Racial Microaffirmations: Considering Racial Healing and Well-Being in Higher Education

• In Event: From Micoaggressions to Microaffirmations: Healing Frameworks in Educational Spaces

Abstract

This study calls on institutions of higher education to address the harm they cause People of Color in higher education by learning from the everyday strategies they already engage that affirm each other’s dignity, integrity, and shared humanity. Drawing from a Critical Race Theory framework, this study examines how People of Color engage in racial microaffirmations, moments of shared cultural intimacy, allow People of Color to feel acknowledged, respected, and valued. We focus on how racial microaffirmations can increase the positive mental health and well-being of Communities of Color and offer strategies for institutions of higher education to create spaces on their campuses for these moments of shared cultural intimacy to become possible.

Authors

• Lindsay Pérez Huber, California State University - Long Beach

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles