1 00:00:00,370 --> 00:00:03,750 - Good afternoon, Salem State Community and guests. 2 00:00:03,750 --> 00:00:08,750 My name is Dr. Ethel Gordon and is my great pleasure today 3 00:00:08,980 --> 00:00:12,120 to introduce Dr. Susan Torres-Harding. 4 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:16,050 Dr. Torres-Harding received her Bachelor in Psychology 5 00:00:16,050 --> 00:00:18,170 from Iowa State University 6 00:00:18,170 --> 00:00:21,160 and her PhD in Clinical Child Psychology 7 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:23,390 from DePaul University. 8 00:00:23,390 --> 00:00:25,940 Dr. Torres-Harding has published many articles 9 00:00:25,940 --> 00:00:29,410 on topics ranging from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 10 00:00:29,410 --> 00:00:31,140 to Microaggression. 11 00:00:31,140 --> 00:00:32,350 She is the past President 12 00:00:32,350 --> 00:00:35,810 of the Society for Community Research and Action. 13 00:00:35,810 --> 00:00:39,060 She currently serves as Professor of Psychology 14 00:00:39,060 --> 00:00:41,260 and is the Director of the Doctoral Program 15 00:00:41,260 --> 00:00:44,803 in Clinical Psychology at Roosevelt University. 16 00:00:45,650 --> 00:00:50,200 To paraphrase her words, her clinical research interests 17 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,200 include therapy with children and families, 18 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:54,970 multicultural populations, 19 00:00:54,970 --> 00:00:58,400 individuals with chronic medical conditions 20 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,170 and disabilities, community mental health 21 00:01:02,170 --> 00:01:05,340 and interventions for prevention and wellness. 22 00:01:05,340 --> 00:01:08,960 Her research interests include measuring and examining 23 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:12,490 the impact of racial and other types of microaggression 24 00:01:12,490 --> 00:01:14,430 on health and wellness 25 00:01:14,430 --> 00:01:17,100 and that is the focus of her talk today. 26 00:01:17,100 --> 00:01:21,780 Her talk is entitled, Microaggression, What is the Harm? 27 00:01:21,780 --> 00:01:24,860 Examining the Impact of Microaggression 28 00:01:24,860 --> 00:01:27,470 and Racism and on Health. 29 00:01:27,470 --> 00:01:31,170 Her talk is sponsored by the by Academic Affairs. 30 00:01:31,170 --> 00:01:35,573 I'm honored to present Dr. Susan Torres-Harding. 31 00:01:37,010 --> 00:01:38,740 - Thank you so much for that great introduction. 32 00:01:38,740 --> 00:01:41,520 I'm really excited to speak to you all today. 33 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:43,750 So, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna share my screen 34 00:01:43,750 --> 00:01:45,190 so, that way 35 00:01:45,190 --> 00:01:47,340 and I'll start with my presentation. 36 00:01:47,340 --> 00:01:49,431 If you just bear with me. 37 00:01:49,431 --> 00:01:50,264 Okay. 38 00:01:51,740 --> 00:01:52,620 Actually 39 00:01:53,710 --> 00:01:56,983 Dr. Gordon already introduced myself, introduced me, 40 00:01:59,630 --> 00:02:01,540 but there's another picture of me 41 00:02:01,540 --> 00:02:03,120 and I also have a little bit of introduction 42 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:04,260 in my slides too 43 00:02:05,802 --> 00:02:09,930 just to add to what was already stated about my work. 44 00:02:11,839 --> 00:02:12,672 I grew up in Iowa. 45 00:02:12,672 --> 00:02:14,660 I moved to Chicago in my 20s. 46 00:02:14,660 --> 00:02:16,450 I live here in Chicago. 47 00:02:16,450 --> 00:02:18,290 Also very cold and snowy and icy, 48 00:02:18,290 --> 00:02:20,520 just like I'm sure in Salem. 49 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,750 My career is focused more generally on health psychology. 50 00:02:24,750 --> 00:02:26,940 I kinda bring this up, my background and such 51 00:02:26,940 --> 00:02:29,620 because I think that my experience, 52 00:02:29,620 --> 00:02:31,500 both personal and my professional experiences, 53 00:02:31,500 --> 00:02:34,560 really have drew me to this area of research. 54 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:36,270 I've always had a focus on understanding 55 00:02:36,270 --> 00:02:38,130 the health and wellbeing of diverse children, 56 00:02:38,130 --> 00:02:38,963 adults and families. 57 00:02:38,963 --> 00:02:42,890 As a psychologist, definitely saw the lack of research 58 00:02:42,890 --> 00:02:45,390 in the literature around just health and wellbeing, 59 00:02:45,390 --> 00:02:48,403 especially for Latino, Latinx individuals. 60 00:02:49,679 --> 00:02:51,690 I did a lot of work with people with chronic fatigue 61 00:02:51,690 --> 00:02:53,490 and chronic pain and really became intrigued 62 00:02:53,490 --> 00:02:57,940 by the interaction between psychosocial wellbeing and stress 63 00:03:01,904 --> 00:03:04,810 and how that impacted the physical symptomatology 64 00:03:04,810 --> 00:03:06,570 and how to they contribute to that. 65 00:03:06,570 --> 00:03:10,680 And then, I was also really drawn to this work 66 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,963 by Dr. Derald Sue and colleagues at Columbia University. 67 00:03:17,201 --> 00:03:19,350 They published this paper on microaggressions 68 00:03:19,350 --> 00:03:21,410 where they kinda laid out the theory 69 00:03:21,410 --> 00:03:24,470 of what microaggressions were, which are a type of racism 70 00:03:24,470 --> 00:03:26,860 and more subtle everyday racism. 71 00:03:26,860 --> 00:03:28,780 I recognize as a Person of Color, 72 00:03:28,780 --> 00:03:31,020 that I experienced a lot of these things 73 00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:34,270 growing up as a child and into my adulthood 74 00:03:34,270 --> 00:03:36,570 and I was very intrigued by this and I wanted to study it. 75 00:03:36,570 --> 00:03:37,650 And I thought... 76 00:03:37,650 --> 00:03:40,930 Whenever I would experience microaggressions, 77 00:03:40,930 --> 00:03:43,260 I would have these physical reactions. 78 00:03:43,260 --> 00:03:44,800 I would kinda notice it. 79 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:46,860 If someone said something really culturally insensitive, 80 00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:48,650 or rude to me, it was, number one, 81 00:03:48,650 --> 00:03:50,170 sometimes felt like a shock. 82 00:03:50,170 --> 00:03:52,600 I'd be like, oh my God, are they really doing this, 83 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:54,103 or really saying that? 84 00:03:55,500 --> 00:03:59,170 Then I would feel a knot in my stomach and I would 85 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:01,680 just, 86 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:03,510 oh, I get maybe a little tense, anxious. 87 00:04:03,510 --> 00:04:05,010 So, I had this physical reaction. 88 00:04:05,010 --> 00:04:06,070 I thought, you know what? 89 00:04:06,070 --> 00:04:07,650 I think these experiences might impact, 90 00:04:07,650 --> 00:04:11,500 not only psychologically but also these physical symptoms. 91 00:04:11,500 --> 00:04:13,530 However, at the time that people started talking 92 00:04:13,530 --> 00:04:15,723 about microaggressions in psych literature, 93 00:04:17,180 --> 00:04:19,280 it was all based on qualitative work. 94 00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:22,200 There weren't any quantitative skills to actually measure it 95 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:23,570 and I wanted to measure it. 96 00:04:23,570 --> 00:04:26,130 So, I'm like, okay, I'll go ahead and make a scale. 97 00:04:26,130 --> 00:04:29,120 So, I worked with some students and we developed 98 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:30,220 a racial microaggression scale, 99 00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:32,440 so that way I could do some quantitative research. 100 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,070 That way I could actually see, okay, 101 00:04:35,070 --> 00:04:37,620 I felt like these experiences impacted me 102 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:38,680 in different ways. 103 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:40,780 But I'm an end of one. 104 00:04:40,780 --> 00:04:42,470 Maybe I'm too sensitive, or unique. 105 00:04:42,470 --> 00:04:45,610 I wanted to, as a good researcher, I wanted to actually see 106 00:04:45,610 --> 00:04:48,910 whether that was true for other People of Color. 107 00:04:48,910 --> 00:04:50,913 So, that kind of drew me to this area. 108 00:04:52,470 --> 00:04:54,370 I wanna start off too, by just talking about, 109 00:04:54,370 --> 00:04:58,570 what are microaggressions and just kind of situate that 110 00:04:58,570 --> 00:05:00,800 in terms of what it is in terms of a theory. 111 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:02,600 I guess that probably most, or all of you 112 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:03,920 have heard about microaggressions. 113 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,883 People talk a lot about, like social media and so on. 114 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:10,760 There's a high level of awareness. 115 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,210 In the psychological literature 116 00:05:13,210 --> 00:05:14,593 people have been talking about microaggressions, 117 00:05:14,593 --> 00:05:15,770 actually since the 70s, 118 00:05:15,770 --> 00:05:18,140 but it wasn't until about 15 years ago 119 00:05:18,140 --> 00:05:20,430 people started really studying it. 120 00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:22,000 We talk about microaggressions, 121 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,600 it is a form of racism, okay. 122 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:25,983 So, here on the slide, for instance, 123 00:05:25,983 --> 00:05:28,570 just different definitions of racism 124 00:05:28,570 --> 00:05:30,710 that you may be aware of. 125 00:05:30,710 --> 00:05:33,320 Institutional/systemic racism, for instance. 126 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:34,810 When people talk about critical race theory, 127 00:05:34,810 --> 00:05:37,184 that's what they're talking about. 128 00:05:37,184 --> 00:05:38,760 How 129 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:41,120 things are enacted through policies, procedures, laws, 130 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:43,130 practices and so on. 131 00:05:43,130 --> 00:05:44,856 There's also interpersonal racism. 132 00:05:44,856 --> 00:05:47,000 That's the overt, hostile, old fashioned racism, 133 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,830 so people just being outward 134 00:05:48,830 --> 00:05:51,280 like, "Oh, Black people are inferior to whites." 135 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:53,460 You don't hear too much of that anymore, 136 00:05:53,460 --> 00:05:55,620 but what's more common is what we call 137 00:05:55,620 --> 00:05:57,163 the modern symbolic racism. 138 00:05:58,369 --> 00:06:01,340 That's where people say that, "I'm not racist, but..." 139 00:06:01,340 --> 00:06:02,347 So, in other words, people will be like, 140 00:06:02,347 --> 00:06:04,777 "Oh yeah, all people should be treated equally 141 00:06:04,777 --> 00:06:07,757 "and racism is bad, but 142 00:06:07,757 --> 00:06:08,907 "why do these people, 143 00:06:08,907 --> 00:06:10,717 "why do they want all the special treatment?" 144 00:06:10,717 --> 00:06:12,987 "Why do they have all these families 145 00:06:12,987 --> 00:06:14,867 "and the father leaves the family?" 146 00:06:14,867 --> 00:06:16,267 "Why is it that they're so aggressive?" 147 00:06:16,267 --> 00:06:18,147 "Why don't they value education?" 148 00:06:18,147 --> 00:06:19,147 "Why do they... 149 00:06:19,147 --> 00:06:21,930 "Always over sensitive, playing the race card." 150 00:06:21,930 --> 00:06:25,060 So, it's this overt statement of equality, 151 00:06:25,060 --> 00:06:26,860 like, "Everyone's equal," 152 00:06:26,860 --> 00:06:29,030 but then it's also coupled with negative attitudes 153 00:06:29,030 --> 00:06:30,750 towards a non-dominant group. 154 00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:32,890 So, that's more common today. 155 00:06:32,890 --> 00:06:36,380 And then, perceived racism, microaggressions fits into this. 156 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:38,400 That's where person that's the target 157 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,147 of kind of racist behaviors, they recognize it. 158 00:06:44,227 --> 00:06:46,430 They perceive that they're being 159 00:06:46,430 --> 00:06:49,560 culturally, or racially mistreated. 160 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:51,130 So, in terms of biology, 161 00:06:51,130 --> 00:06:53,223 you know, this is a biology festival, 162 00:06:54,725 --> 00:06:57,360 I'm sure you all know, race as a biological construct 163 00:06:57,360 --> 00:06:58,860 just doesn't work. 164 00:06:58,860 --> 00:07:00,710 It's interesting because of course race is developed 165 00:07:00,710 --> 00:07:03,490 as presumably a biological construct 166 00:07:03,490 --> 00:07:06,290 that there were these biological difference 167 00:07:06,290 --> 00:07:08,580 between people from different races. 168 00:07:08,580 --> 00:07:11,300 However, we know that that just isn't the case, 169 00:07:11,300 --> 00:07:13,240 that there are no such thing as biological difference. 170 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:14,450 And also in the psychological too, 171 00:07:14,450 --> 00:07:16,820 like cognitive difference according to race 172 00:07:16,820 --> 00:07:20,690 'cause race is not a real construct, physically speaking. 173 00:07:20,690 --> 00:07:23,570 However, because people have acted like it is, 174 00:07:23,570 --> 00:07:25,580 that's when it gets the power. 