After Pierce and Sue: A Revised Racial Microaggressions Taxonomy

Abstract

Harvard psychiatrist Chester Pierce’s conception of “subtle and stunning” daily racial offenses, or microaggressions, remains salient even 50 years after it was introduced. Microaggressions were defined further by Sue and colleagues in 2007, and this construct has found growing utility as the deleterious effects of microaggressions on the health of people of color continues to mount. Many studies seek to frame microaggressions in terms of a taxonomic analysis of offender behavior to inform the assessment of and interventions for the reduction of racial microaggressions. This article proposes an expansion and refinement of Sue et al.’s taxonomy to better inform such efforts. We conducted a review of published articles that focused on qualitative and quantitative findings of microaggressions taxonomies ( N = 32). Sixteen categories of racial microaggressions were identified, largely consistent with the original taxonomy of Sue et al. but expanded in several notable ways. Building on our prior research, other researchers supported such new categories as tokenism, connecting via stereotypes, exoticization and eroticization, and avoidance and distancing. The least studied categories included the denial of individual racism from Sue et al., and newer categories included reverse-racism hostility, connecting via stereotypes, and environmental attacks. A unified language of microaggressions may improve understanding and measurement of this important construct.

Cultural responsiveness in applied behavior analysis: Self‐assessment

“…Self‐assessment may help us identify our own rules (i.e., stereotypes and prejudices) about groups and particular people, which may assist us in identifying and disrupting biased behaviors and microaggressions towards individuals from different groups. In 1970, Pierce coined the term microaggression (Williams, 2020), which has been expanded by others (Sue et al, 2007; Williams et al, 2021). Sue et al (2007, p. 271) defines microaggressions as “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”.…”

Racial Microaggressions: Critical Questions, State of the Science, and New Directions

“…In line with the need to refine microaggression taxonomies and expand categories, Williams and colleagues (2021; this issue) tackle this very topic. They note that Sue and colleagues’ (2007) original taxonomy was only theoretical and not empirically based, given that the requisite research had not yet been done when their seminal article was published in the American Psychologist .…”

“…When Esmeralda gets to her car, she cannot decide if she wants to scream or cry. This one event included at least five microaggressions—being unseen, being ignored, being treated like a second-class citizen, victim blaming, and invalidation (Sue et al, 2007; Williams et al, 2021). None of the offenders in this example would admit to doing anything racist, nor would they implicate other White people.…”

Racial and Language Microaggressions in the School Ecology

“…The 16 microaggressions we include are not an exhaustive list; rather, they are a list of common microaggressions adapted from M. T. Williams et al (2021) and salient for informing the discussion for K-12 stakeholders (Table 1). The 16 categories include the following, all of which can be experienced by students as racial, nativist, or even immigrant aggressions: not a true citizen, racial categorization, assumptions about intelligence/competence/status, false color blindness, criminality or dangerousness, denial of individual racism, myth of meritocracy/race as irrelevant for success, reverse-racism hostility, pathologizing racial/ethnic culture, second-class citizen, tokenism, attempting to connect using stereotypes, exoticism, avoidance and distancing, environmental exclusion (in which racial identity is excluded from the environment), and environmental attacks in which depictions (e.g., Confederate statues) pose an affront or insult (M. T. Williams, 2020a; M. T. Williams et al, 2021). The 16 categories are useful to consult when considering the research and information in the remaining sections.…”

“…These microaggressions are nested under the racial microaggression category. The 16 microaggressions we include are not an exhaustive list; rather, they are a list of common microaggressions adapted from M. T. Williams et al (2021) and salient for informing the discussion for K–12 stakeholders (Table 1).…”