1. What are two value system dimensions that might differ between people who are Black and White? 2. How might the two differences you identified be relevant in your social work practice?
Unit 13: Race-Based Trauma
Please answer the questions below based on Dr. Kniffley’s lecture.
1. What are two value system dimensions that might differ between people who are Black and White?
2. How might the two differences you identified be relevant in your social work practice?
3. How does Dr. Kniffley's use of the PCOMS and the MIBI-S relate to our discussions of monitoring and evaluating client outcomes?
4. Session 9 focuses on skill-building related to processing racial trauma. Specifically, it offers micro-interventions for micro-aggressions. What four strategies can be used to disarm microaggressions?
After answering these questions, respond to the following excerpt from the Racial Healing Handbook (pp. 35-40).
Racial Healing Practice
Exploring Personal Experiences of Racial Microaggressions
Racial microaggressions have very personal effects. For people of color, they can stimulate feelings of self-doubt and internalized racism. For White people, committing a microaggression is harmful to people of color, and it ultimately serves as a barrier in your relationship with them because of the distrust it creates. So it’s important to take an honest look at microaggressions you commit and/or experience. Respond to the following questions to explore more of your personal experiences of racial microaggressions.
Think back to a time when you heard or committed a racial microaggression—something that would qualify as an indignity for a person of color. Write it here, and then identify the theme and embedded message.
Racial microaggression theme:
Racial microaggression message:
What were your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during this racial microaggression—in the moments you were experiencing it?
What I thought:
What I felt:
What I did:
© 2019 Anneliese Singh / New Harbinger Publications.
Permission is granted to the reader to reproduce this form for personal use.
For White readers: What motivated you to act as you did?
What were your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors after this racial microaggression?
What I thought:
What I felt:
What I did:
For readers of color: What were the effects of the experience? What message did it convey to you about yourself or other people? How long did it continue to affect your emotions and experiences?
Now that you have explored a personal experience of committing a racial microaggression (as a White person) or experiencing a racial microaggression (as a person of color), take a moment to explore which of Sue and colleagues’ (2007) nine racial microaggression categories you commit or experience most frequently. Rank the list below from 1 (most frequent) to 9 (least frequent).
"""" Alien in own land
"""" Ascriptions of intelligence
"""" Color blindness
"""" Criminality/assumptions of criminal status
"""" Denial of individual racism
"""" Myth of meritocracy
"""" Pathologizing cultural values/communication styles
"""" Second-class citizen
"""" Environmental microaggressions
Racial Healing Practice
Delving Deeper Into Personal Experiences of Racial Microaggressions
Revisit the top three racial microaggressions on your list in the last Racial Healing Practice, “Exploring Personal Experiences of Racial Microaggressions,” and reflect a little more deeply on these experiences. For the racial microaggression you ranked #1 in frequency of committing or experiencing, identify the internal dialogue and external dialogue that can help you respond in a more helpful way.
Your #1 ranked racial microaggression category: """"""""""""""""""""""""
What statement in this category do you most often hear?
What is your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
What is your typical external dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
How could you refine your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression so you don’t further internalize racism (as a person of color) or further commit microaggressions or allow others to commit them with no response (as a White person)?
© 2019 Anneliese Singh / New Harbinger Publications.
Permission is granted to the reader to reproduce this form for personal use.
Your #2 ranked racial microaggression category:
What statement in this category do you most often hear?
What is your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
What is your typical external dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
How could you refine your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression so you don’t further internalize racism (as a person of color) or further commit microaggressions or allow others to commit them with no response (as a White person)?
Your #3 ranked racial microaggression category:
What statement in this category do you most often hear?
What is your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
What is your typical external dialogue in response to this racial microaggression?
How could you refine your typical internal dialogue in response to this racial microaggression so you don’t further internalize racism (as a person of color) or further commit microaggressions or allow others to commit them with no response (as a White person)?