175 00:07:25,580 --> 00:07:27,310 It's a socially constructed concept, 176 00:07:27,310 --> 00:07:28,920 it's a made-up construct, 177 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,270 but because people act like it's real, 178 00:07:31,270 --> 00:07:35,610 then people will actually use those classifications 179 00:07:35,610 --> 00:07:39,440 to actually mistreat each other and enact unfair policies, 180 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:42,800 or, discriminate against people and so on. 181 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:45,590 So, it's a socially constructed category that's real 182 00:07:45,590 --> 00:07:47,340 because we treat it like it's real. 183 00:07:48,900 --> 00:07:50,930 So, in terms of what microaggressions are, 184 00:07:50,930 --> 00:07:53,150 this is the microaggression theory. 185 00:07:53,150 --> 00:07:55,700 I already said, they're a type of perceived racism. 186 00:07:56,740 --> 00:07:58,770 It's more the everyday forms of racism 187 00:07:58,770 --> 00:07:59,900 people might experience. 188 00:07:59,900 --> 00:08:01,550 So, I encourage you all to think, 189 00:08:02,940 --> 00:08:05,100 attending the webinar, to think about whether 190 00:08:05,100 --> 00:08:06,990 you've experienced this too. (device buzzing) 191 00:08:06,990 --> 00:08:08,150 Not so much the 192 00:08:09,930 --> 00:08:12,278 things like racial discrimination, 193 00:08:12,278 --> 00:08:15,120 like not getting a job because of your race, 194 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,600 or being a target of racial violence, or things like that, 195 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:20,870 which unfortunately do happen as well. 196 00:08:20,870 --> 00:08:23,490 But it's more the everyday racially loaded, 197 00:08:23,490 --> 00:08:26,680 culturally insensitive, verbal, non-verbal behaviors, 198 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,040 mistreatment. 199 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:31,140 It's kinda rude behavior, insulting behavior, 200 00:08:31,140 --> 00:08:34,170 but it has that racial component. 201 00:08:34,170 --> 00:08:36,500 So, Pierce talked about racism, 202 00:08:36,500 --> 00:08:38,410 or microaggressions actually, coined the term 203 00:08:38,410 --> 00:08:40,510 back in the 1970s. 204 00:08:40,510 --> 00:08:43,210 He defined them as subtle, stunning, offensive put-downs, 205 00:08:43,210 --> 00:08:47,280 messages, communications that occur because of one's race. 206 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,450 He was talking a lot about the television back in the 1970s, 207 00:08:50,450 --> 00:08:52,526 which, you know, I'm a child of the 70s, 208 00:08:52,526 --> 00:08:54,170 I was born in the 70, 80s. 209 00:08:54,170 --> 00:08:55,550 I remember what it was like. 210 00:08:55,550 --> 00:08:58,610 You did not see any Black, or Brown people, period, 211 00:08:58,610 --> 00:09:00,510 unless they were the criminals, 212 00:09:00,510 --> 00:09:02,290 they were these scary other people, 213 00:09:02,290 --> 00:09:04,830 or unless you happened to be watching, 214 00:09:04,830 --> 00:09:07,980 seriously, "Soul Train," which was a great show by the way. 215 00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:10,010 That was the only place I ever saw, as a child, 216 00:09:10,010 --> 00:09:14,540 that Black people could be like normal people. 217 00:09:14,540 --> 00:09:19,418 Piers talked about how those negative images 218 00:09:19,418 --> 00:09:22,610 that really pathologized Black people in particular, 219 00:09:22,610 --> 00:09:27,610 that that was harmful to the wellbeing of Black people. 220 00:09:27,780 --> 00:09:30,350 That really is an important part 221 00:09:30,350 --> 00:09:32,610 of this microaggression idea. 222 00:09:32,610 --> 00:09:34,600 Derald Sue and colleagues, they also have gone on 223 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:37,260 to describe microaggressions as different types 224 00:09:37,260 --> 00:09:39,780 and so, talk about microassaults, 225 00:09:39,780 --> 00:09:41,910 like making racially loaded jokes. 226 00:09:41,910 --> 00:09:44,620 It's a little more hostile, a little more intentional, 227 00:09:44,620 --> 00:09:46,330 or maybe using racial slurs. 228 00:09:46,330 --> 00:09:47,450 Some of you may have heard for instance 229 00:09:47,450 --> 00:09:50,020 like Joe Rogan recently got in trouble. 230 00:09:50,020 --> 00:09:52,900 He said, all this N-word stuff. 231 00:09:52,900 --> 00:09:54,380 He's been saying that. 232 00:09:54,380 --> 00:09:56,600 Which if you noticed what he was talking about 233 00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,087 on Twitter and such, he was saying, "Oh, well. 234 00:09:59,087 --> 00:10:01,367 "I'm not racist, but oh, I'm so sorry. 235 00:10:01,367 --> 00:10:02,967 "I don't know why he said that." 236 00:10:04,308 --> 00:10:06,410 That's those examples of microaggressions. 237 00:10:06,410 --> 00:10:08,800 He's not discriminating against someone. 238 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:10,770 He may have hired people too, they're Black 239 00:10:10,770 --> 00:10:14,100 and so they work him, but those are insensitive, 240 00:10:14,100 --> 00:10:15,450 racially loaded messages. 241 00:10:15,450 --> 00:10:19,912 So, Sue and colleagues termed those microassaults. 242 00:10:19,912 --> 00:10:22,410 Microinvalidations, those are when 243 00:10:23,540 --> 00:10:26,250 the thoughts, ideas, perspectives and contributions 244 00:10:26,250 --> 00:10:29,750 of People of Color are just ignored and really not even... 245 00:10:30,795 --> 00:10:33,420 People aren't allowed to participate in the discussion 246 00:10:33,420 --> 00:10:37,430 because of their racial, or ethnic backgrounds. 247 00:10:37,430 --> 00:10:40,820 And then microinsults are just culturally insensitive, 248 00:10:40,820 --> 00:10:45,240 culturally just demeaning, offensive, rude behavior, okay? 249 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:47,670 Unfortunately this kinda everyday forms of discrimination, 250 00:10:47,670 --> 00:10:48,940 they're often ambiguous. 251 00:10:48,940 --> 00:10:50,190 Sometimes people don't even know 252 00:10:50,190 --> 00:10:52,810 that they're mistreating someone 253 00:10:52,810 --> 00:10:54,000 in a racially loaded manner, 254 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,030 or they're stereotyping someone 255 00:10:56,030 --> 00:10:58,953 and that's because our racial stereotypes are so, 256 00:10:59,860 --> 00:11:02,030 so normalized in our culture 257 00:11:02,030 --> 00:11:03,880 that people don't necessarily know 258 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,483 that they're acting on them. 259 00:11:06,340 --> 00:11:08,370 But if you're a Person of Color, a lot of times, 260 00:11:08,370 --> 00:11:10,120 chances are, you probably have picked up on 261 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:11,673 when people are treating you 262 00:11:11,673 --> 00:11:13,333 in a racially insensitive manner, 263 00:11:14,850 --> 00:11:17,740 even if they themselves aren't really fully aware of it. 264 00:11:17,740 --> 00:11:18,972 And as a Person of Color 265 00:11:18,972 --> 00:11:20,830 having to deal with this stuff every day, 266 00:11:20,830 --> 00:11:22,080 people have described in literature, 267 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:23,840 that it's just overwhelming. 268 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:25,040 It's cognitively taxing. 269 00:11:26,270 --> 00:11:27,800 People don't know what to do. 270 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:30,280 And in that sense, it's stressful and then 271 00:11:31,603 --> 00:11:34,003 that's where some of the harm starts to come in. 272 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:38,640 This next slides actually, these are just different examples 273 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:39,960 of what Sue talked about too, 274 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,950 in terms of examples of microaggressions. 275 00:11:44,790 --> 00:11:47,430 One I'll mention is this first one, alien in one's own land. 276 00:11:47,430 --> 00:11:48,930 This is one that I always dealt with a lot too. 277 00:11:48,930 --> 00:11:51,540 Especially growing up in Iowa, very few Latinos, 278 00:11:51,540 --> 00:11:52,500 very few People of Color, 279 00:11:52,500 --> 00:11:55,493 like the States, 95% white, for instance. 280 00:11:56,826 --> 00:11:58,810 I remember, people would ask me, "Oh, where are you from?" 281 00:11:58,810 --> 00:12:00,637 I'd be like, "I'm from Fort Madsion, Iowa. 282 00:12:00,637 --> 00:12:02,420 "That's where I grew up." 283 00:12:02,420 --> 00:12:03,253 And they'd be like, "No, no, no, 284 00:12:03,253 --> 00:12:05,280 "where are you from, really?" 285 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:10,280 I had that and I would get like, I don't know, 286 00:12:10,505 --> 00:12:12,400 the insinuation that they kept insisting, 287 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,623 tell me what I was saying wasn't good enough. 288 00:12:16,610 --> 00:12:19,330 The insinuation's like, you aren't really a true American. 289 00:12:19,330 --> 00:12:21,500 You must really be from somewhere else. 290 00:12:21,500 --> 00:12:23,886 You can't be from Iowa. 291 00:12:23,886 --> 00:12:27,041 So, that's the message, "You're not American." 292 00:12:27,041 --> 00:12:28,491 Some of these other ones too. 293 00:12:30,232 --> 00:12:32,832 And you know, sometimes these culturally insensitive 294 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,094 messages can be, 295 00:12:35,094 --> 00:12:37,990 some of them can even be backhanded compliments too. 296 00:12:37,990 --> 00:12:39,230 For instance, this 297 00:12:42,166 --> 00:12:43,160 descriptions of intelligence, for instance. 298 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,700 Sometimes people might, if you're a Person of Color, 299 00:12:45,700 --> 00:12:47,987 at college campus, you do really well, they're like, 300 00:12:47,987 --> 00:12:50,630 "Wow, you did really great on that exam!" 301 00:12:50,630 --> 00:12:53,683 People seem so surprised that you actually are an A-student. 302 00:12:54,554 --> 00:12:56,580 So again, people might be complimentary about it, 303 00:12:56,580 --> 00:12:58,970 like, "Oh, you're a real credit to your race," 304 00:12:58,970 --> 00:13:01,180 but it's a backhanded compliment 305 00:13:01,180 --> 00:13:03,430 because you're really saying, 306 00:13:03,430 --> 00:13:05,200 we don't expect anything from you. 307 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:06,787 Or, "You're such an exception. 308 00:13:06,787 --> 00:13:08,762 "People from your background, 309 00:13:08,762 --> 00:13:10,380 "they're not really that smart." 310 00:13:10,380 --> 00:13:13,500 So again, like, Asian Americans have to deal with that 311 00:13:13,500 --> 00:13:14,887 the model minority myth, 312 00:13:14,887 --> 00:13:16,560 "Oh, you're so great at math and science." 313 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:18,180 Number one, it's not true. 314 00:13:18,180 --> 00:13:20,460 Number two, you're not seeing them as a... 315 00:13:20,460 --> 00:13:21,620 You're stereotyping them. 316 00:13:21,620 --> 00:13:23,440 You're not seeing 'em as a real person. 317 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:26,320 You're seeing them as some kind of stereotype 318 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,020 and that's insulting and offensive 319 00:13:28,020 --> 00:13:29,403 to have to deal with that. 320 00:13:30,950 --> 00:13:32,750 Now, I use Sue's taxonomy 321 00:13:32,750 --> 00:13:35,120 to develop my racial microaggression scale 322 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:38,690 and these are the categories that I use, we developed. 323 00:13:38,690 --> 00:13:40,220 Being treated as if you're a foreigner, 324 00:13:40,220 --> 00:13:41,830 you're not belonging. 325 00:13:41,830 --> 00:13:42,800 Being treated as if you're criminal, 326 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:43,840 being followed in stores. 327 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,170 Like, why is it that I'm the only Person of Color here, 328 00:13:46,170 --> 00:13:48,610 all the white people are not being followed, but I am. 329 00:13:48,610 --> 00:13:50,787 Being over-sexually sexualized, like, 330 00:13:50,787 --> 00:13:53,620 "Oh, you're such a hot, spicy Latina," 331 00:13:53,620 --> 00:13:55,889 and it's like, ugh, you know? 332 00:13:55,889 --> 00:13:57,090 I don't know if you've ever had to deal with that one. 333 00:13:57,090 --> 00:13:58,643 It's like, ugh. 334 00:13:58,643 --> 00:14:00,020 It's just kind of offensive 335 00:14:02,127 --> 00:14:03,613 to be on the receiving end of that. 336 00:14:04,540 --> 00:14:06,700 Having your contribution overlooked, 337 00:14:06,700 --> 00:14:09,000 being treated like a second-class citizen, 338 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,610 being treated as if just your cultural values, 339 00:14:11,610 --> 00:14:13,807 or just exceptional, like, 340 00:14:13,807 --> 00:14:17,060 "Why do you guys have to speak so loudly all the time?" 341 00:14:17,060 --> 00:14:18,260 You know, that kind of thing too 342 00:14:18,260 --> 00:14:22,140 that pathologizes cultural ways of communication, 343 00:14:22,140 --> 00:14:24,290 those are all examples of microaggressions. 344 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,557 I wanted to go a little bit over some more examples too. 345 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,693 Our wonderful (chuckles) former president, Barack Obama, 346 00:14:34,931 --> 00:14:36,120 if you remember, I don't know, 347 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,450 maybe some of you were younger, 348 00:14:38,450 --> 00:14:41,260 those of you who are students, but once he ran for office, 349 00:14:41,260 --> 00:14:43,520 there was a whole birtherism controversy, 350 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:45,817 like, "He's not American." 