Racial Microaggressions and Racial Microaffirmations: How Intergenerational Faculty of Color Navigate Racial Realism

Grounded in a Critical Race Theory framework, this study explores the racial microaggressions experienced by Faculty of Color at one four-year university in California during what Bell would call a “peak of progress” for racial justice—where equity and inclusivity took center stage in the institutional agenda. We engaged a Critical Race Feminista Methodology, using group pláticas to gather stories of Faculty of Color from diverse racial and generational backgrounds to understand how they experienced everyday racism within the context of racial realism—the acknowledgement of the permanence of racism in U.S. society. Our findings revealed that despite the institutional focus on equity, Faculty of Color experiences with racial microaggressions were connected by threaded histories of imposed racial hierarchies, marginalization, and structural inequities. Faculty of Color across age, gender, and rank described the everyday racism that impacted academic trajectories and personal lives across time, from the late 1990s for the most senior faculty to the present for the most junior. However, we also found that faculty responded to those microaggressions through racial microaffirmations—the everyday ways People of Color affirm each other’s dignity, integrity, and shared humanity that make them feel seen and supported. Indeed, we found that Faculty of Color engaged powerful strategies of racial microaffirmations with each other across generations that supported their well-being and their careers.