Micro Assaults on African Americans
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The literature reveals that there are several elements in the lives of African-Americans that dramatically suffer due to con stant exposure to "micro-assaults," or their engagement in the de fense of themselves to counter innumerable subtle racist attacks perpetrated by the members of the majority group, or "Whites" (Franklin, 1965; Jones, 1972; Williams, 1987). Of note is that African-Americans are subjected to a variety of forms of discrimi nation, the majority of which are subtle, while others are overt; that is, African-Americans, due to their race, ethnicity, and cul ture, are subjected to widespread societally perpetrated discrimi nation, most of which is racially based. The alienation of Afri can-Americans, though alive and well, is far from novel. With the inception of slavery in the United States, African-Americans have systematically been subjected to crippling discrimination that has resulted in their constantly fending off racist micro-assaults or micro-aggressions. Pierce (Pinderhughes, 1989, p. 64) defines mi cro-assaults or micro-aggressions, as: . . . small acts, often subtle and out of the aware ness of both people-of-color and Whites, that ex ploit, degrade, put down, and express aggression against people-of-color. These acts require them to monitor their helplessness and rage constantly a necessity that takes a toll in terms of stress and health problems. People-of-color are convinced that being prepared for rejection, humi
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the majority group. As a result of such biculturalism, African-Ameri cans must inherently endure direct and indirect blockages to their power. Further, given this biculturalism, African-Americans must of necessity suffer additional attacks to their self-esteem and self-respect, while concurrently making efforts to bolster same as much as possible in an hostile environment. The injury to their in toto psyche consequent to such racism and adaptive be havior is untold.
Application of Theory
One form of those direct blockages of power for African-Americans consist of developmental experiences provided them by their parents and/or significant others that are based on consistently negative self-valuations. Thus, the roles of such persons are ill-conceived and performed. What this results in is that such children consistently receive messages and scripts and are assign ed roles from their parents and/or significant others that promote and reinforce their inability to develop the necessary interper sonal and technical skills needed to empower themselves in life and to succeed in the greater society. Pinderhughes (1982, p. 109) notes that "Strains in family roles cause problems in individual growth and development and lim it the op
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Levine Havighurst, Hines Boyd-Franklin, Pierce Pinderhughes, Stress Syndrome, Declaration Independence, Psychia tric Association, Review Background, Health Statistics, Application Theory, Politi Ziter, white counterparts, jones 1972, individual institutional, institutional cultural, association 1987, cultural racism, individual institutional cultural, blockages power, angeles sentinel, systematic denial, micro-assaults micro-aggressions, american psychiatric association, los angeles sentinel, association 1987 248, hines boyd-franklin 1982,
Approximate Word count = 3767
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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