“I’m seen not as an American, but a foreigner,” he says. These experiences have fueled his professional interest in human behavior. Dr. Sue is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, and author of Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation. He’s spent his career researching the psychology of racism and antiracism, as well as multicultural counseling and psychotherapy. He coauthored the seminal 2007 paper “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice,” which outlines the psychological impacts of racial microaggressions and the need for them to be recognized and addressed in counseling and therapy. Subsequent work has linked microaggressions to numerous measures of poor physical and psychological health, including more loneliness, trauma, stress, and cardiovascular disease, as well as worse maternal health outcomes. And since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians and Asian Americans who experienced microaggressions have reported worse physical health and sleep issues, a study published in 2021 in the journal Stigma and Health found. But understanding the harms of microaggressions and how best to root them out of everyday interactions is still unfinished work, Sue says. Here he explains more about why microaggressions can have such lasting effects. Everyday Health: What is a microaggression? Derald Wing Sue: They are everyday slights, put downs, and insults. They can be intentional and unintentional; sometimes people aren’t even aware they are being offensive. A microaggression can be targeted toward any marginalized group based on race, gender, sexuality, and disability. EH: Can you give examples? DWS: In our studies we’ve heard of incidents where among high schoolers Black girls were told by white girls: “You’re pretty to be a dark girl.” Another example is at work, a Black man was told by a coworker: “You’re the least scary Black man I know.” The people who say these things think they’re compliments, but there is hidden communication. In the case of the girls, it’s that being dark and pretty is an exception and for the men it’s that Black men are dangerous. Microaggressions can also be nonverbal, too. For example, a Black man gets on an elevator and a white woman clutches her purse or he crosses the street and car doors lock. They can be environmental, like a confederate statute or a workplace with a hallway full of past CEOs that are all white men. What message does that send to people of color and women? Racial profiling, another example, assumes people of color are up to no good. This translates to a stereotype. EH: How do microaggressions affect the people they are targeted toward? DWS: What may seem “micro” has macro impact because of the constant, cumulative effect. Microaggressions can affect mental, emotional, and physical health. The impact is immediate and long term. A person of color from the time they are born until they die, can experience microaggressions. Microaggressions can result in inequalities at work, in healthcare, and when it comes to education. It’s extensive with systemic implications. EH: With racial microaggressions, are the perpetrators racists? DWS: The behaviors can be racist, but none of us born and raised in the United States are immune to bias. The United States has a history of racism; it’s ingrained in society. At McDonald’s I watched three white women with their little girls playing together on the restaurant’s playground. When one of them went to play with a Black boy their same age, the moms looked at each other, the girl’s mother went over there, got her, and brought her back to play with the girls. She went back to play with the boy. The mothers looked at each other and suddenly it was time to leave. The girls got the message: Don’t play with a Black boy. People are conditioned early. But no, not everyone that harbors racial bias is evil. EH: What can you do if you’re on the receiving end of the microaggression? DWS: Have an anti-bias strategy, a plan to counter a microaggression. If a white classmate says, “You’re pretty for a dark girl,” reply to them: “Thank you, you’re pretty for a white girl.” When people tell me I speak excellent English I tell them, you speak excellent English, too. Feel empowered, instead of at a loss. Your response puts them on notice that they were offensive. You’re not being combative — you’re responding in a way that’s cool, calm, and gets their attention. EH: What if you witness a microaggression? As a bystander, is there anything you can do to intervene? DWS: Call it out, educate a perpetrator. Separate the intent from the impact. When you point out what they did they may get defensive and say they didn’t mean any harm and you’re overreacting. Shift the discussion, tell them maybe they thought their comment was funny, but it was hurtful. Or say someone is getting ready to go down the wrong path, like a conversation about why Latinos are lazy. Cut them off and say something like, “let’s not even go there.” Silence is a compliant moral transgression — meaning you’re guilty too because you didn’t speak out, as silence can be mistaken for agreement. EH: What can you do to make sure you’re not unintentionally committing a microaggression? DWS: We must explore ourselves and be willing to do the work to get rid of bias. It’s not enough to work with people who are different; we must have real interaction with people who are different. Do you socialize with them? People like to say they live in Harlem, but do they go to church or the grocery store there? Develop relationships with people who are different, that’s the beginning of real change.
