Racial Microaggressions

Therapists may be unaware of how their biases and prejudices play an important role in creating positive and/or negative spaces for clients of color. This article focuses on white therapist-client of color interactions and describes and analyzes how racism, in the form of microaggressions, are extremely hard for therapists to identify. Racial microaggressions are subtle, non-verbal, unconscious exchanges that are insulting, and directed toward people of color; they are brief everyday exchanges that send "denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group." Microaggressions can be extremely damaging to persons of color because they can impair performance in a multitude of settings and create significant disparities

Dilemma 1: Clash of racial realities; where racial perceptions of people of color differ markedly from those of whites. White Americans believe that minorities are doing better, that discrimination is declining, and that racism is not a significant factor anymore however, minorities, on the other hand, perceive whites as racially insensitive, believing they are superior, and treat them poorly because of their race. Dilemma 2: the invisibility of unintentional expressions of bias; research continues to confirm the existence of unconscious racial biases in well-intentioned whites and that nearly everyone born in America inherits the racial biases of the society. According to this finding, microaggressions would occur when whites would pretend not to notice differences, thereby justifying that "color" was not involved at all, in any of the actions taken. Dilemma 3: perceived minimal harm of racial microaggressions; where/when people of color are told to stop overreacting and to just let it go and so they are encouraged to not waste any time or effort on them. Dilemma 4: the catch-22 of responding to microaggressions; the immediate reaction of the victim is potentially placed in a series of questions. These questions are more often than not, reactions/victims of color who experience "an

White therapists are prone to engaging in racial microaggressions and if so, the therapist-patient relationship is weakened because clients of color view their white therapists as biased, prejudiced, or unlikely to understand them as racial/cultural beings. Unintentional and unconscious acts and nature of microagressions continue to be the biggest challenge to the majority of white meant health professionals who believe they are unbiased and nonracist. Mental health professionals are in a position of power and authority over their clients and therefore any harm done against their clients is either unknown of minimized. According to this study, microagressions oppress, harm, and place clients of color in the inevitable catch-22 position. Furthermore, these microagressions are likely to go unrecognized by white mental health professional who are unintentionally and unconsciously expressing bias. Consequently, clients of color, according to this study, are at an increased risk of not continuing in the counseling/therapy session when such microagressions occur. To further education and/or to create any change in the therapist-client relationship, white clinicians must address the question of what does it mean to be white and furthermore be fully aware and recognize how their own white racial identity and how it may intrude, either positively or negatively, on people of color. This, I think, is related to