"It was a monumental task to get white people to realize that they were delivering micro-aggressions," one of the psychologists said. "It's scary to them. It assails their self-image of being good, moral, decent human beings to realize that maybe at an unconscious level they have biased thoughts, attitudes and feelings that harm [other people]."
The effects of micro-aggression are now well-documented. They include negatively impacting people's mental health, job performance and social experiences, often leaving deep scars. One study found that African-Americans and women performed worse on academic tests when subjected to stereotypes about race or gender. This was especially noticeable with respect to women's math performance. Intelligence scores for blacks also plunged after subjects were exposed to stereotypes about blacks' inferior intelligence.
Dr. Gerald Wing Sue, an Asian-American psychologist, focuses his work on micro-insults and micro-invalidations because of their less obvious nature. "While a person may feel insulted, they are not sure exactly why," he explains. "This puts them in a psychological bind while the perpetrator doesn't acknowledge that anything happened because he is not aware he has been offensive. The person of color is caught in a Catch-22 because if they confront the perpetrator, he will deny it. That leaves the person of color questioning what actually happened, resulting in confusion, anger, and ultimately, sapped energy."
Sue's research with African-Americans revealed them feeling they did not belong or were untrustworthy in certain situations. Respondents reported feeling "watched" in stores or being overly cautious about their body language when they were near white women "so not to frighten them." Others said they were "vigilant at work" so that mistakes wouldn't reflect badly on their race. Asian-American described different ways in which they have been made to feel "alien," like being told they speak good English. Women in this group revealed that white men often expected them to be subservient.
"These incidents may appear small or trivial but they assail the mental health of recipients," Dr. Sue says.
I didn't need an expert to tell me that. My time in Dubai nearly drove me crazy and I'm white. I can't imagine what it feels like to be subjected to invisible aggression in your own country because of your skin color or the slant of your eyes.
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