351 00:14:45,817 --> 00:14:46,967 "He was born in Kenya." 352 00:14:46,967 --> 00:14:48,177 "He was born Indonesia." 353 00:14:48,177 --> 00:14:49,777 "Where's the birth certificate?" 354 00:14:51,757 --> 00:14:54,280 But he was born in Hawaii and it was proven. 355 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:56,620 It was to the point where it was delusional, 356 00:14:56,620 --> 00:14:58,590 that people could not deal with the reality 357 00:14:58,590 --> 00:15:01,390 that he actually was an American citizen. 358 00:15:01,390 --> 00:15:03,410 I heard a little bit of Kamala Harris too, 359 00:15:03,410 --> 00:15:05,627 this last time around, like, "She was an anchor baby. 360 00:15:05,627 --> 00:15:07,540 "She's not really American." 361 00:15:07,540 --> 00:15:08,790 I mean, ludicrous. 362 00:15:08,790 --> 00:15:10,960 She was born in Oakland, California. 363 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:13,420 But then this person right here in the middle, John McCain, 364 00:15:13,420 --> 00:15:14,260 you may recognize. 365 00:15:14,260 --> 00:15:15,170 May he rest in peace too. 366 00:15:15,170 --> 00:15:16,520 He passed away a years ago. 367 00:15:19,220 --> 00:15:21,010 He's the one that was born outside the U.S. 368 00:15:21,010 --> 00:15:22,800 He was born in Panama. 369 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:24,330 But then when he was running for president, 370 00:15:24,330 --> 00:15:26,500 no one questioned his legitimacy. 371 00:15:26,500 --> 00:15:28,770 No one said, "Are you a real American?" 372 00:15:28,770 --> 00:15:32,223 So, this is an example of a foreigner microaggression, okay? 373 00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:35,120 And you'll conveniently notice too, 374 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,420 who's a Person of Color, who's a white person. 375 00:15:38,650 --> 00:15:42,943 Likewise with Barack Obama, this is someone saying, 376 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,963 when he was running for president, again, in the news story. 377 00:15:49,256 --> 00:15:50,089 Actually it was Trump. 378 00:15:50,089 --> 00:15:51,857 Trump said this, okay? 379 00:15:52,710 --> 00:15:56,427 When he was, pre-Obama, running for president, he says like, 380 00:15:56,427 --> 00:15:58,847 "Oh, Obama, I heard he was a terrible student." 381 00:15:58,847 --> 00:16:00,847 "How's a bad student go to Columbia and Harvard? 382 00:16:00,847 --> 00:16:01,737 "I'm thinking about it. 383 00:16:01,737 --> 00:16:03,327 "I'm certainly looking into it. 384 00:16:03,327 --> 00:16:05,350 "Let him show his records." 385 00:16:05,350 --> 00:16:07,107 And then he said, "I have friends who have smart sons. 386 00:16:07,107 --> 00:16:08,827 "Great marks, great boards, great everything. 387 00:16:08,827 --> 00:16:10,510 "They can't get into Harvard." 388 00:16:10,510 --> 00:16:12,550 Of course, the insinuation is that, 389 00:16:12,550 --> 00:16:15,000 how can someone like him, a Black man, 390 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,530 that's what's not stated, how can someone like him 391 00:16:17,530 --> 00:16:21,220 actually be smart enough to get into Harvard? 392 00:16:21,220 --> 00:16:22,970 There must be some shenanigans going on, 393 00:16:22,970 --> 00:16:24,060 or affirmative action. 394 00:16:24,060 --> 00:16:25,990 They just gave him a spot. 395 00:16:25,990 --> 00:16:28,510 But Obama, he was the president of the... 396 00:16:28,510 --> 00:16:31,420 He was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. 397 00:16:31,420 --> 00:16:34,160 You cannot be a student and be a slouch 398 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:36,880 and become the editor of the Harvard Law Review. 399 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:38,290 He was a great student. 400 00:16:38,290 --> 00:16:43,290 But again, his legitimacy, his intelligence is questioned. 401 00:16:44,670 --> 00:16:48,120 But then George W. Bush, you might remember him, 402 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:49,920 president in the 2000s. 403 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:52,577 Again, he went to Yale, but no one questioned, 404 00:16:52,577 --> 00:16:56,637 "Oh, well, does he belong there?" you know? 405 00:16:56,637 --> 00:16:57,510 As matter of fact, people said, 406 00:16:57,510 --> 00:16:59,670 actually, I was terrible student. 407 00:16:59,670 --> 00:17:00,690 We were terrible students, 408 00:17:00,690 --> 00:17:02,620 but we still got into a good school, 409 00:17:02,620 --> 00:17:05,160 which Yale is more than a good school. 410 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:09,530 But again, some people's legitimacy 411 00:17:09,530 --> 00:17:11,010 is just being questioned. 412 00:17:11,010 --> 00:17:14,330 Again, we would say it's probably due to their race. 413 00:17:14,330 --> 00:17:16,373 But again, it's an ambiguous situation. 414 00:17:19,813 --> 00:17:20,930 Here are some other examples too. 415 00:17:20,930 --> 00:17:23,873 Here are some environmental, or visual microaggressions. 416 00:17:25,177 --> 00:17:27,970 So, for instance, 417 00:17:27,970 --> 00:17:29,680 like racially insensitive mascots, 418 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,460 those are actually very harmful for the self-image 419 00:17:32,460 --> 00:17:34,210 and identity of people who are Native American, 420 00:17:34,210 --> 00:17:36,010 or American Indian youth. 421 00:17:36,010 --> 00:17:37,390 Even more, they shouldn't happen. 422 00:17:37,390 --> 00:17:39,420 Actually, they're getting rid of a lot of them everywhere, 423 00:17:39,420 --> 00:17:41,010 which is fantastic. 424 00:17:41,010 --> 00:17:43,990 But it's so insulting and it's religiously offensive, 425 00:17:43,990 --> 00:17:47,120 especially for when they have these mascots 426 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:50,783 with the full headdress because in a lot of tribes, 427 00:17:51,900 --> 00:17:56,550 the chief of the tribe is also the spiritual leader. 428 00:17:56,550 --> 00:17:58,940 And you only use those full headdresses, 429 00:17:58,940 --> 00:18:01,940 the feathers curates spiritual significance, 430 00:18:01,940 --> 00:18:03,880 they're only used during religious ceremonies. 431 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,350 So, it's kind of like if you have the Pope, 432 00:18:07,350 --> 00:18:10,280 where it has Pope hat and so on, doing a dance 433 00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:12,250 in the end zone of a football game. 434 00:18:12,250 --> 00:18:14,970 I mean, it's so insulting. 435 00:18:14,970 --> 00:18:19,130 But then again, their perspectives don't matter, you know? 436 00:18:19,130 --> 00:18:22,010 So, that's why that's harmful and offensive. 437 00:18:22,010 --> 00:18:24,940 Likewise, another example of environmental aggression is, 438 00:18:24,940 --> 00:18:27,630 I have here the picture of the most recent 439 00:18:28,900 --> 00:18:31,683 newly elected House of Representative from 2021. 440 00:18:32,750 --> 00:18:34,100 If you look at this, again, 441 00:18:35,490 --> 00:18:37,280 there's no interpersonal behavior here. 442 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:38,200 It's just a picture. 443 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:40,003 But if you look at who's there, 444 00:18:40,867 --> 00:18:43,120 who's in the position of power, see what we're seeing? 445 00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:47,453 Hmm, yeah, well, some women, it's a lot of men. 446 00:18:49,079 --> 00:18:52,260 A lot of white faces, a few People of Color, 447 00:18:52,260 --> 00:18:53,513 but just given how, 448 00:18:55,130 --> 00:18:58,910 preponderance of white individuals, male individuals 449 00:18:58,910 --> 00:19:02,620 among other types of privilege, it sends a message. 450 00:19:02,620 --> 00:19:05,140 It sends a message of who belongs here, 451 00:19:05,140 --> 00:19:07,290 who are the more powerful people. 452 00:19:07,290 --> 00:19:09,800 Who are the appropriate people to have in positions 453 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:11,120 of power and authority. 454 00:19:11,120 --> 00:19:13,700 So, those can also send harmful messages 455 00:19:13,700 --> 00:19:15,603 if you don't belong to those groups. 456 00:19:16,900 --> 00:19:20,560 So, after developing the scale, we did some work 457 00:19:22,056 --> 00:19:23,080 to actually measure. 458 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:25,110 I think that these are harmful, but as a good researcher, 459 00:19:25,110 --> 00:19:26,900 I could be wrong. 460 00:19:26,900 --> 00:19:28,360 So, I wanted to see, first of all, 461 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:31,450 how common is these experience with college students, 462 00:19:31,450 --> 00:19:33,130 especially college of students of Color. 463 00:19:33,130 --> 00:19:36,630 Some of this work is from Roosevelt students, 464 00:19:36,630 --> 00:19:40,030 which by the way, Roosevelt's a pretty diverse university. 465 00:19:40,030 --> 00:19:42,520 It's about half white, half students of Color. 466 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:43,960 We're a Hispanic-serving institution, 467 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,420 which means we have about 25 plus students 468 00:19:47,420 --> 00:19:52,420 who are Latinx, Latino, about 20% African American, 469 00:19:53,130 --> 00:19:55,993 few Asian American and American Indian students. 470 00:19:58,018 --> 00:20:01,110 So, we see how often it happens. 471 00:20:01,110 --> 00:20:02,720 It's happening to some extent. 472 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,970 Again, kinda low level, but at the same time, 473 00:20:05,970 --> 00:20:08,140 these are the ones that people are experiencing more, 474 00:20:08,140 --> 00:20:10,050 being treated as if you come from a dysfunctional, 475 00:20:10,050 --> 00:20:11,620 or a low-achieving culture. 476 00:20:11,620 --> 00:20:13,383 And also, there's like, oh, 477 00:20:15,100 --> 00:20:17,370 my group is not represented well here. 478 00:20:17,370 --> 00:20:20,870 Maybe one of the few and also the people in power 479 00:20:20,870 --> 00:20:23,260 are not being represented well, which unfortunately, 480 00:20:23,260 --> 00:20:27,290 I just said the student body is very diverse, 481 00:20:27,290 --> 00:20:29,600 our faculty is almost all white. 482 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:34,450 I'm one of the very few People of Color in the faculty. 483 00:20:34,450 --> 00:20:36,433 Again, the students notice this. 484 00:20:37,590 --> 00:20:41,110 Then likewise, how often does this happen? 485 00:20:41,110 --> 00:20:42,853 Have you ever experienced this? 486 00:20:44,060 --> 00:20:45,890 Again, this made me feel really bad. 487 00:20:45,890 --> 00:20:49,720 I feel sad about this, that people experience it so often. 488 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:50,900 I was actually kinda surprised 489 00:20:50,900 --> 00:20:53,720 by how often people experience this, 490 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:55,100 especially being treated 491 00:20:55,100 --> 00:20:57,760 from a low-achieving dysfunctional culture. 492 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,450 These are common experiences for our students, 493 00:21:00,450 --> 00:21:03,223 even in the culturally diverse setting like Roosevelt. 494 00:21:07,117 --> 00:21:08,110 It's one thing to definitely you'll see 495 00:21:08,110 --> 00:21:11,300 how common experiences are, but then also, what's the harm? 496 00:21:11,300 --> 00:21:14,750 There's been a lot of research that's been done recently 497 00:21:14,750 --> 00:21:18,010 to try to see, not only to kinda measure how 498 00:21:18,010 --> 00:21:19,360 what are these experiences like, 499 00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:23,480 but also what kind of impact are these having on students. 500 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:27,640 At the same time, in psychology, in my discipline, 501 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:29,450 there's also been kind of a backlash, 502 00:21:29,450 --> 00:21:31,430 which has been very strange. 503 00:21:31,430 --> 00:21:32,263 Where some of the researchers said, 504 00:21:32,263 --> 00:21:35,410 yeah, microaggressions, they're ambiguous. 505 00:21:35,410 --> 00:21:37,860 Maybe they're related to race, maybe they aren't. 506 00:21:38,750 --> 00:21:41,510 How do you know that it isn't just insulting behavior? 507 00:21:41,510 --> 00:21:42,600 People are like that. 508 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,220 They call me, oh, I'm a Republican, 509 00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:46,470 it's all kinds of rude insulting things to me, 510 00:21:46,470 --> 00:21:48,020 why is race any different? 511 00:21:48,020 --> 00:21:50,130 Isn't it just like any rude behavior 512 00:21:50,130 --> 00:21:52,080 and do we need to worry about it? 513 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:53,440 How do we know it's always harmful? 514 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:54,273 You don't know that. 515 00:21:54,273 --> 00:21:56,003 Maybe people are just being rude. 516 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,060 So, that's some of the objections that my colleagues, 517 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:01,943 my psychology colleagues have made. 518 00:22:03,056 --> 00:22:05,650 And they question, is microaggressions really a thing? 519 00:22:05,650 --> 00:22:07,110 And then suddenly they'll say things like, 520 00:22:07,110 --> 00:22:09,593 oh, well, the person didn't mean to be racist. 521 00:22:11,010 --> 00:22:12,420 Should we be calling them perpetrators? 522 00:22:12,420 --> 00:22:13,620 It's so harsh. 523 00:22:13,620 --> 00:22:14,830 Should we call 'em aggressions? 524 00:22:14,830 --> 00:22:16,480 They don't mean to be aggressive. 