The Compounding Impact of Racial Microaggressions: The Experiences of African American Students in Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

Background/Context:

African American students often encounter racial microaggressions when attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Experiencing racial microaggressions can negatively affect African American students’ feelings of belonging to the campus community. Racial microaggressions can also affect their physical and emotional stability.

Purpose of Study:

Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, we focused on the centrality of race and racism and intersectionality. We examined how experiencing racial microaggressions influenced African American students’ (n = 15) feelings of belonging at PWIs. In addition, we explored how students emotionally coped with their experiences.

Research Design:

A semi-structured interview was conducted with participants. Using thematic analysis through the process of open coding and axial coding, we developed themes based on students’ experiences with microaggressions, feelings of belonging, and coping strategies. We connected the themes to the larger research literature, focusing on our CRT framework.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

Experiencing racial microaggressions made students feel devalued in the campus community. In addition, racial microaggressions intersected with other forms of oppression, further impacting students’ sense of belonging. These experiences often led students to use maladaptive coping mechanisms; despite this, students were able to create community by using self-protective coping mechanisms, such as creating supportive networks. Racism-related stress caused by racial microaggressions should be considered a public health issue. By exploring racial microaggressions, researchers and policy makers can understand how racism impacts individuals and provide tools on how to challenge racism on systemic levels.

Keywords

African Americans racial microaggressions critical race theory belonging coping

Although more African American students are attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs), the cultures of PWIs are experiencing little to no change. African American students who attend PWIs have always been concerned about racism (Solórzano et al., 2000), and those concerns seem to be intensifying as anti-Black racism continues to grow (Valandra et al., 2022). With the increased high-profile police killings of African Americans, the racist political rhetoric, and the targeted mass shootings of African Americans by white supremacists, African American students are being inundated with negative racial messages or racial microaggressions, causing psychological, emotional, and physical harm (Mosley et al., 2021). These messages and feelings of pain are often reiterated within the walls of PWIs. Given that college campuses are microcosms of what is going on in the larger community, the increase in anti-Black racism is concerning, yet reflective of the systemic racism that influences U.S. society.

The purpose of this study is to better understand how African Americans at PWIs experience racial microaggressions, a form of systemic racism. Specifically, using a critical race theory (CRT) lens, we explored how African American students’ experiencing of racial microaggressions influenced their sense of belonging. We also examined how African American students coped with experiencing racial microaggressions. We begin by giving a discussion of our CRT framework and the research literature on racial microaggressions. We then provide the findings to our study and end with a discussion of implications for research and policy.

Critical Race Theory Framework

CRT is a counterlegal scholarship that emerged in the 1970s to challenge racial reform. CRT foregrounds race within analyses, challenges traditional paradigms, and is used to understand the experiences of People of Color (Solórzano & Pérez Huber, 2020). More specifically, CRT has two main goals: (1) to understand the creation, maintenance, and impact of white supremacy, and (2) to better understand and change the relationship between racial power and the law (Bell, 1995; Crenshaw et al., 1995). CRT has been used in education to understand the collective experiences of People of Color and to provide comprehensive analyses of the impact of systemic racism structures. Researchers in education have articulated 10 key concepts that are commonly addressed by CRT: centrality of experiential knowledge, centrality of race and racism, challenge to dominant ideology, property rights of whiteness, interest convergence, intersectionality, myth of meritocracy, historical/contextual perspective, interdisciplinarity, and a commitment to social justice (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Specifically, this study focused on the centrality of race and racism, and intersectionality. The centrality of race and racism is a central component of CRT. It focuses on the idea that racism permeates through all aspects of society, impacts all structures, and is a permanent component of society (Bell, 1991). Racism is omnipresent, and any remedies to remove racism are temporary. This suggests that African Americans will experience racism in any and every context—it is just a matter of time. Similarly, intersectionality focuses on how race intersects with other marginalized identities. The experiences of African American women are both gendered and racialized; thus, both must be considered. According to Crenshaw (1991), there are three types of intersectionality: structural (how women of color experience multiple forms of oppression), political (how women of color are situated within subordinated groups), and representational (how women of color are culturally constructed). At the core of intersectionality is challenging power structures that are perpetuated by the intersection of race and gender, as well as other forms of oppressions (Crenshaw, 1989). The concepts of the centrality of race and racism, and intersectionality were chosen because they best illuminate how the African American students, particularly the African American women, experienced racial microaggressions in the PWI context. Using a CRT framework enables the examination of African American students’ experiences with racial microaggressions as an extension of the larger systemic racism that influences society.

