Changing Eyes and Ears: Using Racial Lifemaps to Address Microaggressions with Interracial Couples

Abstract

Microaggressions can adversely impact the relational quality of interracial couples comprised of Black women and White men. Microaggressions are verbal, non-verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that convey negative racial slights to individuals of color (Sue et al., 2007). Although couple and family therapists are implored to discuss microaggressions within therapy, a specific intervention to explore this dynamic is lacking. However, a lifemap could be utilized by therapists who assist interracial couples. Lifemaps are a client-constructed pictorial detailing the life events of a specific personal trajectory (Hodge, 2005b). This intervention has been used to ascertain an individual’s spiritual awareness, but they have not been modified in the clinical literature to assess an individual’s racial awareness. The theoretical framework for modifying spiritual lifemaps into racial lifemaps is Critical Race Theory (CRT). The themes of endemic racism and voices of color within CRT are particularly insightful for exploring the experiences of interracial couples. This paper will provide a composite case study of Black women married to White men demonstrating the use of racial lifemaps to address unresolved microaggressions and strategies for future microaggressive experiences.

Keywords:

• Interracial couples
• Black-White couples
• microaggressions
• lifemaps
• critical race theory