Derald Sue Talks With PBS About Microaggressions on Campuses
Amid demonstrations around the country by students advocating for the rights of people of color on college campuses, TC's Derald Wing Sue spoke with PBS Special Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault on the NewsHour about the cumulative, pernicious effects of microagressions, which he defines as "everyday slights, indignities, put-downs [or] invalidations that people of color experience in their everyday interactions with well-intentioned, well-meaning people who are unaware that they are delivering a put - down or invalidation."
Sue -- the author of Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race and Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation -- talks with Hunter-Gault about the recent rallies and marches by black students at the University of Missouri and elsewhere, and says they are the result of many years of microaggressions against them.
In the taped interview, Hunter-Gault asks how microaggressions can be eradicated. Sue says the solution lies in educating and sensitizing people to the fact that what they say and do, while it may not be intentionally insulting, can be hurtful and psychologically damaging.
The interview is part of an occasional series by Hunter-Gault called "Black Lives Matter Solutions."
Published Monday, Nov 30, 2015