525 00:22:18,251 --> 00:22:19,660 And maybe, People of Color, 526 00:22:19,660 --> 00:22:21,960 when they say that they're having these experiences, 527 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,520 maybe they're just being too pessimistic, 528 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:25,400 or maybe they're neurotic. 529 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,610 Which in psychology neuroticism means 530 00:22:27,610 --> 00:22:29,470 that you're more prone to negative emotions 531 00:22:29,470 --> 00:22:32,350 like depression and anxiety and anger and things like that. 532 00:22:32,350 --> 00:22:33,520 So, maybe they're just more prone 533 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:35,493 to just be negative anyways. 534 00:22:37,370 --> 00:22:39,150 The reason they're complaining about this is, 535 00:22:39,150 --> 00:22:40,630 they're calling it race, it really isn't, 536 00:22:40,630 --> 00:22:42,880 but they're just being too pessimistic about it, 537 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:46,100 seeing racism when it isn't there. 538 00:22:46,100 --> 00:22:47,980 And then people also criticize the methodology, 539 00:22:47,980 --> 00:22:50,123 which it is an emerging methodology. 540 00:22:51,460 --> 00:22:55,140 By the way, hearing this from my colleagues, honestly... 541 00:22:55,140 --> 00:22:56,540 Microaggression researchers, we all got together, 542 00:22:56,540 --> 00:22:58,410 and like, what is this? 543 00:22:58,410 --> 00:23:00,860 'Cause honestly, some of this, in my opinion, 544 00:23:00,860 --> 00:23:04,410 is just racism dressed up in scientific language, 545 00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:07,617 especially this one, "Are People of Color 546 00:23:07,617 --> 00:23:08,792 "labeling these events 547 00:23:08,792 --> 00:23:10,350 "'cause they're too pessimistic, or neurotic?" 548 00:23:10,350 --> 00:23:12,570 I thought, oh my God, in other words, 549 00:23:12,570 --> 00:23:15,600 we're being too sensitive as People of Color. 550 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:16,800 We're playing the race card. 551 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,800 We're seeing racism when it isn't there. 552 00:23:19,836 --> 00:23:22,751 (sighs) But anyways, I discussed it with my colleagues, 553 00:23:22,751 --> 00:23:26,250 as they were like, okay, put our personal feelings aside. 554 00:23:26,250 --> 00:23:27,853 It's not a he said, she said kinda thing. 555 00:23:27,853 --> 00:23:29,310 It's not our opinion. 556 00:23:29,310 --> 00:23:31,540 Even though we think that these objections are wrong, 557 00:23:31,540 --> 00:23:34,840 let's go to the research and see what's the evidence 558 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:37,190 and that's really needed to guide our thinking. 559 00:23:40,310 --> 00:23:43,400 Williams and others, some of my colleagues who do this work, 560 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,010 have done reviews since people raised the objection. 561 00:23:46,010 --> 00:23:47,747 They found, actually, 562 00:23:47,747 --> 00:23:50,500 microaggressions are pretty well-defined in the literature. 563 00:23:50,500 --> 00:23:52,580 We can measure them very reliably. 564 00:23:52,580 --> 00:23:54,140 They're associated with other types of racism, 565 00:23:54,140 --> 00:23:56,840 which is just that microaggressions are type of racism. 566 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,200 There's a lot of 567 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:00,550 agreement too, in terms of 568 00:24:00,550 --> 00:24:02,830 what these microaggression experiences are like 569 00:24:02,830 --> 00:24:04,130 across different cultures 570 00:24:04,130 --> 00:24:08,500 and also from the majority students too, white people, 571 00:24:08,500 --> 00:24:10,850 they also can recognize these microaggressions. 572 00:24:13,380 --> 00:24:16,090 Also, these microaggressions have very consistently 573 00:24:16,090 --> 00:24:20,090 been linked to a lot of negative mental health outcomes. 574 00:24:20,090 --> 00:24:23,443 So, that actually is coming very clear from the literature. 575 00:24:24,630 --> 00:24:26,250 And then all also, 576 00:24:26,250 --> 00:24:28,450 some of our psychology colleagues have said, 577 00:24:29,610 --> 00:24:31,160 maybe you shouldn't be pointing it out 578 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,870 because maybe they're seeing racism that isn't there. 579 00:24:33,870 --> 00:24:35,440 You're gonna make people feel bad. 580 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,380 Although honestly, when I talk about microaggressions 581 00:24:37,380 --> 00:24:41,630 with my students of Color and other people, 582 00:24:41,630 --> 00:24:43,987 we tend to have the reaction of, 583 00:24:43,987 --> 00:24:44,820 "Oh yeah! 584 00:24:44,820 --> 00:24:45,653 "You mean there's a name for it? 585 00:24:45,653 --> 00:24:47,650 "Yeah, I know exactly you're talking about." (chuckles) 586 00:24:47,650 --> 00:24:48,483 So, I don't know. 587 00:24:48,483 --> 00:24:50,350 I encourage you all to think about that. 588 00:24:50,350 --> 00:24:51,600 When you hear about microagressions, 589 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:52,770 what'd you think about that? 590 00:24:52,770 --> 00:24:54,100 Or you think, oh, that's interesting. 591 00:24:54,100 --> 00:24:55,370 I never thought about it. 592 00:24:55,370 --> 00:24:56,203 My experience has been, 593 00:24:56,203 --> 00:24:58,150 when I would talk to my white students, 594 00:24:58,150 --> 00:25:00,170 they would tend to say, until recently, 595 00:25:00,170 --> 00:25:01,380 I think there's a lot more awareness now, 596 00:25:01,380 --> 00:25:03,417 but say like eight years ago, be like, 597 00:25:03,417 --> 00:25:04,808 "Oh, these are what microaggressions are. 598 00:25:04,808 --> 00:25:06,404 "What do you think about that?" 599 00:25:06,404 --> 00:25:07,627 The white students would be like, "Oh, that's interesting. 600 00:25:07,627 --> 00:25:08,940 "I never knew about that." 601 00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:11,057 People of Color, I be like, students of Color I be like, 602 00:25:11,057 --> 00:25:12,302 "Okay, what do you think about this? 603 00:25:12,302 --> 00:25:13,357 "This is the microaggression theory. 604 00:25:13,357 --> 00:25:14,437 "What do you think about this?" they go, 605 00:25:14,437 --> 00:25:17,110 "Oh yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about." 606 00:25:17,110 --> 00:25:18,920 So, nothing is being pointed out. 607 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,260 I think that these are commonly recognized experience 608 00:25:22,260 --> 00:25:23,423 among People of Color. 609 00:25:24,263 --> 00:25:25,820 And I think it's important to even point that out 610 00:25:25,820 --> 00:25:28,920 and bring it out because we need to normalize the reaction. 611 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:29,880 Sometimes you think like, I don't know, 612 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,122 did I just see what I just saw? 613 00:25:32,122 --> 00:25:33,097 This person said this rude thing to this. 614 00:25:33,097 --> 00:25:34,460 Did they mean it? 615 00:25:34,460 --> 00:25:35,370 What's going on here? 616 00:25:35,370 --> 00:25:37,010 It can be a little... 617 00:25:37,010 --> 00:25:38,540 You feel like you're going crazy. 618 00:25:38,540 --> 00:25:40,860 And just point out, no, these are legitimate experiences. 619 00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:42,033 We can measure them. 620 00:25:43,230 --> 00:25:46,103 And also, this perception, these are harmful experiences. 621 00:25:48,090 --> 00:25:52,050 So, the literature definitely links microaggressions 622 00:25:52,050 --> 00:25:53,853 to all kinds of harm. 623 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,500 The fact that we see these links means that 624 00:25:59,500 --> 00:26:02,450 we have a responsibility to try to do something about that. 625 00:26:03,790 --> 00:26:07,380 Another reason why it's important to really look at this 626 00:26:07,380 --> 00:26:09,233 is just, for some People of Color 627 00:26:09,233 --> 00:26:11,860 who report these microagression experiences, 628 00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:14,030 it can be really threatening. 629 00:26:14,030 --> 00:26:15,300 People might start to question 630 00:26:15,300 --> 00:26:18,140 if they experience 'em in a setting like, am I safe here? 631 00:26:18,140 --> 00:26:20,540 Am I gonna be discriminated against? 632 00:26:20,540 --> 00:26:23,880 Is this person gonna mistreat me? 633 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:25,980 They're saying all this racially loaded language, 634 00:26:25,980 --> 00:26:27,750 or making these jokes. 635 00:26:27,750 --> 00:26:30,350 These can be very threatening experiences 636 00:26:30,350 --> 00:26:32,100 and also they can be painful reminders of 637 00:26:32,100 --> 00:26:34,403 unfortunately racism hasn't gone away. 638 00:26:35,792 --> 00:26:37,270 It just reminds us, when you experience this, 639 00:26:37,270 --> 00:26:40,523 yeah, this person still has these racist attitudes. 640 00:26:41,505 --> 00:26:45,091 So, this idea that racism is a thing a past, is not true. 641 00:26:45,091 --> 00:26:48,170 We still experience that and it's a painful realization 642 00:26:49,010 --> 00:26:51,723 to come to recognize, yeah, racism is still around. 643 00:26:54,650 --> 00:26:55,650 Next, I wanna go over a little bit 644 00:26:55,650 --> 00:26:57,520 in terms of some of the actual 645 00:26:59,610 --> 00:27:00,853 literature too. 646 00:27:02,390 --> 00:27:03,667 There's actually a lot of literature 647 00:27:03,667 --> 00:27:08,350 and there's a lot in terms of the discrimination literature, 648 00:27:08,350 --> 00:27:11,000 of which micragressions are a type of discrimination. 649 00:27:11,910 --> 00:27:15,090 This is coming from the public health literature. 650 00:27:15,090 --> 00:27:18,280 People have done these meta analysis, which are these 651 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,674 combined studies that take many studies 652 00:27:20,674 --> 00:27:22,300 and they'll reanalyze the data 653 00:27:22,300 --> 00:27:24,760 to see what some of the links are 654 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:26,640 and how strong the relationships are 655 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:27,963 among different variables. 656 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:30,700 So, from the discrimination literature, 657 00:27:30,700 --> 00:27:33,870 we find that discrimination is pretty reliably, 658 00:27:33,870 --> 00:27:35,120 very consistently associated 659 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:37,923 with poor mental and physical health. 660 00:27:39,150 --> 00:27:41,010 The literature so far said, it's probably due 661 00:27:41,010 --> 00:27:44,390 to two pathways, a heightened physiological stress response, 662 00:27:44,390 --> 00:27:45,830 which we are gonna go over a little bit 663 00:27:45,830 --> 00:27:49,610 and also related to just poor health behaviors. 664 00:27:49,610 --> 00:27:52,150 Second pathway is, if you experience discrimination, 665 00:27:52,150 --> 00:27:55,540 people do things which makes sense in the short term. 666 00:27:55,540 --> 00:27:57,510 They might over-eat, eat comfort food, 667 00:27:57,510 --> 00:27:59,780 they might drink alcohol, they'll smoke, 668 00:27:59,780 --> 00:28:01,630 they'll engage in these coping behaviors, 669 00:28:01,630 --> 00:28:03,570 or these self-soothing. behaviors. 670 00:28:03,570 --> 00:28:06,340 These are stress-reduction behaviors, 671 00:28:06,340 --> 00:28:07,410 which work in the long term. 672 00:28:07,410 --> 00:28:10,280 They make you feel good, you know, eat delicious food, 673 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:14,450 smoke, you relax, drinking alcohol to feel more relaxed. 674 00:28:14,450 --> 00:28:17,130 Good short-term strategies, poor long-term strategies, 675 00:28:17,130 --> 00:28:19,530 'cause then they can have long-term, unfortunately, 676 00:28:19,530 --> 00:28:23,160 long-term consequences on physical health and mental health. 677 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:24,350 So, those are the two pathways 678 00:28:24,350 --> 00:28:26,273 where we think that there's that link. 679 00:28:27,150 --> 00:28:30,080 Likewise, this is just a recent meta analysis too. 680 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:31,270 Again, perceived discrimination, 681 00:28:31,270 --> 00:28:33,470 very clearly associated with poor mental health, 682 00:28:33,470 --> 00:28:35,570 poor general health, poor physical health. 683 00:28:36,460 --> 00:28:38,660 Then this slide has just some of the... 684 00:28:38,660 --> 00:28:40,990 This is specific to microaggressions. 685 00:28:40,990 --> 00:28:43,050 So, not, though, entire racism, 686 00:28:43,050 --> 00:28:44,600 or discrimination literature, 687 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,300 but focusing just on racial microaggressions, 688 00:28:46,300 --> 00:28:49,770 so that everyday low-level kind of rude, 689 00:28:49,770 --> 00:28:51,713 culturally insensitive behavior. 690 00:28:52,630 --> 00:28:54,370 There's emerging literature that shows that 691 00:28:54,370 --> 00:28:57,270 it's linked to all these psychological and somatic symptoms, 692 00:28:57,270 --> 00:28:58,710 general health status. 693 00:28:58,710 --> 00:29:01,510 Like the general racism, literature, 694 00:29:01,510 --> 00:29:04,300 it's linked to interpersonal relational consequences. 695 00:29:04,300 --> 00:29:05,720 People experience more mistrust. 696 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:07,133 If you're socially isolated, 697 00:29:08,434 --> 00:29:10,800 it contributes to rejection sensitivity. 698 00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:12,710 Feeling misunderstood. 