Understanding Racial Microaggressions

Racial microaggressions are a “form of systemic, everyday racism” or racial discrimination (Pérez Huber & Solórzano, 2015, p. 298). They are influenced by institutional racism and oppressive structural policies and processes. Specifically, racial microaggressions are intentional or unintentional verbal and nonverbal assaults that “communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color” (Sue et al., 2007, p. 272). There are three forms of racial microaggressions: racial assaults (e.g., direct racial slurs or hate symbols), racial insults (e.g., behaviors that convey or are perceived as racial critiques), and racial invalidations (e.g., colorblind statements that negate a group’s experiences as racial/cultural beings) (Sue et al., 2007; Torres et al., 2010). Although a racial microaggression may be a singular experience, the effects of a racial microaggression can be cumulative, making their impact compounded and longer term, potentially manifesting emotionally, psychologically, and/or physically. In addition, racial microaggressions often intersect with other forms of oppression (e.g., class, gender, sexuality), increasing their intensity (Pérez Huber & Solórzano, 2015). The form of gendered racial microaggressions, for example, focuses on the intersection of racism and sexism, which African American women commonly experience (Lewis & Neville, 2015).

Racial Microaggressions and African American Students

Experiencing racial microaggressions at PWIs can impact the way African American students experience schooling. Research has indicated that experiencing racial microaggressions can negatively impact academic achievement, self-efficacy, peer interactions, and racial identity (Harwood et al., 2012; Keels et al., 2017; Nadal et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2007). In addition, experiencing racial microaggressions impacts the way African American students feel about their campuses and their sense of belonging or relatedness. Belonging or relatedness is viewed as perceptions of acceptance and “fit” within the school environment (Eccles & Midgley, 1989). For African American students, belonging involves examining interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures or environmental aspects that support or hinder students’ wanting to belong (Gray et al., 2018). A student’s sense of belonging at school can serve as a protective factor academically (Freeman et al., 2007; McMahon et al., 2009) and psychologically (Matthews et al., 2014). However, research has demonstrated that the more African American students experience racial microaggressions at PWIs, the lower their sense of school belonging (Lewis et al., 2021).

Racial Microaggressions, African American Students, and Health

Experiencing racial microaggressions can cause African Americans to experience racism-related stress and can be detrimental to their physical, mental, emotional, and psychological well-being. Racism-related stress has been linked to a variety of physical negative health outcomes, including high blood pressure, obesity, uterine fibroids, and preterm births (Giscombé & Lobel, 2005; Paradies et al., 2015). In addition, racism-related stress has been demonstrated to contribute to emotional and psychological issues, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (Nadal et al., 2014). Such experiences often lead African Americans to respond and exhibit various coping strategies to either minimize stress or decrease anxiety (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2020; Forsyth & Carter, 2012; Huber et al., 2021; Sue et al., 2019). According to Spanierman et al. (2021), three forms of self-protective coping strategies are often employed by African Americans to minimize stress: collective coping (e.g., creating connections with others), self-protective coping (e.g., meditating, going to church), and resistance coping (e.g., confronting racism). Maladaptive coping strategies, techniques that can increase stress and anxiety and are frequently used by African Americans, include drinking, drug usage, and overeating.

Methods

The study presented in this article was a part of a larger mixed-methods research study (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2022). For this qualitative study, using a CRT lens, we explored the following questions regarding African American students in the PWI context:

What are African American students’ experiences with racial microaggressions?

How do African American students cope with the experiences associated with racial microaggressions?

How do racial microaggressions contribute to students’ feelings of belonging or relatedness?

Participants/Context

The study consisted of 15 participants, 11 women and four men. All participants were full-time undergraduate (two seniors) or graduate students (10 doctoral and three master’s students). The participants were enrolled in education, psychology, or STEM programs in PWIs across the country (see Table 1). We used a combination of convenience and snowball sampling to recruit participants. Prospective participants were contacted by email or in-person by visiting various student groups.

