Microaggression Essay

Words: 1120
Pages: 5

Summation of Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life
Racial Microaggressions Summation
Cross-Cultural Psychology 3235
Dr. Keith Blah Blah

Summation of Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life
I have read and fully understand the article Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: the Implications for Clinical Practice. However, I must admit the article does not sit well with me and I have learned I have been a microaggressor since my early days; specifically, I have offered microinsults many times over without even realizing it. Through the years, I have thought of myself as one who consciously believes in equal rights for “all”; not just the American people, but people of all races across the entire globe. Granted, I have never
…show more content…
In my opinion, the easiest and best short-term solution (on both therapist and client) to the microaggression issues would be to no longer pair up a white therapist with a client of color. If it is such a huge and obvious problem, why continue to throw salt in the gaping wound? Although I realize my proposed solution is not the most politically correct, I believe it would prove to be a quick and extremely effective one. Since I realize this solution would never be put into effect, I guess I would suggest the more realistic approach of addressing the issue with more training of racial awareness. If mental health professionals were trained to understand the causes and consequences of racial microaggressions, perhaps the number of aggressions during therapy would begin to decline.
Along those same lines, I think the client should take some responsibility along with the white therapist. I find it very hard to believe that microaggressions occur as often as the article indicates. After all, I would say most people who enter the mental health field do so with the desire and compassion to help people. Therefore, how do we know some clients do not abuse the term mircroaggression? I make this claim due to the fact that the article mentioned (over and over again) that some aggressions (especially the insults and microinvalidations) are very difficult to identify. This leads me to believe that perhaps there are many situations