TC's Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education, spoke to the Washington Post about microaggressions. Sue said the recent demonstrations by black student organizations and their supporters at the University of Missouri and other campuses are the result of pent-up frustration of black students at being the targets of frequent insults and expression of bias against minority groups. The protests have pitted those who oppose microaggressions based on race, gender, sexuality and ethnic group against free-speech advocates.

Repeated microaggressions can have cumulative, damaging effects on a person's mental and physical health, Sue says. Students are responding to “years of being discriminated against, being fatigued and tired of having to take it.” A racial epithet or a swastika, in that environment, he said, can be “the match, the spark, that creates the explosion.”

Published Friday, Nov. 13, 2015