Table 1.

Participant Demographics.

Participant	Major	Program Year and Type
Katherine	Engineering	4th-year senior
Dana	Nutrition	4th-year senior
Wade	Nutrition	2nd-year master’s
Candice	School administration	2nd-year master’s
Jamie	Elementary education	2nd-year master’s
Kaeden	Statistics	2nd-year doctoral
Erica	Math education	2nd-year doctoral
Janet	School psychology	2nd-year doctoral
Robin	School psychology	2nd-year doctoral
Kayla	Physiology	3rd-year doctoral
Karen	Community psychology	3rd-year doctoral
Christopher	Agricultural education	3rd-year doctoral
Jasmine	Sociology	3rd-year doctoral
Noah	Psychology	4th-year doctoral
Juliet	Higher education	4th-year doctoral

Data Collection

We conducted semi-structured interviews with follow-up probes. The interview questions were designed to capture the participants’ experiences as African American students at PWIs. Demographic data and some personal information were also collected (e.g., club involvement). All interviews took place in a neutral location, lasted between 30 minutes and an hour, and were audio-recorded using a digital recording device.

Data Analysis

A transcription service transcribed the interviews verbatim, and the research team then reviewed the transcripts for accuracy. We began the thematic analysis process by creating a codebook using theoretical and literature-based concepts; we focused on the racial microaggressions, CRT, belonging, and coping literatures. Sample CRT codes included interest convergence-tokenism, intersectionality-marginalized, and racial realism. As suggested by DeCuir-Gunby et al. (2011), the codebook featured primary and secondary codes, definitions, and examples from the raw data. We used Dedoose 7.6.21 to upload the data and code using the codebook. Our coding process involved open coding to examine the raw data and axial coding in order to connect codes and concepts (Charmaz & Belgrave, 2012; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). We organized the codes and concepts into larger themes and analyzed them using a CRT lens, focusing on the centrality of race and racism, and intersectionality.

We also engaged in a variety of procedures to ensure credibility and trustworthiness. To maintain credibility, we used peer-reviewed articles within the field to derive codes and themes (Braun & Clark, 2006). In addition, we provided thick, rich descriptions to better support our research claims. To establish trustworthiness, we engaged in member checking with the participants. We also established interrater reliability. The research team maintained interrater reliability of 85% or higher throughout the coding process.

Findings

Several common themes emerged in the analysis of the participants’ stories. All participants discussed how they experienced racial microaggressions on their respective campuses. The participants described how experiencing racial microaggressions on campus impacted their sense of belonging. In addition, the participants all described a variety of ways in which they coped with the experiencing of racial microaggressions, both positive and negative. However, a few stories were striking because they demonstrated how seriously harmful the experiencing of racial microaggressions can be for African American students. In this article, we explore excerpts from their stories.

When Experiencing Racial Microaggressions Turns Violent: The Permanence of Racism

Jamie, a second-year master’s student in elementary education, shared an encounter she had with a white student while eating in a university cafeteria. The racial microaggression that Jamie experienced proved to be too much for her emotionally and made her question her place at the university. Jamie described the incident:

Which brings me to when I moved into The Big Towers, which here at Capital University, they have towers, that’s where all the rich people stay. I met a boy who had just transferred from Eastern University, and he said that his roommate’s last name was [the same as mine], and he asked me, and this is a white boy who’s roomin’ with another white boy, and he asked me, he was like, oh no he said, “Do you think any of your family members are hanging in his family tree?” And then I stabbed him with a fork. And I almost got kicked out of school. Because I wouldn’t tell them what he said to me to make me stab him with a fork.

With Jamie’s story, we are reminded of the premise of the centrality of racism or that racism is a permanent component of society (Bell, 1995). Although some people may view Jamie’s actions as aggressive or see her as the aggressor, Jamie’s reaction was the result of cumulative experiences with racial microaggressions. Stabbing her racial microaggressor with a fork was a reaction to being emotionally tormented. The emotional labor associated with dealing with racism on a regular basis is emotionally and physically taxing. Jamie was experiencing racial battle fatigue or racial trauma, which is the psychosocial stress responses from experiencing race-related stress (Smith et al., 2007). She experienced trauma from the incident and from determining whether she should switch institutions because she no longer felt safe in her space (lack of belongingness). Jamie’s story demonstrates that racism remains persistent within educational contexts, can manifest itself in a myriad of ways, and often has a detrimental impact on the victim.

