The Logic of Microaggressions Assumes a Racist Society
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
This commentary draws attention to core assumptions about the nature of society that underlie the current debate on microaggressions. For proponents of microaggression research, the starting assumption is one of a racist society. That is, microaggressions have their source and power within an inequitable, racially stratified society. In contrast, critics of microaggressions begin with the assumption of an equitable society, or at least would not endorse the assumption of a racist society. These two different starting assumptions lead to dramatically different conclusions about the concept of microaggressions. As long as these assumptions are not explicitly recognized, debates on methods, findings, and so on will never be reconciled.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
This centering situates racism in the minds and actions of individuals, while structural systems of power and oppression, even when named, are pushed to the margins.
“Second, it situates racism in the minds and actions of individuals, while structural systems of power and oppression, even when named, are pushed to the margins (Salter & Adams, 2013; Syed, 2021).”
From Studying Ethnic-Racial Identity among White Youth: White Supremacy as a Developmental Context (2022) · cites this paper as Syed, 2021
Cites
Solorzano, D. G. (1998) · International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education · doi:10.1080/095183998236926 · Cited by 1,132 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As is clear from Williams (2020a, 2020b) and other microaggression researchers (Solórzano, 1998; Sue et al., 2007), the starting assumption is one of a racist society.”
BackgroundThe Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, “Post-Racial” America
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/0002764215586826 · Cited by 549 · see citing works
Racial/ethnic socialization for White youth: What we know and future directions
Loyd, A. B., & Gaither, S. E. (2018) · Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2018.05.004 · Cited by 170 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In contrast, socialization around the systemic view is much more common among ethnic and racial minorities (Hughes et al., 2006; Loyd & Gaither, 2018).”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Studying Ethnic-Racial Identity among White Youth: White Supremacy as a Developmental Context
Moffitt, U., & Rogers, L. O. (2022) · Journal of Research on Adolescence · doi:10.1111/jora.12762 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
“Second, it situates racism in the minds and actions of individuals, while structural systems of power and oppression, even when named, are pushed to the margins (Salter & Adams, 2013; Syed, 2021).”
Background
- Authors
- Syed, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Syed, Moin
- ORCID
- Syed, Moin
- Venue
- Perspectives on Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2021-09
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 926-931
- ISSN
- 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-6924
- OpenAlex
- W3165353846
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 6.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Counseling Practices and Supervision
- Keywords
- microaggressions, racism, racial stratification, racial equity
- MeSH terms
- Microaggression, Aggression, Humans, Logic, Racism
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
