Microaggressions and the Workplace

Core Commitment

We are committed to acknowledging microaggressions and their detrimental impact on Black people and people of color in the workplace. We bring the topic of microaggressions to the floor and to the consciousness of both small and large organizations in order to start a dialogue and validate feelings of people of color but not to insist they do the heavy lifting of the dialogue. This begins with giving language to educate staff and educating white folks about the history behind and impact of of microaggressions to change their behavior/language.

By defining microaggressions broadly and in specificity with examples of language that are microaggressions, we eliminate an “I didn’t know” defense. Furthermore, when we move focus away from diversity conversations (comfortable) towards race-oriented conversations (discomfort), we work towards creating, developing, implementing, enacting, and enforcing policies to discourage/prevent microaggressions.

See what we have been working on below.

Featured

Opaque and Pervasive: Microaggressions in Peace and Security

Purpose: This project explores ways language and nonverbal communication can impact individuals and organizations. It examines opportunities to understand ways microaggressions serve to further structural inequalities, and develops next steps to realize the opportunities for social and organizational changes around these challenges. We also provide examples of how participants handle incidents of microaggressions, and share initial findings on how negative experiences affect psychological health and professional development.

Key content: This is the final report of a multi-year project that analyzes microaggressions in the language used across peace and security communities of practice.