Racial Micro-Affirmations as a Response to Racial Microaggressions: Exploring Risk and Protective Factors

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: A Critical Examination of Racial Identity Development in Higher Education Spaces (Table 24)

Abstract

Our objective for this study was to add to the racial microaggressions literature to focus on the ways Students of Color respond to everyday racism through engaging in racial microaffirmations— the powerful ways Communities of Color resist racism, and affirm their humanity (Solorzano, Pérez Huber, & Huber-Verjan, 2020). We believe this paper aligns with the 2022 AERA theme, “Cultivating Equitable Education Systems” as it seeks to understand how everyday racism places Students of Color at risk of inequitable educational outcomes and how microaffirmations is utilized as a form of resistance to everyday racism. Further, we believe it is a fit for the Critical Examination of Race, Class, and Gender in Education because of our intersectional CRT analysis.

Authors

• Lindsay Pérez Huber, California State University - Long Beach

• Gabriela Robles, California State University - Long Beach

• Tamara Gonzalez, California State University - Long Beach

• Daniel G. Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles