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Sofia Roehrig

Interdisciplinary Q2

1/17/2020

An Investigation Into Nuanced Racism

Sociologists have long considered the origins of racism and their manifestations. Despite

having greatly changed form since its origination, internalized prejudices are still very much

present in today’s society. While vicious hate crimes have been rightfully criminalized in the

public eye, more subtle expressions, known as microaggressions, are still widely perpetuated.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a microaggression as “a comment or action that subtly and

often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude towards a member of

another race”. These comments and actions are mainstreamed in American culture, and often

blend into the background. Though rarely vulgar or violent, microaggressions perpetuate racist

ideals. Racial microaggressions stem from a lack of cultural empathy and internal biases, and are

usually directed at those of marginalized races by more racially privileged people. ​The Hate U

Give,​ a novel by Angie Thomas, explores the way that subtle, and not so subtle, racism translates

onto the direct experience of the Black community. It observes the transformation of an African

American teen named Starr as she loses her friend, Khalil, to a police officer after an interaction

between them goes awry; detailing her struggles while she advocates for him as the only witness

of the event. Starr’s school friends don’t sympathize with or understand her experiences as a

black teen living in the ghetto, and frequently make crude and insensitive comments towards her

as a result of their limited perspective. Their personal definition of racism as being explicit or

physically aggressive doesn’t allow them to notice their own prejudice manifesting itself in the
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form of microaggressions. While many with privilege readily recognize acts or words that are

blatantly racist, they are often ignorant of the depth of their own deeply held stereotypes and

biases that allow them to unintentionally perpetuate prejudices and commit acts of

microaggressions.

Microinsults are subtle comments meant to convey rudeness or insensitivity by the

perpetrator which can be seen in both THUG and in real life. For example, when Starr isn’t

performing at her top game in practice, her friend and basketball teammate, Hailey, urges her to

“pretend the ball is some fried chicken,” saying that “maybe [she’ll] stay on it then” (Thomas

111). Her culturally insensitive comment brings Starr to tears, but when she confronts Hailey

about it, she presses that “it was only game talk” (112). When Starr calls Hailey out on her

prejudiced behavior, she repeatedly insists that she “isn’t racist” and presses that “it isn’t [her]

fault that [Starr] can’t get over what happened to Khalil” (341). Later that day, Maya recalls a

time where Hailey asked her “if her family ate a cat for Thanksgiving” (251), referring to her

Chinese heritage. She notes how awful the comment made her feel, and connects it to Starr’s

experience trying to get Hailey to notice the faults in her words and actions. Hailey later

participates in a walkout in honor of Khalil’s murder, but only because it means that she gets to

skip class. Hailey is testament to the insidiousness of racism and that just because someone

claims to not be explicitly racist, or even participates in anti-racist movements when it is

convenient for them (as Hailey did), they are not free of prejudice.

People of racial privilege often are ignorant to their biases because it “assails their

self-image of being good, moral, decent human beings to realize that maybe at an unconscious

level they have biased thoughts, attitudes and feelings that harm people of color” (DeAngelis).
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The concept of microaggressions intrinsically rejects the notion that someone has to be blatantly

racist to possess internal prejudice, and the White liberal attitude must grapple with that. ‘White

liberalism’, a term coined in the past few decades that refers to progressive Whites who refuse to

accept their role in contemporary inequities, embodies an attitude of “unwillingness to

acknowledge their own racism” (Chotiner). The microinsults expressed in ​The Hate U Give

underline the obliviousness many racially privileged groups possess towards their internal

prejudice.

Microassaults, explicit verbal or physical derogations, are the most directly damaging

form of microaggressions and can be found in both THUG and everyday occurrences. These can

occur as physical attacks, name-calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful discriminatory actions.

In ​The Hate U Give, ​the most impactful microassault is the murder of Khalil. The officer who

pulls Starr and Khalil over incites an altercation by using violence, even though it isn’t

necessary. His internal bias makes him more likely to detect a threat from two black teenagers in

a car at night. He yells at the pair to “get out of the car” and “put [your] hands where [he] could

see them” (Thomas 22). When Khalil pulls out his hairbrush, the officer mistakes it as a gun and

shoots him as a primal response. His physical reaction to Khalil and Starr demonstrates his acuity

for picking up menace from a situation that was far from a threat.

