Moving Beyond Obfuscating Racial Microaggression Discourse

Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2803

Article | Open Access | Ahead of Print | Last Modified: 15 March 2023

Moving Beyond Obfuscating Racial Microaggression Discourse


  • Johnny E. Williams Department of Sociology, Trinity College, USA
  • David G. Embrick Department of Sociology and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut, USA


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Abstract:  In this article, we argue that the concept of racial microaggression is a white supremacy construct that is an ideological and discursive anti‐Black practice. We discuss how microaggressions’ reduction of historical and hegemonic white supremacy to everyday relations that are merely performative, not integral to sustaining such larger forces, is an analytical shortcoming. We contend that without the adequate heft of historical white supremacy as a part of capitalist and colonial expansion, genocide, and Indigenous erasure, microaggression scholars will remain enthralled with the idea that individual behavior changes can eradicate anti‐Black violence.

Keywords:  microaggression; racism; systemic racism; white supremacy

Published:   Ahead of Print

Issue:   Post-Migration Stress: Racial Microaggressions and Everyday Discrimination (Forthcoming)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v11i2.6403


© Johnny E. Williams, David G. Embrick. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.