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Second, Professor Richardson seems to equate rational discourse with approaching topics in a calm and objective manner. When he tells the Black student to “calm down” and implies that students are “too emotional,” the professor may unintentionally be delivering another racial microaggression with multiple hidden fears, assumptions, and biased values: (a) Blacks are prone to emotional outbursts, can get out of control, and may become violent; (b) emotion is antagonistic to reason, and conversations in the classroom should be unemotional and objective; and (c) the communication style of many Black individuals is dysfunctional and should be discouraged (D. W. Sue & Sue, 2008). Pathologizing Black communication and learning styles has been identified as a common microaggression directed toward African Americans (Constantine & Sue, 2007; D. W. Sue, Capodilupo, Nadal, & Torino, 2008). Studies suggest that communication and learning styles of Black Americans may differ from those of White Americans (DePaulo, 1992; Hale, 2016; Kochman, 1981). For example, affect, emotion, and passion are considered positive attributes of communication among Black Americans because they indicate sincere interest and seriousness toward the material or subject matter while objectivity and unemotional responses indicate insincerity and lack of connection.

Third, some of the Black students found Professor Richardson's compliment of Justin's intelligent analysis and his ability to articulate the issues to be offensive. Why? To answer this question requires an understanding of historical racial stereotypes and their interactional dynamics. This situation is very similar to what occurred in the 2007 to 2008 democratic presidential primaries when both Senators Joe Biden (White) and Barack Obama (Black) announced their candidacies. After announcing his presidential run, Mr. Biden was asked by a reporter about the public's wild enthusiasm for a Black candidate, Barack Obama. Joe Biden responded, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African‐American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice‐looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.”