699 00:29:12,710 --> 00:29:16,170 Then unfortunately when there are healthcare providers 700 00:29:18,143 --> 00:29:23,143 that engage in microaggressions, it's poor healthcare. 701 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,860 Clinicians are more likely to misdiagnose their patients 702 00:29:25,860 --> 00:29:27,980 over-pathologize their patients 703 00:29:27,980 --> 00:29:30,760 because of their identity, or background. 704 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:32,810 It is associated with, in psychology, 705 00:29:32,810 --> 00:29:34,650 with poor psychotherapy outcomes, 706 00:29:34,650 --> 00:29:36,320 increased treatment dropout 707 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:39,020 and overall poor quality of care, 708 00:29:39,020 --> 00:29:41,190 decreased treatment effectiveness. 709 00:29:41,190 --> 00:29:44,590 So, unfortunately a lot of really harmful things 710 00:29:44,590 --> 00:29:45,423 are going on. 711 00:29:47,270 --> 00:29:51,700 So, now we know literature's pretty clear at this point, 712 00:29:51,700 --> 00:29:53,450 racism is not good for your health. 713 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:56,313 The next area is, there's a lot more work 714 00:29:56,313 --> 00:29:57,430 that needs to be done here, 715 00:29:57,430 --> 00:29:59,580 but what are some of those potential links? 716 00:30:00,450 --> 00:30:03,070 This is a graphic too, which again, we need do more work 717 00:30:03,070 --> 00:30:04,580 to kind of see whether this is true, 718 00:30:04,580 --> 00:30:07,020 but this is a proposed type of pathway 719 00:30:07,020 --> 00:30:10,030 by which racism might impact health. 720 00:30:10,030 --> 00:30:11,850 So here, we'll see on the left, 721 00:30:11,850 --> 00:30:13,513 ethnicity related maltreatment. 722 00:30:16,652 --> 00:30:18,712 And then, especially in psychology, 723 00:30:18,712 --> 00:30:19,545 there's a lot of work done 724 00:30:19,545 --> 00:30:23,120 around cognitive appraisal in general, in terms of stress 725 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,810 and racism and microaggressions seem to work 726 00:30:26,810 --> 00:30:29,293 like any kind of chronic stress. 727 00:30:30,770 --> 00:30:32,940 Generally what happens when people are aware 728 00:30:32,940 --> 00:30:35,510 of the possibility of microaggression, or racism, 729 00:30:35,510 --> 00:30:36,920 or discrimination, 730 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:39,490 there's this cognitive appraisal process that happens. 731 00:30:39,490 --> 00:30:43,460 So, the primary appraisal refers to, wait a second, 732 00:30:43,460 --> 00:30:48,057 is that person following me because of my race? 733 00:30:48,057 --> 00:30:50,830 Did they say that rude thing to me 734 00:30:50,830 --> 00:30:53,010 because of my racial background? 735 00:30:53,010 --> 00:30:54,453 So, you kinda say, okay, what's going on here? 736 00:30:54,453 --> 00:30:56,400 Is that a threat? 737 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,900 Am I being mistreated here 'cause of my race? 738 00:30:58,900 --> 00:31:00,690 And then there's a secondary appraisal process, 739 00:31:00,690 --> 00:31:03,580 like okay, once you recognize, oh yeah, 740 00:31:03,580 --> 00:31:05,030 they made this really rude comment to me, 741 00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:06,590 or they told this horrific joke 742 00:31:06,590 --> 00:31:08,610 and they thought that I would be okay with it. 743 00:31:08,610 --> 00:31:10,570 Then there's a secondary appraisal process, 744 00:31:10,570 --> 00:31:12,721 like, what do I do about it? 745 00:31:12,721 --> 00:31:14,420 Can I do anything about it? 746 00:31:14,420 --> 00:31:15,533 Can I cope with it? 747 00:31:16,770 --> 00:31:19,580 This process is cognitively taxing, 748 00:31:19,580 --> 00:31:22,220 but then that can lead to people having emotional reactions, 749 00:31:22,220 --> 00:31:23,343 it can lead to coping. 750 00:31:24,867 --> 00:31:26,680 And then, we think that that's what leads 751 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,380 to some of the physiological respondent. 752 00:31:29,380 --> 00:31:33,240 It leads to the health-related behaviors, like overeating, 753 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,800 substance use and so on 754 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,033 and then that's what leads to changes on health status. 755 00:31:39,150 --> 00:31:41,860 So, some work that I did a few years ago too, 756 00:31:41,860 --> 00:31:43,960 we just wanted to look at the relationship 757 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,180 between different types of microaggressions, 758 00:31:46,180 --> 00:31:47,550 which is on this table here, 759 00:31:47,550 --> 00:31:51,540 and also physical and psychological symptoms. 760 00:31:51,540 --> 00:31:53,610 So, I have here, number seven here, 761 00:31:53,610 --> 00:31:55,520 is the perceived stress scale. 762 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:57,650 Number eight is a depression scale 763 00:31:57,650 --> 00:32:00,090 and then depression symptoms and then somatic symptoms. 764 00:32:00,090 --> 00:32:03,490 These include things like headaches, GI problems, 765 00:32:03,490 --> 00:32:07,780 like stomach aches and sleep problems, sleep disturbance 766 00:32:07,780 --> 00:32:12,120 and also being more prone to having colds and flus, 767 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,880 which can be an indication of immunological functioning. 768 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:17,640 So, then looking at these relationships, 769 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,990 you can look at just the strength, by the numbers too. 770 00:32:20,990 --> 00:32:23,670 We found that all these microagressions are related 771 00:32:24,740 --> 00:32:27,350 with depression and with stress, 772 00:32:27,350 --> 00:32:32,210 but much more strongly related with somatic symptoms. 773 00:32:32,210 --> 00:32:34,261 To me, I remember I was kinda shocked by this. 774 00:32:34,261 --> 00:32:35,461 I was like, "Oh my God!" 775 00:32:37,050 --> 00:32:40,590 The somatic piece, the physical reactions, 776 00:32:40,590 --> 00:32:42,410 there's more to the story here. 777 00:32:42,410 --> 00:32:45,000 And actually we did find that the psychological symptoms 778 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,880 were actually mediators for some of the symptomatology 779 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:49,110 that was occurring. 780 00:32:49,110 --> 00:32:50,810 By the way, these are college students. 781 00:32:50,810 --> 00:32:51,660 College students, 782 00:32:52,510 --> 00:32:55,766 these are young people, 20s. 783 00:32:55,766 --> 00:32:57,970 That was the average age, 25. 784 00:32:57,970 --> 00:32:59,110 Physically speaking, 785 00:32:59,110 --> 00:33:02,550 you guys should be healthier than anybody. 786 00:33:02,550 --> 00:33:04,830 When you get to my age, middle age and older, 787 00:33:04,830 --> 00:33:06,010 you physical... 788 00:33:06,010 --> 00:33:08,160 You shouldn't be experiencing these physical symptoms. 789 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,490 So, the fact that it impacted physical symptomatology 790 00:33:11,490 --> 00:33:14,040 in college students, was a little disturbing to me. 791 00:33:15,550 --> 00:33:18,320 Also, I wanted to continue to study it. 792 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:20,100 I'm still doing that. 793 00:33:20,100 --> 00:33:22,080 In terms of some of the potential pathways, 794 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:23,807 I wanna talk a little bit more about cortisol 795 00:33:23,807 --> 00:33:25,700 and some of the actual links 796 00:33:25,700 --> 00:33:28,203 to some of the physiological activation. 797 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:30,720 So, I'm gonna give you a crash course 798 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,560 in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis 799 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,530 on the psychobiology of stress. 800 00:33:36,530 --> 00:33:39,880 So, it seems like racism acts like stress, 801 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,130 like any kind of stressor, 802 00:33:42,130 --> 00:33:46,093 especially social evaluative stress. 803 00:33:49,270 --> 00:33:50,240 Basically what happens 804 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,840 when a person is under periods of stress, 805 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,510 so you have all these stressful demands, like someone says, 806 00:33:56,510 --> 00:33:58,730 oh, you have a test tomorrow ( Dr. Torres-Harding chuckles) 807 00:33:58,730 --> 00:34:00,863 and you forgot to study, things like that, 808 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:06,120 you take in that information about demands on you 809 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,520 through your senses 810 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:10,760 and then there's a lot of cognitive processing going on, 811 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,210 that cognitive appraisal process I just mentioned. 812 00:34:14,210 --> 00:34:16,419 Then what happens in the brain then is, 813 00:34:16,419 --> 00:34:17,360 if this seems like a threatening, 814 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,280 potentially threatening situation, 815 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,400 that kicks off the HPA axis. 816 00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,800 Then what happens then is, after this cognitive processing, 817 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:30,500 the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone, 818 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,043 sends it to the pituitary gland, which the pituitary gland 819 00:34:35,043 --> 00:34:35,876 is actually in the brain. 820 00:34:35,876 --> 00:34:38,693 They just kind of pull this out here to illustrate it. 821 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:44,300 Then the pituitary gland then releases, 822 00:34:44,300 --> 00:34:47,960 secretes adrenal corticotropin-releasing hormone 823 00:34:49,033 --> 00:34:50,800 and then that gets released in the bloodstream. 824 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,870 These hormones go down to the adrenal glands, the kidneys, 825 00:34:53,870 --> 00:34:55,920 adrenal gland sits on top of the kidney 826 00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:59,330 and then it releases cortisol and other glucocorticoids. 827 00:34:59,330 --> 00:35:02,500 And what happens during times of social acute stress, 828 00:35:02,500 --> 00:35:05,780 that glucocorticoid really stimulates production of glucose, 829 00:35:05,780 --> 00:35:08,330 so that we get more energy to fight, or flight, 830 00:35:08,330 --> 00:35:09,700 fight against the stressor. 831 00:35:09,700 --> 00:35:12,780 It upregulates the sympathetic nervous system, 832 00:35:12,780 --> 00:35:14,650 so things like increased heart rate, blood pressure, 833 00:35:14,650 --> 00:35:17,130 things like that, again, fight, or flight. 834 00:35:17,130 --> 00:35:19,410 It also downregulates immunological functioning. 835 00:35:19,410 --> 00:35:22,520 So, that's why after periods of stress, 836 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,330 you're more likely to catch colds and flus and so on 837 00:35:24,330 --> 00:35:27,570 'cause your immune system is not functioning as well, 838 00:35:27,570 --> 00:35:28,430 as optimally. 839 00:35:28,430 --> 00:35:32,530 And that's because the body's moving resources around, 840 00:35:32,530 --> 00:35:34,540 favoring some systems over another 841 00:35:34,540 --> 00:35:35,853 during the time of stress. 842 00:35:37,780 --> 00:35:40,100 I also wanna talk a little bit about cortisol. 843 00:35:40,100 --> 00:35:43,140 Cortisol is one of the glucocorticoids, so, the main hormone 844 00:35:43,140 --> 00:35:45,900 that we like to talk about stress hormone. 845 00:35:45,900 --> 00:35:48,750 Cortisol, it's released in two ways. 846 00:35:48,750 --> 00:35:51,363 And actually we have baseline levels of cortisol. 847 00:35:52,930 --> 00:35:54,210 It gets secreted by adrenal glands 848 00:35:54,210 --> 00:35:56,410 on this daily, or circadian rhythm. 849 00:35:56,410 --> 00:36:00,010 So, actually cortisol is really high in the morning 850 00:36:00,010 --> 00:36:03,180 and when you wake up, it actually increases 851 00:36:03,180 --> 00:36:07,100 and it peaks about 45 minutes to an hour after you wake up 852 00:36:07,100 --> 00:36:09,720 and then it goes down throughout the rest of the day, okay? 853 00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:12,530 So, this blue line here, is a normal 854 00:36:12,530 --> 00:36:16,570 cortisol-release kind of diurnal, or daily cortisol. 855 00:36:16,570 --> 00:36:19,270 This orange is a very abnormal pattern, which actually, 856 00:36:19,270 --> 00:36:20,840 when I used to work with chronic fatigue patients 857 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,105 and people had sleep problems, 858 00:36:23,105 --> 00:36:25,880 (inhales deeply) oh boy, their cortisol patterns, 859 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:27,883 oh my god, they were so messed up. 860 00:36:28,767 --> 00:36:30,440 And it's probably 'cause even though we not sure 861 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,830 about the link between sleep-wake cycle, 862 00:36:32,830 --> 00:36:36,760 it does appear to be linked to the sleep-wake cycle 863 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:37,593 in the brain. 864 00:36:39,135 --> 00:36:40,960 So, you always have this baseline level of cortisol 865 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,230 and it should go along this nice rhythm. 