Racial Microaggressions

Daniel G. Solórzano is professor of social science and comparative education and director of the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Lindsay Pérez Huber is an associate professor in the Social and Cultural Analysis of Education master’s program in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach, and coauthor of Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education.

“ Racial Microaggressions in Education is a timely, well-researched book that draws on the works of other scholars in the field (notably Chester Pierce, who first coined the term microaggression) and provides vivid, real-life examples of racial microaggressions throughout the text. Readers, regardless of their background, will better understand racial microaggressions and be able to pinpoint them after reading this book, enabling them to disrupt the normalized existence of racism in everyday life.”—CHOICE

• ContentsSeries Foreword vii James A. BanksAcknowledgments xvArtist’s Statement xixLuis-Genaro GarciaIntroduction: Origin Stories: How We Came to Study Racial Microaggressions 1Danny’s Story 1Lindsay’s Story 8Our Stories Coming Together to Further Theorize Racial Microaggressions 14Overview of the Book 171.  Laying the Conceptual Groundwork for Understanding Racial Microaggressions 19Counterstories of Everyday Racism 19Majoritarian Stories of Everyday Racism 22Recognizing History to Name Everyday Racism 25Chester Pierce and the Conceptual Development of Racial Microaggressions 30Defining Race and Racism 32Using Critical Race Theory to Theorize Racial Microaggressions 332.  Understanding the Types, Contexts, Effects, and Responses to Racial Microaggressions Using Critical Race Hypos 37A Critical Race Hypo 37Types of Microaggressions 39Contexts of Microaggressions 41Effects of Microaggressions 42Responses to Microaggressions 453.  Examining the “Micro” Versus the “Macro” in Researching Racial Microaggressions 51Theorizing the Macroaggression: A Tree Metaphor 52Macroaggression: The Roots of Racism 52Institutional Racism: The Trunk and Branches 53Racial Microaggression: The Leaves 54Applying the Framework 564.  Racism Within and Between Communities of Color: Internalized Racism 66Internalized Racism: The Clark Doll Experiment 69Internalized Racist Nativism: El Teatro Campesino’s “El Corrido” 71Intergroup Conflict: The “Blexit” Movement 775.  Responding to Racial Microaggressions: Theorizing Racial Microaffirmations 84Theorizing Racial Microaffirmations 85Examples of Racial Microaffirmations: Existing Literature 88Examples of Racial Microaffirmations: Our Personal Stories 92Examples of Racial Microaffirmations: Empirical Evidence 946.  Conclusion 98Future Research on Racial Microaggressions: Promising Areas 99Praxis: Disrupting Racial Microaggressions 106Notes 111References 125Index 144About the Authors 155