Experiencing Racial Microaggressions as a Vulnerable Black Woman: Intersectionality

Candice, a second-year master’s student in school administration, discussed her difficult experience with both peers and instructors at her previous university. Her experience led to a change in her major and an eventual change in universities. Candice explained,

City University, being an African American student, in City, I felt like everyone expected me to be like an exotic dancer. I didn’t feel respected. I felt like no one thought I belonged in classes, and they thought that you would be better off out of school just entertaining people. Men were more aggressive in City. I even had a professor sexually assault me during office hours. That kind of made me hesitant to seek out help, because the majority of my professors were white males, and I had a white male professor who sexually assaulted me. It made it a very hostile environment. Even working, I did research in microbiology, I had supervisors ask me, “Do you have a father?” As if I don’t have a father. There would be other kind of negative comments like, “Oh, this celebrity is pretty for a Black lady.” So it just made it very hostile. I noticed that in my labs I was always left out of group activities.

African American women have to balance being both African Americans and women. They have multiple intertwined identities and are often left out of discussions that center exclusively on race or on gender. When recalling her experiences with racial microaggressions, Candice also discussed their interconnectedness with her sexual assault. Intersectionality, a major component of CRT, is key to understanding Candice’s experience. Her experience with racism from her professors was intertwined with her sexual assault from a professor (structural intersectionality). She also faced specific stereotypes regarding Black women (representational intersectionality). Candice experienced gendered racial microaggressions in that the intersection of her race, gender, and sexuality was questioned (Lewis & Neville, 2015). For Candice, the trauma associated with her double subordinate statuses was compounded. These intersectional traumas also impacted her feelings of belongingness in her academic program, causing her to eventually change universities and majors. Candice’s story shows us the cumulative impact of intersectional racial microaggression experiences.

Coping With Racial Wounds

Experiencing racial microaggressions can cause deep emotional wounds. Appropriately addressing these wounds requires using a variety of coping strategies. The participants in the study discussed how they coped with the experiencing of racial microaggressions in their PWIs to maintain a sense of belongingness. Many of them engaged in maladaptive or negative coping strategies, with a few of them using positive, self-protective coping strategies (Spanierman et al., 2021).

Most participants used avoidance coping strategies. The participants mentioned not wanting to deal with the racial microaggressions because they believed that racial microaggressions were normalized on PWIs, and addressing them would have caused problems within their academic programs. They wanted to avoid the situations because they just could not relate to what was going on. Kaeden, a second-year doctoral student in statistics, talked about avoiding making any responses to racial microaggressions he experienced. Focusing on his negative experiences would have been counterproductive. He said, “No. For me, I just expect that behavior. To do something about it every single time it happens, it just seems like you’re just trying to step on a bunch of ants or they’ll just keep coming.”

Other students engaged in more harmful behavior. For example, they used food as a means of escapism. Christopher, a third-year doctoral student in agricultural education, exclaimed,

My physical well-being, this experience made me . . . I’ve had my times where I may just get on an eating binge. I’m not big or anything, but I gained weight because you’re trying to just cope with things out here because of the environment. You’re so much involved in schoolwork, and then you think about just things. You just trying to stay alive. When I mean staying alive, straight staying alive.

Similarly, Candice explained, “At first, I didn’t handle them very well. I fell deep into depression and I gained almost 100 pounds. After I learned how to open up about what’s happening in my life, then that’s when I better handled the situations that came up.”

However, the some of the participants did cope in more positive ways, engaging in collective and self-protective coping. Many students often used supportive networks as a means of developing a sense of belongingness. Karen, a second-year social psychology doctoral student, used therapy. She mentioned,

Instead, I have a therapist. I don’t want to talk to a roomful of white people about what is going on and how I’m feeling, because you’re not going to understand . . . I make an effort to put myself in Black spaces that are forming. When I’m in those spaces . . . I can just be existing and be super Black and that’s it.

