct problems in early-to-mid-adolescence.
Method
Participants were 252 Black parent-child dyads. Youth (56% female) were on average 11.98 years at study entry (Wave 1). Parents and youth completed questionnaires during a home-based assessment at Wave 1 and were assessed again one and two years later (Waves 2 and 3).
Results
Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination at Wave 1 were linked to higher levels of parent-child conflict at Wave 2 (0.20; 95% CI [0.05, 0.33]), which in turn, predicted greater youth-reported depression at Wave 3 (0.30; 95% CI [0.15, 0.47]). There was a significant indirect effect of racial discrimination on youth-reported depression via parent-child conflict (indirect effect: 0.06, 95% CI [0.02, 0.10]). Findings replicated across multiple outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, conduct problems) and multiple informants (i.e., youth-report, parent-report). There was no evidence to support a serial mediation model via parental depression and then parent-child conflict.
Conclusion
This study identified a developmental pathway from Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination to adolescent problem behaviors via parent-child conflict. Findings may inform interventions aimed at promoting resilience in parents and youth faced with pervasive racism.
Clinical trial registration information: Substance Use Screening and Prevention for Adolescents in Pediatric Primary Care (SKY); https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT03074877.
Efforts to promote diversity and inclusion often lack a theoretical basis, which can unintentionally exacerbate issues. In this paper, we describe the development and evaluation results of a theoretically grounded workshop aimed at reducing microaggressions and promoting ally engagement among graduate students in science and engineering. In Study 1, using a Delphi method, eight science and engineering faculty members with backgrounds in diversity efforts provided feedback on workshop development. In Study 2, 107 graduate and advanced undergraduate students engaged in the 90-minute interactive workshop. Results indicate that attendees found the workshop valuable, developed new skills for ally engagement, and planned to engage as an ally moving forward (all averages of closed-ended assessments were 4.21 out of 5.00 or higher). Themes that were identified from qualitative responses mapped onto learning objectives, including raised awareness about microaggressions, sufficient practice, and confidence to improve one’s academic climate. Although microaggressions are common in science and engineering spaces, the present findings illustrated that, for many attendees, the information was new, including research on microaggressions and evidence-based ally strategies. This study offers a theoretically grounded intervention that facilitates intentional behavioral changes, which can help students change norms to support the advancement of women and people of color.
In this article, the authors present an interdisciplinary discussion of the multiple dimensions of racism and formulate conceptions of its impact on the formation of healthy personalities. They describe how racism has both ideological and structural components and perpetuates itself recursively at the macro-(e.g., group, institution) and microlevels (e.g., interpersonal). As one consequence of its embedded, cyclical nature, efforts to treat client problems that involve issues of race and racism will necessarily entail piercing distortions in reality, encouraging self-moral development, and eliciting risk-taking behaviors. To take part in transforming current structures of racism, counseling psychologists are urged to extend these strategies beyond the therapeutic milieu. Implications for practice, training, and research are presented.
The authors discuss the components of consensual qualitative research (CQR) using open-ended questions to gather data, using words to describe phenomena, studying a few cases intensively, recognizing the importance of context, using an inductive analytic process, using a team and making decisions by consensus, using auditors, and verifying results by systematically checking against the raw data. The three steps for conducting CQR are developing and coding domains, constructing core ideas, and developing categories to describe consistencies across cases (cross analysis). Criteria for evaluating CQR are trustworthiness of the method, coherence of the results, representativeness of the results to the sample, testimonial validity, applicability of the results, and replicability across samples. Finally, the authors discuss implications for research, practice, and training.
Does qualitative research have the potential to be useful to practitioners? How might it improve the practice of professional psychology for clients and for practitioners? This article describes the qualitative research paradigm, discusses how it can be adapted to clinical practice, and provides an example of a qualitative study that practitioners can easily accomplish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Perceived racial microaggressions by White supervisors were examined through a qualitative analysis of 10 self-identified Black doctoral supervisees in counseling and clinical psychology. Results indicated 7 microaggression themes directed toward this group: (a) invalidating racial-cultural issues, (b) making stereotypic assumptions about Black clients, (c) making stereotypic assumptions about Black supervisees, (d) reluctance to give performance feedback for fear of being viewed as racist, (e) focusing primarily on clinical weaknesses, (f) blaming clients of color for problems stemming from oppression, and (g) offering culturally insensitive treatment recommendations. The impact of these racial microaggressions was found to be detrimental to Black trainees, the supervisory relationship, and, indirectly, to clients of color. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article presents an overview of philosophy of science and research paradigms. The philosophy of science parameters of ontology, epistemology, axiology, rhetorical structure, and methodology are discussed across the research paradigms of positivism, postpositivism, constructivism-interpretivism, and the critical-ideological perspective. Counseling researchers are urged to locate their inquiry approaches within identifiable research paradigms, and examples of "locating" 2 popular inquiry approaches--consensual qualitative research and grounded theory--are provided. Examples of how counseling research would proceed from varying paradigms are explored, and a call is made for expanding the training students receive in philosophy of science and qualitative approaches to inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Empathy and attributions of client responsibility for the cause of and solution to a problem were examined for 247 psychologists who were identified as having low, moderate, and high color-blind racial attitudes. Participants responded to 1 of 4 vignettes that controlled for client race (i.e., African American, European American) and client attributions regarding the cause (i.e., depression, discrimination) of a problem. Analyses revealed that the therapists’ level of color-blindness was directly related to their capacity for empathy and also to their attributions of responsibility for the solution to the problem with an African American client but not with a European American client. No relationship was found between therapist color-blindness and attributions of responsibility for cause of the problem. Implications of these results for counseling practice, training, and research are discussed.
