African American professionals in higher education: experiencing and coping with racial microaggressions

Abstract

Using a Critical Race Theory lens, we explored how African American professionals in both HBCUs and PWIs (4-year and 2-year institutions) experienced and coped with racial microaggressions. The participants in this study included fifteen African American instructors/professors and administrators. Despite the type of institution, the emerged themes from interviews indicated that participants experienced an array of racial microaggressions. In addition, many participants addressed race-related stress experienced in the workplace by engaging in both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. Implications are provided to discuss the impact that racial microaggressions has on African Americans in the higher education workplace.