Community Innovation Institute: DMP Workshop, Sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement

In January 2019, the DMP members were invited to lead a workshop on microaggressions tailored to a wide audience of leaders in various Charlotte-area community organizations as part of the annual Center for Civic Engagement Community Innovation Institute. Dr. Martinez co-led the workshop with DMP collaborators Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas ‘19 and Teagan Monaco ’19. The interactive workshop included introductory content and key definitions of microaggressions to equip workshop attendees with as they analyzed the vignettes we provided. The small groups were tasked with identifying and problematizing the microaggressive communication in the exemplars by focusing on intent, and then strategizing possible responses with their small group members.

The workshop yielded an excellent turnout, with approximately 40 people in attendance. Community Innovation Institute attendees had a choice to attend 1 of 3 concurrent sessions during this scheduled time (ours being one of the choices). Our presentation slides and worksheets for the small group activity were inspired by and adapted from the Breaking the Prejudice group, whose goals are awareness, acceptance, harmony, and advocacy.

The other materials we used in our presentation to get ideas flowing before the interactive workshop include a video by MTV Decoded, “If Microaggressions Happened to White People,” and the following scholarly articles about microaggressions experience in academia by women of color, in addition to the chapter on microaggressions by Derald Wing Sue, “Microaggressions, Marginality, & Oppression,” from the 4th Edition of the edited collection, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. Click through the links on this page to access these materials for your own further exploration.

Holling, M. A. (2019). “You Intimidate Me” as a microaggressive controlling image to discipline womyn of color faculty. Southern Communication Journal, 84(2), 99-112.

Harris, T. M., Janovec, A., Murray, S., Gubbala, S., & Robinson, A. (2019). Communicating racism: A study of racial microaggressions in a southern university and the local community. Southern Communication Journal, 84(2), 72-84.


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