The authors reviewed the application of consensual qualitative research (CQR) in 27 studies published since the method's introduction to the field in 1997 by C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, and E. N. Williams (1997). After first describing the core components and the philosophical underpinnings of CQR, the authors examined how it has been applied in terms of the consensus process, biases, research teams, data collection, data analysis, and writing up the results and discussion sections of articles. On the basis of problems that have arisen in each of these areas, the authors made recommendations for modifications of the method. The authors concluded that CQR is a viable qualitative method and suggest several ideas for research on the method itself.
Racial disparities in health, including elevated rates of hypertension (HT) among Blacks, are widely recognized and a matter of serious concern. Researchers have hypothesized that social stress, and in particular exposure to racism, may account for some of the between-group differences in the prevalence of HT and a portion of the within-group variations in risk for HT. However, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies of the relationship between perceived racism and blood pressure (BP) or cardiovascular reactivity (CVR), a possible marker of mechanisms culminating in cardiovascular disease. This article reviews published literature investigating the relationship of perceived racism to HT-related variables, including self-reported history of HT, BP level, or CVR. Strengths and weaknesses of the existing research are discussed to permit the identification of research areas that may elucidate the biopsychosocial mechanisms potentially linking racism to HT. We hope to encourage investigators to invest in research on the health effects of racism because a sound and detailed knowledge base in this area is necessary to address racial disparities in health.
Six studies investigated the extent to which American ethnic groups (African, Asian, and White) are associated with the category "American." Although strong explicit commitments to egalitarian principles were expressed in Study 1, Studies 2-6 consistently revealed that both African and Asian Americans as groups are less associated with the national category "American" than are White Americans. Under some circumstances, a dissociation between mean levels of explicit beliefs and implicit responses emerged such that an ethnic minority was explicitly regarded to be more American than were White Americans, but implicit measures showed the reverse pattern (Studies 3 and 4). In addition, Asian American participants themselves showed the American = White effect, although African Americans did not (Study 5). The American = White association was positively correlated with the strength of national identity in White Americans. Together, these studies provide evidence that to be American is implicitly synonymous with being White.
Racial microaggressions were examined through a focus group analysis of 10 self-identified Asian American participants using a semistructured interview and brief demographic questionnaire. Results identified 8 major microaggressive themes directed toward this group: (a) alien in own land, (b) ascription of intelligence, (c) exoticization of Asian women, (d) invalidation of interethnic differences, (e) denial of racial reality, (f) pathologizing cultural values/communication styles, (g) second class citizenship, and (h) invisibility. A ninth category, "undeveloped incidents/responses" was used to categorize microaggressions that were mentioned by only a few members. There were strong indications that the types of subtle racism directed at Asian Americans may be qualitatively and quantitatively different from other marginalized groups. Implications are discussed.
Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities. 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 counselors (both White and those of color) on their racial/cultural awakening. Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions; this article uses the White counselor--client of color counseling dyad to illustrate how they impair the development of a therapeutic alliance. Suggestions regarding education and training and research in the helping professions are discussed.
Success in counseling African American men is discussed in terms of an invisibility syndrome and the role played by their racial identity development. Invisibility is considered a psychological experience wherein the person feels that his or her personal identity and ability are undermined by racism in a myriad of interpersonal circumstances. A therapy case is used to explain how this experience helps determine Black men’s perspective on cross-racial interpersonal encounters and supports racial identity development as fundamental to their personal identity and as a buffer against racism. Awareness of the dynamic interface between racism, invisibility, and racial identity development can help the counseling process and effectiveness of our interventions with African American men. Discussion of a therapeutic support group is used as an example.
