Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2000 by Solorzano, Daniel, Ceja, Miguel, Yosso, Tara

The sense of discouragement, frustration, and exhaustion resulting from racial microaggressions left some African American students in our study despondent and made them feel that they could not perform well academically. These stresses contrast those cited by White college students, whose greatest stress typically originates from personal issues (Munoz, 1986). As one female African American student admitted, the cumulative effects of stereotype threat made her feel "helpless." Another concluded: "All the beliefs and thoughts I had coming here [to the predominantly White campus] were extinguished." Another female student stated that her overall academic performance had been negatively affected by the racial climate on her campus, asserting that the experience was "kind of intimidating" because in several of her classes, she was the only Black person in the class; thus, it was harder for her "to participate and get involved and get interested."

Several students commented that racial microaggressions had affected their academic performance in overt ways such as pushing them to drop a class, changing their major and even leaving the university to attend school elsewhere. As one African American female student maintained:

In many respects, I was naive, but now I'm cynical.... When I took my science courses, I had to fight every day through all the racism I felt.... Each time I took a new class, the same thing happened over and over and over and over again. Many times I was the only African American in the class. [The White students and professors] were like, "You know what, I don't think she knows what she's talking about," or... "Well, you got here because of affirmative action, not your grades or your merit." And when you try and voice something to somebody, they don't want to hear it. They're not about to hear it! And they're like, "Well, you need to be along with your other peers." I'm upset. I'm tired of it. That's why I changed my major to English.

Another African American female student maintained that the racial microaggressions she had endured at her university had pushed her to the point of exit:

I can't stand this school and I'm ready to leave. And that for me is how I feel. I know this is the real world and I've learned that.... I know how I'm going to take what I want to do to get what I need to get... Yet another female student related the experiences of an African American friend who was transferring to an historically Black university:

... she got a B in physics before she came. She took physics again... she did her problems, got everything [in], and got a D on her exam. She looked at her friend's exam; he was a White person, and he had gotten an A, and they had the same, almost the same exact answers on the exam. ... So she went up to the [graduate student instructor] and asked him ... "What's going on?" He [says] to her, "Well, I have not really been around Black people, or people like you before ... I don't think you did well on the test." So she went up to the professor, and the professor didn't do anything. She went to the chancellor. The chancellor had her drop the class.... Her parents are the ones who are paying for her education, but see, the first thing [the chancellor] asked her was whether or not she was on financial aid. So now she's mad, upset, and going to be transferring to Howard University.