Unnecessary police brutality, like the murder of Khalil, has been a focal point in the

discussion about contemporary applications of racism. There have been thousands of incidents

around the country involving police and young black men that have escalated to their detriment

or, in many cases, their death. An independent study by ​The Washington Post​ found that “when

factoring in threat level, black Americans who are fatally shot by police are, in fact, less likely to
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be posing an imminent lethal threat to the officers at the moment they are killed than white

Americans fatally shot by police” (Makareschi). In other words, the biases held by police officers

that default to regarding Black individuals as dangerous has contributed to the propulsion of the

police brutality epidemic. These very same implicit biases can also be attributed to the rise in

‘shooter bias’, or “the tendency for police to shoot unarmed black suspects more often than white

ones” (Trust and Justice). Unmasking implicit bias within police officers has been a paramount

task in dismantling the systems of oppression that plague minority communities. The

unconscious prejudices of the criminal justice system put racially marginalized groups at risk of

suffering the brunt end of racially undertoned attacks, otherwise known as microassaults.

Microinvalidations are characterized by the “denial of personal racism or one’s role” in

the perpetuation of racism, and frequently occur as statements that nullify the “experiential

reality of a person of color” (Capodilupo). When Hailey, Maya and Starr are watching the

interview with the father of the officer that killed Khalil, Hailey advocates that “his son lost

everything because he was trying to do his job and protect himself” (Thomas 248). Her comment

completely discredits Starr’s experience as the sole witness to the unfair and brutal murder of her

friend. Hailey refuses to sympathize with Starr’s experience as both a victim and witness of a

racial transgression, and by doing this, invalidates her experience.

Though unfortunately ubiquitous, ignorance does not excuse racist or racially insensitive

behavior. Hailey is initially unaware of the impact of her comments, but even when Starr calls

her out on her behavior, she refuses to concede to her err. Her inability to accept growth and

amend the ways in which she is contributing to the perpetuation of racism proves the problematic

nature of her character. This rings true for the prevalence of microinvalidations as well. Vincent
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Junkunz from the Ohio University affirms that a system that allows for ignorance to excuse the

expression of prejudice “fosters irresponsibility”, and “protects the blindness towards white

privilege”. It is of paramount importance that microinvalidations made among members of

progressive communities are discussed and brought to light. Without individual responsibility,

there is but a bleak future for the elimination of subliminal racism.

Though explicit racism is typically easily recognized and condemned (appropriately so)

by present society, microaggressions remain pervasive. Microaggressions, which can be

expressed as microinsults, microassaults, and microaggressions continue to plague interracial

interaction and hinder the progression of cultural empathy. Thomas’ ​The Hate U Give h​ olds

testament to this fact through the subtle (and not so subtle) actions of prejudice of Hailey and the

officer responsible for the death of Khalil. Subliminal racism embodies itself through

microaggressions, and should be brought to the attention of the progressive community so that

individuals can personally and actively dismantle systems of racism perpetuated within

themselves.
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Works Cited

Capodilupo, CM. "Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life." PDF file.

Chotiner, Isaac. "Why White Liberals Are So Unwilling to Recognize Their Own

Racism." Slate. Accessed 16 Jan. 2020.

DeAngelis, Tori. "Unmasking Racial Microaggressions." American Psychological

Association. Accessed 16 Jan. 2020.

Jungkunz, Vincent. The Journal of Politics. The University of Chicago Press.

JSTOR, doi:010.17. Accessed 16 Jan. 2020.

Merriam Webster Dictionary . www.merriam-webster.com/. Accessed 16 Jan. 2020.

Trust and Justice. "Implicit Bias." National Initiative for Building Community.

Accessed 16 Jan. 2020.

Makareschi, Kia. "What the Data Really Says About Police and Racial Bias." Vanity Fair.

Accessed

16 Jan. 2020.
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