Title: The effects of patronizing and marginalizing minority groups
Headings: Marginalization: The pendulum swings both ways
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Marginalization: The pendulum swings both ways
By Dr. Nathaniel Granger
Recommended read: “ Embodied racism”
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Content: They have also been described as “subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal, and/or visual) directed toward people of color, often automatically or unconsciously.” Derald Wing Sue’s research related to the psychology of microaggressions indicates that white individuals are often unaware of the cumulative harm that people of color experience from being routinely subjected to various racial microaggressions. According to Sue, these are microinvalidations characterized by communications or environmental cues that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of certain groups, such as people of color, women, and the LGBT community. In many ways, microinvalidations may potentially represent the most damaging form of microaggressions because they directly and insidiously deny the racial, gender, or sexual-orientation reality of these groups. According to Sue, the power to impose reality on marginalized groups represents the ultimate form of oppression. Examples of microinvalidations can be heard in everyday statements such as “Low man on the totem pole,” and in everyday actions such as over-validation, a form of patronization. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva defined subtle forms of racial bias, referred to as color-blind racism, which refers to the conception among white individuals that considerations of race are presently no longer relevant in people’s lives in the United States. Contemporary color-blind racism is expressed in everyday beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that are considered acceptable, and even commendable, by white individuals who use them. Accordingly, such attitudes are so deeply embedded in societal values and practices that they lie outside the consciousness of many well-intentioned white people who may genuinely consider themselves to be non-racist. Despite the continuum of racial biases and marginalization of other disenfranchised groups, great strides are being taken by individuals and special interest groups to “fix” the problems associated with discrimination of marginalized groups.