866 00:36:43,230 --> 00:36:45,410 Then also, cortisol is also released 867 00:36:45,410 --> 00:36:47,100 in response to acute stress, 868 00:36:47,100 --> 00:36:50,140 which I just reviewed with the HPA axis too. 869 00:36:50,140 --> 00:36:52,070 So, actually we have this research program 870 00:36:52,070 --> 00:36:54,050 called the Trier Social Stress Test, 871 00:36:54,050 --> 00:36:57,000 where we bring people into lab and we stress them. 872 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,020 Basically what that of consist of, people come in 873 00:37:00,020 --> 00:37:02,780 and it's a simulated job interview. 874 00:37:02,780 --> 00:37:05,610 'Cause the best way to kick off the HPA axis 875 00:37:05,610 --> 00:37:09,200 is to subject people to social evaluative stress, 876 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:10,033 in other words, 877 00:37:10,033 --> 00:37:12,410 where you're being evaluated for performance. 878 00:37:12,410 --> 00:37:14,420 So, for instance, public speaking, (chuckles) 879 00:37:14,420 --> 00:37:16,150 people will think, oh my god, she's terrible. 880 00:37:16,150 --> 00:37:18,490 That evaluative stress component, 881 00:37:18,490 --> 00:37:20,800 great way to kick off the HPA axis. 882 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:22,350 So, there's a simulated job interview 883 00:37:22,350 --> 00:37:25,290 with these research assistants who, by the way, 884 00:37:25,290 --> 00:37:28,510 they're instructed not to look at you, or to smile. 885 00:37:28,510 --> 00:37:30,470 You need to speak for five minutes about yourself 886 00:37:30,470 --> 00:37:32,750 and why you're qualified for this fake job. 887 00:37:32,750 --> 00:37:36,167 And then if you stop speaking, all that they say to you is, 888 00:37:36,167 --> 00:37:37,117 "You must continue. 889 00:37:37,117 --> 00:37:38,167 "Please go on." 890 00:37:41,030 --> 00:37:42,927 That's a nice way to kick off the HPA axis. 891 00:37:42,927 --> 00:37:47,040 And then what happen then is, we measure cortisol. 892 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,720 Thankfully cortisol, thankfully for psychologists 893 00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:51,110 'cause we're not medical people, 894 00:37:51,110 --> 00:37:52,590 we can measure it through saliva. 895 00:37:52,590 --> 00:37:55,920 So, you can collect saliva samples at different times. 896 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,060 Then what happens, is after the reactivity, 897 00:37:59,060 --> 00:38:00,660 after you're exposed to a stress, 898 00:38:00,660 --> 00:38:02,670 like the Trier Social Stress Test, 899 00:38:02,670 --> 00:38:04,280 then your cortisol level should increase, 900 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,430 you should get a nice output of cortisol, 901 00:38:07,430 --> 00:38:09,410 get this process going. 902 00:38:09,410 --> 00:38:11,830 Then there's a refractory period where it will go down. 903 00:38:11,830 --> 00:38:15,420 So, this is exactly like a curve of cortisol production, 904 00:38:15,420 --> 00:38:17,490 you know, after it's exposed to stress 905 00:38:17,490 --> 00:38:20,130 then kind of going back to baseline, 906 00:38:20,130 --> 00:38:22,110 maybe a little bit lower than baseline. 907 00:38:22,110 --> 00:38:24,740 This is for if you wanna measure the blood plasma 908 00:38:24,740 --> 00:38:28,210 and this is if you wanna measure ACTH too which again 909 00:38:28,210 --> 00:38:30,993 is what signals the release of cortisol. 910 00:38:32,270 --> 00:38:36,220 So now, certain people have abnormal functioning 911 00:38:36,220 --> 00:38:38,140 with HPA axis. 912 00:38:38,140 --> 00:38:41,150 For instance, people who are very depressed 913 00:38:41,150 --> 00:38:43,720 will show what's called hypercortisolism, 914 00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:47,949 or too much production, high levels of cortisolism. 915 00:38:47,949 --> 00:38:49,810 Hypercortisolism has been associated 916 00:38:49,810 --> 00:38:53,110 with metabolic syndrome, with disorders of immune system 917 00:38:53,110 --> 00:38:54,724 and depression. 918 00:38:54,724 --> 00:38:58,310 Hypocortisolism, in contrast, is associated with 919 00:38:59,370 --> 00:39:01,633 symptoms like pain, fatigue, irritability, 920 00:39:02,700 --> 00:39:06,023 perhaps due to disinhibition of proinflammatory cytokines. 921 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,510 Also, people who exhibit hypocortisolism, 922 00:39:11,510 --> 00:39:13,430 generally those are people who have been exposed 923 00:39:13,430 --> 00:39:15,420 to chronic, or long-term stress. 924 00:39:15,420 --> 00:39:19,890 So, sometimes people will study cortisol responsivity 925 00:39:19,890 --> 00:39:24,010 in people who are caregivers of parents with dementia, 926 00:39:24,010 --> 00:39:28,920 or caregivers of children who have childhood cancers. 927 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,050 Just imagine how stressful it would be to be a caregiver 928 00:39:32,050 --> 00:39:34,493 for people with those kind of conditions? 929 00:39:35,660 --> 00:39:37,700 Or people who've experienced severe trauma, 930 00:39:37,700 --> 00:39:39,460 like sexual abuse and so on. 931 00:39:39,460 --> 00:39:42,060 They tend to show very low levels of cortisol, 932 00:39:42,060 --> 00:39:46,320 just daily cortisol flat profiles. 933 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,260 Also, after a stressor like the Trier Social Stress Test, 934 00:39:50,260 --> 00:39:53,617 then they show very little reactivity stress. 935 00:39:53,617 --> 00:39:58,410 So, it's almost like their hypo, their HPA axis is depleted 936 00:39:58,410 --> 00:40:01,270 because it probably was kicking off so much. 937 00:40:01,270 --> 00:40:05,691 Those are very abnormal responses to stress 938 00:40:05,691 --> 00:40:07,823 and it's altered HPA axis function. 939 00:40:09,930 --> 00:40:14,930 So, when we think about racism and racial microaggressions, 940 00:40:14,980 --> 00:40:17,020 if this is something that's a chronic stressor, 941 00:40:17,020 --> 00:40:19,280 that's taking up the HPA axis, 942 00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:22,360 we should see some alterations. 943 00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:25,130 There's just been a few studies that have looked at this, 944 00:40:25,130 --> 00:40:26,760 but there's some good evidence coming out 945 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,750 that that's actually what we're seeing too. 946 00:40:29,750 --> 00:40:33,870 Although with acute stress, you're more likely see the hypo. 947 00:40:33,870 --> 00:40:35,460 So, if it's something that's pretty recent, 948 00:40:35,460 --> 00:40:39,740 you're gonna see more of an increase, overproduction, 949 00:40:39,740 --> 00:40:43,960 but then, as that changes to long-term, or chronic stress, 950 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:48,440 then we tend to have more hypo as the functioning 951 00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:51,570 in terms of altering HPA axis functioning. 952 00:40:51,570 --> 00:40:52,777 So, there are a few cities have looked at this 953 00:40:52,777 --> 00:40:55,940 and they found that after exposure to microaggressions, 954 00:40:55,940 --> 00:40:57,190 that there are two cities 955 00:40:58,556 --> 00:41:00,255 that I found that among people experiencing 956 00:41:00,255 --> 00:41:01,587 being treated as a criminal 957 00:41:01,587 --> 00:41:04,095 and being treated like you're a second-class citizen, 958 00:41:04,095 --> 00:41:06,580 those microaggressions, those are associated with 959 00:41:06,580 --> 00:41:10,040 overproduction of increased awakening response, 960 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:14,450 so, an overproduction of cortisol hypo, hyper, sorry. 961 00:41:14,450 --> 00:41:15,770 And then Palmer & Bacon found 962 00:41:15,770 --> 00:41:18,850 that increased microaggressions were associated 963 00:41:18,850 --> 00:41:20,310 with cortisol levels in hair. 964 00:41:20,310 --> 00:41:22,600 By the way, hair cortisol, that's something you can imagine 965 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:25,430 is something that would be responsive, 966 00:41:25,430 --> 00:41:26,263 (car hooting) you can get 967 00:41:26,263 --> 00:41:27,250 a nice curve out of it, 968 00:41:27,250 --> 00:41:32,250 but it would just more overall, general cortisol production. 969 00:41:32,260 --> 00:41:33,093 So, they found that people 970 00:41:33,093 --> 00:41:36,750 reporting more microagressions experiences in general 971 00:41:36,750 --> 00:41:38,720 seem to have an overall cumulative 972 00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:40,020 overproduction of cortisol 973 00:41:40,020 --> 00:41:42,910 compared to people who didn't experience that. 974 00:41:42,910 --> 00:41:45,363 In terms of their stress responsivity 975 00:41:46,210 --> 00:41:48,260 after that stress challenge, 976 00:41:48,260 --> 00:41:53,220 you find that microaggressions were associated in one study 977 00:41:53,220 --> 00:41:55,010 with a blunted cortisol response. 978 00:41:55,010 --> 00:41:58,040 So, in other words, it was more like a chronic stressor, 979 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,313 it appeared to be, that they didn't get as good 980 00:42:01,313 --> 00:42:05,690 a stress response and return to refractory period and so on. 981 00:42:05,690 --> 00:42:08,120 And that effect was more pronounced in Latinx 982 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,910 and other individuals, like biracial, multiracial 983 00:42:10,910 --> 00:42:12,913 compared to white and Asian Americans. 984 00:42:13,910 --> 00:42:16,340 Then, Hyunh et al, found that... 985 00:42:16,340 --> 00:42:17,400 Actually what they did is, 986 00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,060 they gave the Trier Social Stress Test. 987 00:42:20,060 --> 00:42:23,800 They had the standard laboratory stressor model 988 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:25,920 and they did all the measurement of cortisol. 989 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,740 What they did is, they actually had someone unintentionally, 990 00:42:29,740 --> 00:42:32,170 but intentionally, overhear someone 991 00:42:32,170 --> 00:42:34,440 make these really racially loaded comments, 992 00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,487 like, "Oh my God, they're Mexican. 993 00:42:36,487 --> 00:42:37,757 "What's wrong with them?" 994 00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:40,640 Just the 995 00:42:42,220 --> 00:42:43,890 racially offensive language. 996 00:42:43,890 --> 00:42:46,750 And then the control condition was just rude behavior 997 00:42:46,750 --> 00:42:50,200 about the same person, but without the racial overtones. 998 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,690 Exposure to that found that people who were exposed to this, 999 00:42:53,690 --> 00:42:56,290 this racial microaggression language, 1000 00:42:56,290 --> 00:42:58,040 that they had increased cortisol output 1001 00:42:58,040 --> 00:42:59,880 compared to the people in the control group 1002 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,433 after exposure to the stress challenge. 1003 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,290 So, what does this tell us? 1004 00:43:07,290 --> 00:43:08,820 That's kinda the state of where we're at now. 1005 00:43:08,820 --> 00:43:10,670 A lot more research needs to be done. 1006 00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:13,360 But what we know so far 1007 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,770 is that microaggression definitely seem to be harmful. 1008 00:43:16,770 --> 00:43:18,070 There are a lot of documents 1009 00:43:18,070 --> 00:43:21,490 and in the rest of the racism literature, 1010 00:43:21,490 --> 00:43:23,063 that it seems to be harmful. 1011 00:43:24,100 --> 00:43:25,900 It seems to be following a chronic stress model, 1012 00:43:25,900 --> 00:43:28,180 that this is a chronic stress 1013 00:43:28,180 --> 00:43:30,940 that people from racial ethnic minority groups face 1014 00:43:30,940 --> 00:43:33,740 more frequent compared to white individuals. 1015 00:43:33,740 --> 00:43:38,560 So, its unique chronic stress that they, over the lifetime, 1016 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,450 may have a cumulative disease burden 1017 00:43:40,450 --> 00:43:44,400 and could potentially explain some of those mental health 1018 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,770 and physical health disparities we see 1019 00:43:46,770 --> 00:43:49,103 when we look at population-based studies. 1020 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,760 And then, the research finds they're pretty consistent 1021 00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,320 with both the racism literature and its effect on health 1022 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,423 and also the stress literature. 1023 00:44:00,250 --> 00:44:01,930 It seems like, 1024 00:44:01,930 --> 00:44:04,850 some of it, I'm kind of reading that, I think that 1025 00:44:04,850 --> 00:44:07,150 I personally thought it's probably more consistent 1026 00:44:07,150 --> 00:44:09,082 with a chronic stress rather than acute stress, 1027 00:44:09,082 --> 00:44:11,530 although it's kind of mixed findings too. 1028 00:44:11,530 --> 00:44:13,980 A lot more work needs to be done. 1029 00:44:13,980 --> 00:44:15,870 But definitely the research at this point 1030 00:44:15,870 --> 00:44:17,270 needs to be focused on, 1031 00:44:17,270 --> 00:44:21,170 not just whether microaggressions and other forms of racism, 1032 00:44:21,170 --> 00:44:22,760 impact health, but how. 1033 00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:24,510 So, we need to really kind of get 1034 00:44:24,510 --> 00:44:26,530 at some of these proposed pathways 1035 00:44:26,530 --> 00:44:28,283 and kind of explore those. 