Although the use of focus group methodology is increasing in social science research, few empirical evaluations of this method are found in the literature. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the utility of focus groups as a research method. We present a study in which a mixed-ethnicity sample of 44 men, ages 18–43 years, participated in both an individual interview and a focus group discussion covering 4 identical topics related to intimate and sexual relationships. Although both methods generated similar conclusions, a greater range and richness–depth of themes were present in the individual setting. However, dynamic interactions in the focus group setting provided insight beyond the content themes. Theories of small group dynamics are used to discuss our findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the relationships among African American clients' perceptions of their White counselors with respect to (a) perceived racial microaggressions in cross-racial counseling relationships, (b) the counseling working alliance, (c) their counselors' general and multicultural counseling competence, and (d) their counseling satisfaction. Findings revealed that greater perceived racial microaggressions by African American clients were predictive of a weaker therapeutic alliance with White therapists, which, in turn, predicted lower ratings of general and multicultural counseling competence. Greater perceived racial microaggressions also were predictive of lower counseling satisfaction ratings. In addition, African American clients' perceptions of racial microaggressions had a significant indirect effect on these clients' ratings of White counselors' general and multicultural counseling competence through the therapeutic working alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
1.1. A relatively small number of life change events account for most of the day-to-day life change, and a few bodily systems account for the majority of the signs and symptoms of everyday life.2.2. A person is much more likely to experience the signs and symptoms of everyday life on days of greater than average life change, as reflected by his Life Change Units point total. Life changes tend to cluster around health changes.3.3. Conversely, a person is much less likely to experience signs and symptoms on days of less than average life change, and low amounts of life change tend to cluster around symptom-free days.4.4. Individuals with the highest amounts of life change demonstrate the most signs and symptoms, as do those with some form of chronic illness, though most of the signs and symptoms are unrelated to the chronic disorders.5.5. Women have more signs and symptoms than men.6.6. Those people with many signs and symptoms have them more or less continuously and not all at once.7.7. Of any given number of days, half are symptomatic and half are nonsymptomatic, but when signs and symptoms occur, they do not affect work capacity or productivity and they do not require medical attention.8.8. There is a negative correlation between variability and magnitude of mean life change.9.9. There is no demonstrable relationship between occurrence of signs and symptoms and variability of life change.10.10. These data are consistent with several long term studies of life change and health change and suggest that minor health changes may be causally related to events requiring adaptive behavior.
IN PREVIOUS studies [l] it has been established that a cluster of social events requiring change in ongoing life adjustment is significantly associated with the time of illness onset. Similarly, the relationship of what has been called ‘life stress,’ ‘emotional stress,’ ‘object loss,’ etc. and illness onset has been demonstrated by other investigations [2-131. It has been adduced from these studies that this clustering of social or life events achieves etiologic significance as a necessary but not sufficient cause of illness and accounts in part for the time of onset of disease. Methodologically, the interview or questionnaire technique used in these studies has yielded only the number and types of events making up the cluster. Some estimate of the magnitude of these events is now required to bring greater precision to this area of research and to provide a quantitative basis for new epidemiological studies of diseases. This report defines a method which achieves this requisite. METHOD
Various authors have noted that interethnic group and intraethnic group racism are significant stressors for many African Americans. As such, intergroup and intragroup racism may play a role in the high rates of morbidity and mortality in this population. Yet, although scientific examinations of the effects of stress have proliferated, few researchers have explored the psychological, social, and physiological effects of perceived racism among African Americans. The purpose of this article was to outline a biopsychosocial model for perceived racism as a guide for future research. The first section of this article provides a brief overview of how racism has been conceptualized in the scientific literature. The second section reviews research exploring the existence of intergroup and intragroup racism. A contextual model for systematic studies of the biopsychosocial effects of perceived racism is then presented, along with recommendations for future research.
The authors review a series of studies that illustrate how one form of contemporary racial bias of Whites, aversive racism, can shape different perspectives of Blacks and Whites in ways that can undermine race relations. This research demonstrates that contemporary racism among Whites is subtle, often unintentional, and unconscious but that its effects are systematically damaging to race relations by fostering miscommunication and distrust. In particular, the authors examine the effects of aversive racism on outcomes for Blacks (e.g., in selection decisions), on the ways that Whites behave in interracial interactions, in the impressions that Whites and Blacks form of each other in these interactions, and on the task efficiency of interracial dyads.
Racialized science seeks to explain human population differences in health, intelligence, education, and wealth as the consequence of immutable, biologically based differences between "racial" groups. Recent advances in the sequencing of the human genome and in an understanding of biological correlates of behavior have fueled racialized science, despite evidence that racial groups are not genetically discrete, reliably measured, or scientifically meaningful. Yet even these counterarguments often fail to take into account the origin and history of the idea of race. This article reviews the origins of the concept of race, placing the contemporary discussion of racial differences in an anthropological and historical context.