Racial Microaggressions in Human Service Organizations: A Scoping Review

Background and Purpose

Microaggressions have been described as daily, persistent, and automatic slights, insults, and disrespect directed at people who have minority statuses in relation to social identities such as race, sex, gender, age, and ability. These assaults, insults, and invalidations may be intentional or unintentional, but they have harmful psychological impacts on the person or group targeted. While microaggressions are inflicted upon any marginalized group, resulting, for instance in sexism, the present inquiry focuses on the impact of racial microaggressions (RMAs) inflicted upon racialized professionals in the human service organizational (HSO) environment. RMAs are particularly problematic in the workplace because they are more than just the actions or words of one individual; rather, they can be embedded within power hierarchies, organizational culture, team dynamics, and hiring practices.

Despite calls to examine RMAs in HSOs, few empirical studies have explored the factors which contribute to this form of persistent discrimination, and studies that do examine discrimination tend to focus on the impact, rather than the organizational conditions which support or condemn RMAs. Correspondingly, the purpose of this scoping review was to map the current literature on RMAs in HSOs to develop a better understanding of how RMAs appear in HSOs specifically, and to also identify what strategies are being utilized to prevent these, and to support organizational personnel who experience this form of racial discrimination.

Methods

Following the scoping review framework articulated by Arksey and O’Malley, searches were conducted in Business Source Premier, CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts to capture a breadth of HSO types and multidisciplinary experiences. The three concepts included in the search were microaggressions, race-based discrimination in the workplace, and the human service organizational setting. To comprehensively capture the RMA concept, similar terms identified in the literature were used in the search. These terms include aversive racism, hidden racism, and covert racism. The search culminated in the retrieval of 1,849 peer-reviewed articles, of which 302 were charted and summarized for key themes. The most common HSO contexts among these articles were post-secondary institutions (e.g., universities and academic libraries) and healthcare settings (e.g., hospitals and long-term care homes).

Results

The themes identified in this scoping review of empirical and conceptual research literature are relevant to both the enactment of RMAs, and the strategies or solutions in HSOs. These four themes include interpersonal organizational dynamics (e.g., team dynamics); human resource management practices (e.g., racial bias in hiring and promotional opportunities); organizational policies and procedures (e.g., existing processes to report discrimination); and a leadership orientation of equity and inclusion (e.g., centring diversity, equity and inclusion strategies).

Conclusions and Implications

The specificity captured in these themes carries significant implications for social work research, practice, and education, in supporting HSO personnel, and to improve HSO spaces for service users by bolstering their capacity to engage in truly anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice, while meaningfully implementing and upholding principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.