A Thick Intersectional Approach to Microaggressions

ABSTRACT

Using Yep’s (2010¸ 2016a) notion of thick intersectionality as a theoretical framework, the authors advocate for a more nuanced approach to microaggressions than has traditionally been undertaken by microaggression research. The authors describe how such an approach to microaggressions has been successfully employed to train teachers involved with the Metro College Success Program at San Francisco State University. Finally, the authors consider the general theoretical and pedagogical benefits of using a thick intersectional approach to study microaggressions.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical performative pedagogy
• first-generation college students
• intersectionality
• microaggressions
• transformative communication pedagogy

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the visionary and impactful work of Drs. Mary Beth Love, Savi Malik, and Rama Kased in the Metro College Success Program at San Francisco State University. Gust thanks Dr. Nancy McDermid, a role model in engaged pedagogy and social justice work, for being an enduring inspiration for my own teaching and research, and Pierre Lucas, my furry bodhisattva, for his love, sweetness, and companionship. Gust dedicates this article to Yogi Enzo (2008–2018), whose fearless, enthusiastic, and inquisitive spirit continues to touch and inspire me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Typically employed by qualitative and critical scholars and consistent with TI, the mixture of voices (academic researcher and cultural subject), in our view, offers possibilities for the integration of mind (i.e., the scholarly voice), heart, and body (i.e., the embodied cultural subject) in scholarly writing.