Association for Behavior Analysis International

The purpose of the annual meeting of members is for ABAI leadership to provide an update on the ongoing activities of and major developments in the association.

Racial microaggressions are chronic insults and slurs committed against non-White individuals based on their race/ethnicity. This study aimed to expand this literature by interviewing Black Brazilian women living in Australia. Eight participants were interviewed three times each. The prompts inquired about their experiences of racial microaggressions, the contexts they occurred, and how they reacted and dealt with them. All participants declared having experienced racial microaggressions by White Australians on multiple occasions. The most common categories found were "not being a real citizen", "assumptions about intelligence, competency, or status", "second-class citizen/ignored and invisible", "avoiding and distancing", and “environmental exclusion”. Most microaggressions happened in the work environment, followed by daily interactions with strangers, acquaintances, and/or friends. All participants tended to respond to those in a non-confrontational manner (refraining from replying or pointing out that the person was being racist) to avoid conflict, especially in the work environment. Two participants also responded in a confrontational manner at times by telling the perpetrator that their behavior was racist. To deal with the situation, participants: a) do not share those experiences with anyone to avoid making them worry about them, b) share those occurrences with their family and some Black friends, and/or c) avoid going out with people who are perpetrators.

Junior BCBAs, and behavior analysts within their first 5 years of practice, including practitioners, supervisors, etc., individuals currently enrolled in or recently completed graduate-level work interested in race relations and prejudice.