In the traditional coping literature, avoidance or withdrawing is seen as a negative form of coping. However, when it comes to racism, avoidance or withdrawing from the context may be an appropriate means of self-preservation (Utsey et al., 2008). Too often, African Americans are expected to be strong and resilient. But the reality is that the “strong Black man/woman” archetype is harmful both physically and emotionally. For instance, Candice’s experiences show what can happen if we do not address compounded traumas such as sexual assault and racial microaggressions. She became clinically depressed and gained 100 pounds, which are serious health problems. In addition, Christopher reminds us that we all need to take the impact of racism-related stress seriously because for African Americans, it really is a serious health issue. Their stories show us how racism can seriously impact African American students’ physical and emotional health while simultaneously influencing their abilities to relate to their school environments.

Implications

The study demonstrates that racial microaggressions are additional racial barriers at PWIs that contribute to the inequitable treatment of African American students. Another significant finding shows that racial microaggressions can intersect with other forms of oppressions, compounding their impact. In addition, this study illustrates how students use a variety of coping strategies to address their experiences with racial microaggressions. African American students’ experiencing of racial microaggressions, including intersectional experiences, as well as their use of coping strategies, impacts their feelings of belonging or relatedness within PWIs. These various findings raise both research and policy implications that should be considered.

Research Implications

Several research implications should be contemplated. Although there has been an increase in research on racial microaggressions, as recommended by CRT, rather than focusing on the perpetrators, researchers need to continue to document the ways in which African Americans, and other minoritized groups, experience racial microaggressions in PWIs. Moreover, it is important to highlight the myriad of ways in which racial microaggressions impact students’ sense of belonging or relatedness within PWI contexts. In addition, the study emphasizes intersectionality. It is necessary to further examine how racial microaggressions intersect with other forms of oppression. In particular, more research is needed to better understand gendered racial microaggressions. Last, as CRT suggests, racism is permanent, and therefore, the need for coping is constant. Researchers and practitioners need to better understand ways for African Americans to effectively cope with racial microaggressions. In doing so, more emphasis needs to be placed on ways in which institutions, bystanders, and allies can help support victims of racial microaggressions.

Policy Implications

In addition to research implications, this study supports several policy implications. First, the results of this study demonstrate how racism-related stress is a result of systemic racism and can cause a variety of health issues (e.g., physical, psychological, academic). Racism-related stress is a public health issue and should be considered as such, including receiving proper resources, and state and federal funding. Second, African American students need more spaces where they feel they belong. More safe spaces are needed, such as African American cultural centers in colleges and universities. African American students need places where they can congregate and relate to similar others. Third, college campuses need to be more proactive in handling racial microaggression cases. More policies are needed to hold microaggressors accountable for their actions. This would better protect African American students and put the onus of resolution on institutions rather than on the victims of racial microaggressions. Last, institutions need to remain vigilant in eradicating systemic racism within their policies and practices. This would create educational contexts where the needs of African American students are centered, helping them to feel a stronger sense of belonging.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Jessica T. DeCuir-Gunby, PhD, is a professor of educational psychology in the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. She is an American Psychological Association Fellow for Division 15 (Educational Psychology) and an American Educational Research Association Fellow. DeCuir-Gunby is an associate editor for the Review of Educational Research and serves on the editorial boards for Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational Psychologist. Her research interests include the impact of race and racial identity development on the educational experiences of African Americans, critical race theory, mixed methods research, and emotions and coping related to racism.

Whitney N. McCoy, PhD, is a research scientist focusing on equity and inclusion for the Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP) at Duke University. McCoy’s research interests include how gendered racial identity influences psychological outcomes in educational settings among Black girls and how culturally relevant interventions can increase engagement to empower Black students using critical race theory. McCoy was a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Scholar, and her dissertation was awarded Outstanding Dissertation of the Year in the NC State University College of Education.

Stephen M. Gibson, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the developmental psychology program. Gibson’s research interests include understanding the various effects of racism and racial trauma on the mental health symptomatology of Black youth. Additionally, utilizing various statistical and data analytic techniques, Gibson seeks to understand how culturally relevant factors such as parenting practices, racial identity, and coping strategies serve as protective factors for Black youth’s developmental and educational outcomes. Gibson is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and a National Institute of Health F31 research grant.

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