1036 00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:31,780 The research finds to date, they are consistent 1037 00:44:31,780 --> 00:44:33,880 with how People of Color have described these experiences 1038 00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:35,620 being traumatic and burdensome. 1039 00:44:35,620 --> 00:44:38,930 So, what people have reported, we're seeing that 1040 00:44:38,930 --> 00:44:41,840 psychobiologically and also when we were measuring 1041 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:43,990 some traumatology and quantitative studies. 1042 00:44:44,940 --> 00:44:47,670 In conclusion, we need to better understand this, 1043 00:44:47,670 --> 00:44:51,140 so that once we know what contributes to these links, 1044 00:44:51,140 --> 00:44:53,360 we need to understand why and we need to work 1045 00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:54,913 to prevent these harms. 1046 00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:58,520 So definitely, these can impact your health. 1047 00:45:00,290 --> 00:45:01,170 Thank you. 1048 00:45:01,170 --> 00:45:02,983 I guess it's question time. 1049 00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:07,432 I guess I can stop sharing, perhaps. 1050 00:45:07,432 --> 00:45:10,257 - Yes, you may stop sharing, Dr. Torres-Harding. 1051 00:45:10,257 --> 00:45:11,090 - Okay, - Thank you 1052 00:45:11,090 --> 00:45:13,730 for a very important and interesting talk. 1053 00:45:13,730 --> 00:45:15,110 Dr. Scottgale and I 1054 00:45:15,110 --> 00:45:18,110 will now flip between the audience questions. 1055 00:45:18,110 --> 00:45:20,370 I am the lucky one with the first question, 1056 00:45:20,370 --> 00:45:22,747 is from a member of our audience. 1057 00:45:22,747 --> 00:45:25,777 "How do we deal with other people who stick to ignorance 1058 00:45:25,777 --> 00:45:28,650 "and continue to perpetuate discrimination?" 1059 00:45:28,650 --> 00:45:31,380 - Oh, my God. (chuckles) 1060 00:45:31,380 --> 00:45:33,210 That's a great question. 1061 00:45:33,210 --> 00:45:35,880 I think that that's part of the difficulty, 1062 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:37,530 is that because these are kind of 1063 00:45:38,620 --> 00:45:42,010 subtle kind of experiences where... 1064 00:45:42,010 --> 00:45:44,090 People can make multiple interpretations. 1065 00:45:44,090 --> 00:45:46,430 Sometimes the people themselves are not even aware 1066 00:45:46,430 --> 00:45:48,580 they're treating themselves in that manner. 1067 00:45:49,990 --> 00:45:52,610 I know, I personally have tried to really pursue 1068 00:45:52,610 --> 00:45:54,670 this line of research because I wanna say, 1069 00:45:54,670 --> 00:45:57,120 it's not just rudeness, it's harmful. 1070 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,480 These are not just innocuous, benign things 1071 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:00,493 and they're real. 1072 00:46:02,070 --> 00:46:04,160 Unfortunately now, we're living in a society too, 1073 00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:06,390 where even if you can show that there is a link 1074 00:46:06,390 --> 00:46:09,900 to even mortality statistics, we're in those climate 1075 00:46:09,900 --> 00:46:13,370 where some people just don't even care if other people die. 1076 00:46:13,370 --> 00:46:14,520 It's really sad. 1077 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:16,650 One of the most difficult things I saw, for instance, 1078 00:46:16,650 --> 00:46:19,650 was when microaggressions... 1079 00:46:19,650 --> 00:46:20,980 I read a study where microaggressions 1080 00:46:20,980 --> 00:46:25,167 were linked to suicidality and it was interesting 1081 00:46:25,167 --> 00:46:27,480 'cause I read it and they were using my scale. 1082 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:28,387 So, at first I was really excited, 1083 00:46:28,387 --> 00:46:30,847 "Oh good, they're using my scale," and then I was thinking 1084 00:46:30,847 --> 00:46:32,337 "Oh my God, this is terrible! 1085 00:46:32,337 --> 00:46:35,750 "Suicidality, that's a mortality risk." 1086 00:46:35,750 --> 00:46:37,890 So, the way I've tried to deal with is like, you know what? 1087 00:46:37,890 --> 00:46:40,020 These are not just benign things. 1088 00:46:40,020 --> 00:46:42,180 These really impact your health. 1089 00:46:42,180 --> 00:46:44,900 These can impact mortality, lead to suicidal. 1090 00:46:44,900 --> 00:46:46,090 What can be more... 1091 00:46:46,090 --> 00:46:48,210 I think we just maybe making those 1092 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:54,680 arguments will help people to recognize this, 1093 00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:58,270 such as, "Oh these sensitive snowflakes," 1094 00:46:58,270 --> 00:46:59,850 which is what you hear, 1095 00:46:59,850 --> 00:47:02,863 which is really infantalizing demeaning. 1096 00:47:05,511 --> 00:47:08,256 So, I'm hoping to make those kind of arguments. 1097 00:47:08,256 --> 00:47:09,190 Yeah. 1098 00:47:09,190 --> 00:47:10,023 - Thank you. 1099 00:47:11,940 --> 00:47:14,390 Is Dr. Scottgale here for another one, or... 1100 00:47:14,390 --> 00:47:16,250 I guess I'll go for another one. 1101 00:47:16,250 --> 00:47:17,460 Oh yeah, here he comes. 1102 00:47:17,460 --> 00:47:18,610 - [Dr. Scottgale] Sorry about that. (chuckles) 1103 00:47:18,610 --> 00:47:20,580 I forgot I had to unmute. 1104 00:47:20,580 --> 00:47:23,043 Thank you very much for a very interesting talk. 1105 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,570 There are a couple of people who have asked 1106 00:47:29,700 --> 00:47:33,230 along those lines, what can you do 1107 00:47:33,230 --> 00:47:36,380 when you are a victim of microaggression 1108 00:47:36,380 --> 00:47:37,953 and how can you deal with that? 1109 00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:40,760 - Yeah, those are great questions. 1110 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:42,703 I think that that's something that... 1111 00:47:42,703 --> 00:47:44,550 I think what people tend to do is, 1112 00:47:44,550 --> 00:47:49,130 number one, recognizing that it happens, is important. 1113 00:47:49,130 --> 00:47:50,480 Honestly, that's something I really like 1114 00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:54,070 about college students and also on social media, 1115 00:47:54,070 --> 00:47:56,590 people are trying to say, no, this happened to me 1116 00:47:56,590 --> 00:47:59,160 and they're getting supports in ways 1117 00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:01,580 that I think are really great, 1118 00:48:01,580 --> 00:48:03,740 even though they do get some backlash too. 1119 00:48:03,740 --> 00:48:05,900 I think just talking to other people from your group, 1120 00:48:05,900 --> 00:48:09,100 but just saying, this happened to me and this is harmful 1121 00:48:09,100 --> 00:48:11,440 and I was very upset by this. 1122 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,380 I think that that's really important. 1123 00:48:13,380 --> 00:48:16,190 And to talk to people, or even just to check it out, 1124 00:48:16,190 --> 00:48:17,720 you might be like, "I don't know. 1125 00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:19,144 "I don't know. 1126 00:48:19,144 --> 00:48:19,977 "Was this racist? 1127 00:48:19,977 --> 00:48:20,810 "I'm not sure." 1128 00:48:20,810 --> 00:48:22,360 Even if you're not sure, just talking it over, 1129 00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:24,830 gain support, is very important. 1130 00:48:24,830 --> 00:48:27,820 And then sadly, when you talk to people, oh yeah, 1131 00:48:27,820 --> 00:48:30,825 that happened to me too, but we can support each other, 1132 00:48:30,825 --> 00:48:31,658 (siren wailing) so we don't think 1133 00:48:31,658 --> 00:48:34,210 that we're going crazy, or maybe I'm just too sensitive, 1134 00:48:34,210 --> 00:48:35,720 or what have you. 1135 00:48:35,720 --> 00:48:38,143 When I was a college in the 90s, for instance, 1136 00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:42,121 I remember just recognizing all the stuff 1137 00:48:42,121 --> 00:48:43,610 (sirens wailing) that people talked about, 1138 00:48:43,610 --> 00:48:45,450 just all this rude and insensitive behavior. 1139 00:48:45,450 --> 00:48:47,120 I felt very isolated. 1140 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:49,070 No one was talking about this then. 1141 00:48:49,070 --> 00:48:51,780 And there's been a lot of activism on campus recently 1142 00:48:51,780 --> 00:48:52,613 where people are saying, 1143 00:48:52,613 --> 00:48:55,460 we're tired of dealing with this BS now. 1144 00:48:55,460 --> 00:48:56,730 This is unacceptable. 1145 00:48:56,730 --> 00:48:59,200 I don't wanna see a noose hanging in my bathroom. 1146 00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:01,450 I don't want people dressing up in blackface. 1147 00:49:02,969 --> 00:49:04,060 It's offensive. 1148 00:49:04,060 --> 00:49:06,247 And I'm glad to see people talking about that 1149 00:49:06,247 --> 00:49:08,700 'cause unfortunately I recognize all of that. 1150 00:49:08,700 --> 00:49:10,620 Also it was happening when I was a college student, 1151 00:49:10,620 --> 00:49:12,650 no one spoke up about it. 1152 00:49:12,650 --> 00:49:14,870 No one said anything and now people, 1153 00:49:14,870 --> 00:49:17,050 the college students are speaking up and they're like, 1154 00:49:17,050 --> 00:49:19,620 we're not gonna put up with that anymore. 1155 00:49:19,620 --> 00:49:21,310 So I think, joining those kind of movements 1156 00:49:21,310 --> 00:49:23,800 are really important too because honestly 1157 00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:28,800 we need to recognize, no, this is not acceptable to do this. 1158 00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:32,500 There's also this newer area of research 1159 00:49:32,500 --> 00:49:34,350 called micro-affirmations. 1160 00:49:34,350 --> 00:49:35,740 That's where you actually reach out 1161 00:49:35,740 --> 00:49:38,670 and you support each other and you see difference 1162 00:49:38,670 --> 00:49:43,670 as a cause for celebration, or you take time to actually say 1163 00:49:43,810 --> 00:49:46,970 I value the fact that you're from this other group. 1164 00:49:46,970 --> 00:49:50,123 You add to the richness of perspectives. 1165 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,430 I'm glad that you have a strong racial identity 1166 00:49:54,430 --> 00:49:55,860 and kind of valuing 1167 00:49:55,860 --> 00:49:58,740 and affirming people's experiences and identities. 1168 00:49:58,740 --> 00:50:01,070 I think that's what we also need to do with each other 1169 00:50:01,070 --> 00:50:02,920 to counteract these harms. 1170 00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:05,563 So, it's kind of like the opposite of a microaggression. 1171 00:50:06,580 --> 00:50:07,820 - Cool. Thank you. 1172 00:50:07,820 --> 00:50:11,103 - Dr. Torres-Harding, another question from our audience. 1173 00:50:12,260 --> 00:50:14,700 She acknowledges that your talk and your research 1174 00:50:14,700 --> 00:50:18,630 is racial microaggressions, but she wonders 1175 00:50:18,630 --> 00:50:22,760 in terms of gender and sexuality-- 1176 00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:23,660 - Yes. - issues, 1177 00:50:23,660 --> 00:50:27,770 are there similar scales and categories 1178 00:50:27,770 --> 00:50:31,130 as you described for the racial impact on mental health 1179 00:50:31,130 --> 00:50:33,650 and physical health that you are aware of? 1180 00:50:33,650 --> 00:50:35,300 - Yes, exactly. 1181 00:50:35,300 --> 00:50:36,430 That's actually in a research 1182 00:50:36,430 --> 00:50:38,230 of a colleague that I work with 1183 00:50:38,230 --> 00:50:42,160 where we focus on intersectional microaggressions. 1184 00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:45,340 There's not so much focus on other areas, 1185 00:50:45,340 --> 00:50:47,470 but definitely around sexual orientation, 1186 00:50:47,470 --> 00:50:50,890 around gender and gender identity, people with disabilities 1187 00:50:50,890 --> 00:50:52,830 and also different intersectional categories, 1188 00:50:52,830 --> 00:50:56,450 such as Black women have to deal with their own flavor, 1189 00:50:56,450 --> 00:50:58,230 or quality of microaggressions. 1190 00:50:58,230 --> 00:50:59,960 They don't see themselves as either, or. 1191 00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:02,880 It's these blended intersectional identities. 1192 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:05,110 So, that's definitely an area 1193 00:51:05,110 --> 00:51:08,360 which I really wanna go into research (chuckles) 1194 00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:09,470 and focus on. 1195 00:51:09,470 --> 00:51:13,110 We need people to actually do the work, 1196 00:51:13,110 --> 00:51:14,890 to look to see how that impacts people 1197 00:51:14,890 --> 00:51:19,410 with any kind of disempowered identity, this can happen. 1198 00:51:19,410 --> 00:51:22,444 I'm always shocked, why aren't people looking at 1199 00:51:22,444 --> 00:51:25,934 all the sexual orientation microaggressions, for instance. 1200 00:51:25,934 --> 00:51:27,070 There's just no literature. 1201 00:51:27,070 --> 00:51:30,020 So yeah, but it's similar processes, 1202 00:51:30,020 --> 00:51:32,053 similar processes at work too. 1203 00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:35,490 For instance, people who are gay lesbian, 1204 00:51:35,490 --> 00:51:37,870 they get over-sexualized like crazy. 1205 00:51:37,870 --> 00:51:41,860 They get pathologized, oh, you're a predator. 1206 00:51:41,860 --> 00:51:43,640 You're a child sex abuser. 1207 00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:46,190 Oh, of course you're gonna be depressed, or anxious, 1208 00:51:46,190 --> 00:51:47,290 you're gay. 1209 00:51:47,290 --> 00:51:48,890 That's not a normal lifestyle. 