When sistahs support sistahs: A process of supportive communication about racial microaggressions among Black women

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study extends a rich line of research on racial microaggressions (Sue, 2010) by examining the way friendship networks of Black women communicate support to a targeted individual. Groups of Black women friends (n\u2009=\u200952) engaged in supportive discussions about racial microaggressions by white women perpetrators, and a research team of Black women inductively analyzed the supportive encounters. The findings indicated that groups engaged in a two-phase process of supportive communication that began with Individual Orientation, which describes person-centered messages that solely supported a target, and continued to Collective Orientation, which describes group-centered discussions about the prevalence and effects of racial injustice on all Black women. Three co-occurring sub-themes emerged in Collective Orientation: Hostile Differentiation, Socio-political Contextualization, and Collective Uplift. Humor and Laughter were important in both phases. Generational dynamics were also considered in this study, but few differences emerged. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.