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Even when educational achievements are outstanding, as in the case of Kathleen, gender microaggressions may severely limit a person's ability to be hired, retained, or promoted in the company (Hinton, 2004; Pierce, 1988). While the brokerage firm interviewer might on a conscious level believe that the company would offer the job to the most qualified applicant, his microaggressive behaviors reflect unconscious gender biases. Thus, he can in good conscience offer the position to a man and at the same time maintain his innocence or the belief that he chose a candidate without bias. Few employers realize that the high unemployment rates and the “glass ceiling” encountered by women and employees of color are reflected in the many microaggressions delivered by well‐intentioned coworkers and upper managers (D. W. Sue, Lin, & Rivera, 2009). The inequities in employment and education are not so much the result of overt racism, sexism, or bigotry but the unintentional, subtle, and invisible microaggressions that place members of marginalized groups at a disadvantage. Ironically, hate crimes are illegal, but microaggressions are not (D. W. Sue, 2008).

Since the publication of the first edition of this book, there have been numerous publicized examples of White people calling 911 on Black people doing ordinary activities. From the example of actor Ving Rhames entering his Santa Monica home to Oregon State representative Janelle Bynam canvassing constituents in a suburban neighborhood, to a Yale University student sleeping in a university dorm common room, to women playing a round of golf at the Grandview Golf Club in York, Pennsylvania, to the example of two young men waiting for friends at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, these incidents exemplify the focus of this book—everyday slights and indignities embedded in a macrocontext of societal oppression, which render them invisible to the perpetrator.

In the not‐too‐distant past, these kinds of daily occurrences were less publicized. Among the earlier well‐publicized examples, one involved a renowned African American scholar and professor at Harvard University. Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested on July 16, 2009, for disorderly conduct by a White Boston police officer, Sergeant James M. Crowley, because Gates “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” What was said between the two is in dispute, but what we do know are the following facts. Gates had just returned from China, where he was filming a PBS documentary, Faces of America, and was driven back to his Cambridge home. For some reason the door to his home was jammed, and he asked the driver, a dark‐skinned Moroccan man, to help force it open. A 911 caller reported two men forcing open the door to a house. Sergeant Crowley was the first to arrive and saw Gates in the foyer of his home. He asked Gates for identification; that is when the encounter seems to have escalated. Both men offer different versions of the event. Gates reports that he asked Crowley several times for his name and badge number, and Crowley reports that it took some time before Gates complied with his request to show identification. Within a short period of time, the street was clogged by six other officers who arrived at the scene. When Gates was asked to step out of the house, he reportedly did not initially comply. When he finally did, Gates was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail. The charges, however, subsequently were dropped.