1210 00:51:48,890 --> 00:51:50,653 That's the kinda stuff that people who are gay and lesbian 1211 00:51:50,653 --> 00:51:52,860 have to deal with their microaggressions. 1212 00:51:52,860 --> 00:51:53,970 Terrible. 1213 00:51:53,970 --> 00:51:55,680 So yeah, 1214 00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:57,320 definitely need more work. 1215 00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:00,000 So far it seems like similar processes 1216 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:02,893 and unfortunately, similar harms. 1217 00:52:06,660 --> 00:52:08,947 - There's a question from a student, 1218 00:52:08,947 --> 00:52:11,757 "As a wite person, what can I do to call people out 1219 00:52:11,757 --> 00:52:15,010 "for microaggressions and become more of an ally?" 1220 00:52:15,010 --> 00:52:16,099 - Yeah. 1221 00:52:16,099 --> 00:52:17,299 You know, I would say... 1222 00:52:18,340 --> 00:52:19,526 By the way white people, 1223 00:52:19,526 --> 00:52:22,510 (Dr. Susan claps hands) we need you as allies, okay? 1224 00:52:22,510 --> 00:52:24,480 'Cause I think that sometimes 1225 00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:27,810 you can come from a position of power and privilege 1226 00:52:27,810 --> 00:52:30,360 and you can use that to help kind of recognize 1227 00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:31,620 and just be an ally. 1228 00:52:31,620 --> 00:52:33,980 So, citing you want to be an ally. 1229 00:52:33,980 --> 00:52:38,463 When you see it happening, just saying, that's not right. 1230 00:52:40,344 --> 00:52:41,970 I actually have a good friend and colleague, 1231 00:52:41,970 --> 00:52:42,803 who's a white male. 1232 00:52:42,803 --> 00:52:44,440 We talk about this stuff. 1233 00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:45,927 And it's like, "I don't feel comfortable 1234 00:52:45,927 --> 00:52:46,940 "talking about this in class." 1235 00:52:46,940 --> 00:52:48,690 I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" 1236 00:52:48,690 --> 00:52:50,240 We need you to speak up because 1237 00:52:52,100 --> 00:52:53,810 you're seen as a white man. 1238 00:52:53,810 --> 00:52:55,830 You don't have any skin. (sound cuts out) 1239 00:52:55,830 --> 00:52:58,440 You're talking about this, whereas they see me, 1240 00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:01,470 oh, I'm biased, you know, I'm too sensitive, whatever. 1241 00:53:01,470 --> 00:53:03,650 People speaking up, saying that's not okay, 1242 00:53:03,650 --> 00:53:05,774 reaching out, providing support. 1243 00:53:05,774 --> 00:53:06,607 You say, "I don't want you telling 1244 00:53:06,607 --> 00:53:08,517 "this horrible racist joke. 1245 00:53:08,517 --> 00:53:09,780 "That's not okay." 1246 00:53:09,780 --> 00:53:13,140 Or if you see someone that you know, sometimes you can tell 1247 00:53:13,140 --> 00:53:17,490 that they felt offended in class, reaching out to them 1248 00:53:17,490 --> 00:53:19,997 and saying, "You know what, are you okay?" 1249 00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:23,407 Or even talking to the professor and say, 1250 00:53:23,407 --> 00:53:24,807 "I just want you to know, so and so 1251 00:53:24,807 --> 00:53:26,557 "maybe don't feel safe to speak up" 1252 00:53:27,461 --> 00:53:30,360 "What you said was kind of offensive," you know? 1253 00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:34,780 You can kinda work to promote this better climate too. 1254 00:53:34,780 --> 00:53:36,950 So, I think definitely we need allies. 1255 00:53:36,950 --> 00:53:38,210 We need allies. 1256 00:53:38,210 --> 00:53:39,410 So, 1257 00:53:39,410 --> 00:53:40,243 yeah. 1258 00:53:40,243 --> 00:53:42,327 So please, you know, everyone can speak out 1259 00:53:42,327 --> 00:53:43,970 and you can see any injustice. 1260 00:53:43,970 --> 00:53:46,450 Like I'm heterosexual, but I'm like, what can I do 1261 00:53:46,450 --> 00:53:50,110 to work for sexual orientation justice for my friends, 1262 00:53:50,110 --> 00:53:54,030 loved ones, colleagues, students who are gay and lesbian. 1263 00:53:54,030 --> 00:53:55,377 Again and having those conversations too 1264 00:53:55,377 --> 00:53:58,010 and talking like, "what can I do?" 1265 00:53:58,010 --> 00:53:59,970 But don't be the white savior. 1266 00:53:59,970 --> 00:54:00,980 You don't know what it is. 1267 00:54:00,980 --> 00:54:03,250 You have to let them tell you what's wrong 1268 00:54:03,250 --> 00:54:04,700 and tell you how to help too. 1269 00:54:05,620 --> 00:54:08,770 Unfortunately, when you're a privileged person, 1270 00:54:08,770 --> 00:54:11,593 you don't understand it the same way that they do. 1271 00:54:12,570 --> 00:54:15,090 You have to understand what their experiences are 1272 00:54:15,090 --> 00:54:17,530 and then figure out, okay, how can I help? 1273 00:54:17,530 --> 00:54:18,363 But you're not gonna, like, 1274 00:54:18,363 --> 00:54:20,930 "I'm gonna go in "and save all these people." 1275 00:54:20,930 --> 00:54:23,813 You don't want to do that, okay? 1276 00:54:23,813 --> 00:54:24,646 - Thanks. - Thank you. 1277 00:54:24,646 --> 00:54:26,710 I have two questions from on the audience, 1278 00:54:26,710 --> 00:54:29,820 Dr. Torres-Harding, that I sort of connected, 1279 00:54:29,820 --> 00:54:31,370 so, I'm sort of combining them. 1280 00:54:32,220 --> 00:54:33,430 It would... 1281 00:54:33,430 --> 00:54:36,577 The first being, "Is this work that you've conducted 1282 00:54:36,577 --> 00:54:40,183 "emotionally taxing, for you personally?" 1283 00:54:40,183 --> 00:54:41,740 And then the second question 1284 00:54:41,740 --> 00:54:44,347 that I'm sort of tacking onto that is, 1285 00:54:44,347 --> 00:54:48,127 "Have you ever been a victim of microaggressions 1286 00:54:48,127 --> 00:54:50,320 "during your research?" 1287 00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:51,153 - Oh yeah. 1288 00:54:51,153 --> 00:54:53,310 You know what, I feel like those objections, 1289 00:54:53,310 --> 00:54:55,330 especially the thing about, aren't People of Color, 1290 00:54:55,330 --> 00:54:56,803 just being more neurotic? 1291 00:54:58,050 --> 00:55:00,810 Oh my God, honestly, it's offensive. 1292 00:55:00,810 --> 00:55:04,580 But, one thing that's so cool about doing research 1293 00:55:04,580 --> 00:55:07,970 and especially doing quantitative 1294 00:55:07,970 --> 00:55:10,370 and also the biological 1295 00:55:11,470 --> 00:55:12,560 research, 1296 00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:15,630 people think of social justice, critical race theory. 1297 00:55:15,630 --> 00:55:18,460 People are like, "Oh, that's so biased," and what you, 1298 00:55:18,460 --> 00:55:19,660 but you know what, honestly, 1299 00:55:19,660 --> 00:55:22,220 this is everyday stuff that can be measured. 1300 00:55:22,220 --> 00:55:23,580 And if you can, like... 1301 00:55:23,580 --> 00:55:25,980 You don't have to argue against them. 1302 00:55:25,980 --> 00:55:28,350 You can generate the research 1303 00:55:28,350 --> 00:55:29,520 that will make your point for you. 1304 00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:31,800 And by the way, sometimes I'm wrong too. 1305 00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:32,633 That's important. 1306 00:55:32,633 --> 00:55:34,570 I think something's important and it isn't. 1307 00:55:34,570 --> 00:55:35,403 We're always wrong. 1308 00:55:35,403 --> 00:55:37,350 That's part of the scientific viewpoint, right? 1309 00:55:37,350 --> 00:55:40,800 You go where the research is, where the evidence is. 1310 00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:44,520 So, being able to generate good knowledge that says, 1311 00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,550 actually, you know what you said, that's not true. 1312 00:55:47,550 --> 00:55:50,920 Here's the data, getting that published, getting it out, 1313 00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,383 honestly, that's why I love doing research. 1314 00:55:55,191 --> 00:55:57,330 And then I just let the data speak for itself 1315 00:55:57,330 --> 00:55:59,350 and I interpret the data. 1316 00:55:59,350 --> 00:56:04,120 That's very satisfying and it feels important too. 1317 00:56:04,120 --> 00:56:07,330 I had a student recently, she's Muslim American. 1318 00:56:07,330 --> 00:56:09,520 She was focusing on Islamophobia 1319 00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:11,060 By the way, she started working on her dissertation 1320 00:56:11,060 --> 00:56:11,893 when she was.. 1321 00:56:11,893 --> 00:56:14,970 You know, after Trump was elected and the Muslim ban, 1322 00:56:14,970 --> 00:56:17,810 which was first thing you wanna do in office, Muslim ban! 1323 00:56:17,810 --> 00:56:19,490 So overt, right? 1324 00:56:19,490 --> 00:56:22,150 I remember we all felt kinda traumatized and she came in, 1325 00:56:22,150 --> 00:56:24,627 she was doing her dissertation and I was like, 1326 00:56:24,627 --> 00:56:26,280 "Are you okay?" 1327 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:30,770 And she said her dissertation was on Islamophobia. 1328 00:56:30,770 --> 00:56:31,820 And I was like, you know what, 1329 00:56:31,820 --> 00:56:34,300 this is why we need to do our work here 1330 00:56:34,300 --> 00:56:35,670 because there are forces out there 1331 00:56:35,670 --> 00:56:38,340 trying to literally keep people outta the country 1332 00:56:38,340 --> 00:56:39,173 'cause they're Muslim. 1333 00:56:39,173 --> 00:56:43,440 And it's like, this is how we're going to counteract this. 1334 00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:46,363 Through our research, work, knowledge, evidence. 1335 00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:51,510 And I think that was one of our coping strategies, honestly. 1336 00:56:51,510 --> 00:56:52,623 So, yeah. 1337 00:56:56,870 --> 00:56:58,530 - Another question from 1338 00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:01,673 our 1339 00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:05,987 audience is, "Can racial microaggression 1340 00:57:05,987 --> 00:57:08,947 "be from communities, or individuals of Color, 1341 00:57:08,947 --> 00:57:10,223 "towards multi..." 1342 00:57:12,934 --> 00:57:13,767 Oops, I'm sorry. 1343 00:57:13,767 --> 00:57:15,100 I'm reading from the wrong thing here. 1344 00:57:18,317 --> 00:57:20,507 "From multiracial people 1345 00:57:20,507 --> 00:57:22,187 "who don't visually fit with the group 1346 00:57:22,187 --> 00:57:24,260 "and still suffer the effects of microaggression?" 1347 00:57:24,260 --> 00:57:25,780 So it's... 1348 00:57:25,780 --> 00:57:27,850 Can that kind of thing happen? 1349 00:57:27,850 --> 00:57:28,683 - Yes. Yes. 1350 00:57:28,683 --> 00:57:30,780 Oh, definitely 'cause people can internalize 1351 00:57:30,780 --> 00:57:33,380 all those negative stereotypes about your own group. 1352 00:57:35,540 --> 00:57:37,150 I can definitely attest to the fact. 1353 00:57:37,150 --> 00:57:40,310 Even within my own family people will say very rude things 1354 00:57:40,310 --> 00:57:43,540 and it's because, I don't know, like they're... 1355 00:57:45,130 --> 00:57:47,400 They can also be sexist and racist and so on too 1356 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:48,640 and have some of those ideologies. 1357 00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:50,360 They buy into it. 1358 00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:54,460 And unfortunately, that's a very harmful thing to do 1359 00:57:54,460 --> 00:57:55,710 actually to the self. 1360 00:57:55,710 --> 00:57:58,310 You internalize all these negative viewpoints 1361 00:57:58,310 --> 00:58:00,490 about your group and you're a member of that group. 1362 00:58:00,490 --> 00:58:01,540 Unfortunately, it leads to a lot of 1363 00:58:01,540 --> 00:58:04,040 really severe mental health outcomes for people. 1364 00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:06,843 But then they might, like that's kind of the normal. 1365 00:58:07,980 --> 00:58:10,440 Chances are you grow up, you're taught, 1366 00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:12,969 oh, well, unfortunately you're in the wrong group, 1367 00:58:12,969 --> 00:58:13,960 or you're in the less valued group 1368 00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:17,250 and people from your group, they do this and the other, 1369 00:58:17,250 --> 00:58:19,400 or terrible in school, whatever. 1370 00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:21,690 So, some of these people will try to be the exception, 1371 00:58:21,690 --> 00:58:24,840 or try to be accepted by the dominant group. 1372 00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:26,070 Doesn't always work. 1373 00:58:26,070 --> 00:58:30,810 And then they can also say, kind of treat each other 1374 00:58:30,810 --> 00:58:33,430 and think about themselves along the stereotype fashion. 1375 00:58:33,430 --> 00:58:35,683 It's very harmful too. 1376 00:58:38,860 --> 00:58:41,320 - Well, thank you very much, Dr. Torres-Harding. 1377 00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:43,170 I think we are at time. 1378 00:58:43,170 --> 00:58:46,720 I will pass the microphone back to Dr. Scottgale 1379 00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:50,470 just to finish up, but from me, thank you very much 1380 00:58:50,470 --> 00:58:51,723 for joining us today. 1381 00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:55,720 I remember you saying you grew up in Iowa. 1382 00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:58,340 My wife went to school in Pella, Iowa. 1383 00:58:58,340 --> 00:59:00,936 - Oh yeah, I know, the Dutch windmills. 1384 00:59:00,936 --> 00:59:02,183 - That's right. - Yeah. 1385 00:59:02,183 --> 00:59:03,813 It's (sound cuts out) place. (chuckles) 1386 00:59:03,813 --> 00:59:05,940 - A very, very, quaint little town. 1387 00:59:05,940 --> 00:59:07,320 So, thank you very much. 1388 00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:08,153 - Good. 1389 00:59:08,153 --> 00:59:09,827 Thank you all. Thank you all.