Goodman (2012) writing about microaggressions in Promoting Diversity and Social Justice: Educating People from Privileged Groups, defines microaggressions as "the unconscious and unintentional expressions of bias and prejudice toward socially devalued groups" (p. 25). Mohamed and Beagan (2018) write that microaggressions are everyday racism or "interactions generally not intended to be racist or colonialist, but which nonetheless convey subtle messages of not-quite-belonging" (p. 2).
Smith et al. (2016) write that microaggressions are "daily indignities, invalidations, and slights that are experienced by people of color" (p. 127). They develop the idea of microaggressions further by creating types of microaggressions in their article and point out that there are three levels consisting of: microassaults, which are overt or explicit, (b) microinsults, those that demean a persons heritage, race or other identifiable characteristics, and (c) microinvalidations, which are those "communications that exclude, negate, or nullify a person's thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality" (Smith et al., 2016, p. 130).
All of these researchers have found ways to target different dominant groups and different affected groups in order to help bring clarity and understanding of the damage that microaggressions can cause for people in non-dominant groups. It's interesting to note, that in 2012, according to Goodman's (2012) writing, the affected group in microaggressions were usually identified as devalued or non-dominant groups. Writing in 2018, Mohamed and Beagan, deal with colonialist groups and power among those groups of people. Menses (2017) writing a year earlier, dealt with power in colonizing groups. However, writing in 2016, Smith et al. explicitly discuss microaggressions in terms of people of color as being the victims of microaggressions. For the purposes of this paper, instead of dealing like Smith et al. do as microaggressions being those things experienced by people of color, this paper instead will look at power structures and social justice in terms of victims of microaggression within the system as those people not having power, rather than just having different skin color.
Microaggressions and Power in Industry
HASC is a non-profit, contractor, safety training organization. The learners in the community HASC supports are technical field workers within the energy industry. Successful contractor employees for the most part are: (a) hourly workers who enjoy working outside or with their hands, (b) technicians who like to repair and install equipment using tools, and (c) leaders who live and work out of their corporate white pickup trucks, which leads to the colloquial term "white truck supervisors." These contractors support seasonal work for energy industry plants where their organization must staff hundreds or thousands of people within a few weeks when refineries and chemical plants go through a turnaround. Following the turnaround work, these contractor organizations then gradually return to their normal staffing levels several months later. These worker characteristics and the seasonal demands help create a system of high turnover, and constant recruiting among contracting organizations in the industry.
Lucia and Marek (2021) write about a common problem faced in the construction industry that is found in the energy industry as well. The problem, as they describe it, is that despite training, a willingness to work, opportunity, and a desire to accept the open jobs, many immigrant workers are not allowed to take positions that they could fill due to their immigration status. Despite the fact that U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that "foreign-born men continued to participate in the labor force at a considerably higher rate in 2021 (76.8 percent) than their native-born counterparts (65.8 percent)" (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2022, p. 1) and that in "2021, foreign-born workers continued to be more likely than native-born workers to be employed in service occupations (21.2 percent versus 14.9 percent); natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations" like those in the energy industry (BLS, 2022, p. 2) the challenge to fill these jobs with immigrant or migrant workers is perennial. The BLS also reports that "hispanics continued to account for nearly half of the foreign-born labor force in 2021" (BLS, 2022, p. 1) and this is where microaggressions against migrant and immigrant workers intersect with safety and training requirements in HASC's learning community.
Everyday HASC trains over 150 new contractors who enter into the energy industry. According to Roy (2022) there is a flood of new immigrant and migrant workers over the southern border near where HASC trains workers to support the energy industry. These are workers who could fill the jobs that this industry needs to fill, except for the challenge around training non-native English speakers. According to Forbes, "the main reason most immigrants came to America in 2022 was for employment opportunities" (Semotiuk, 2022, para. 1). The safety demands of the energy industry are strict and governed by multiple agencies like OSHA and NIOSH, and because of the need to understand English fluently to read Safety Data Sheets or understand work processes and procedures, or other safety and emergency information, predominantly training has been offered in English. This has limited the ability to appropriately help non-native English speakers enter the industry. The Mohamed and Beagan (2018) article made me consider the constant microaggressions the non-native English-speaking workers in our industry must silently endure.
There are twice as many white executives who serve in the energy industry than executives of any other racial group (Lehmann et al. 2021). This, according to Goodman (2012) allows the dominant group, or the group with the most power, to set standards that consciously or unconsciously reinforce their dominance or manipulate the system so that it continues to keep them in power. This ensures that the challenge of finding workers who might help fill the employment gaps remains a challenge, and continues this feeling of experiencing a microaggression by the less powerful entities, especially, but not limited to, those migrants and immigrants who are non-native English speakers.
Personal Reflection
There has been positive movement towards addressing this challenge in the industry in that there are several large organizations that are starting to address the need for training non-native English speakers in a manner that helps them become the type of workers the industry can hire. Recently, I heard a story about why this shift took place in one refinery. A Spanish speaking executive stood in front of a room of his colleagues and other executives at a refinery meeting and provided his entire presentation in Spanish. Confused looks were the response from many in the room. After the presentation the speaker explained that the way the audience felt; confused, lost, not understanding, is what non-native English speakers who might work for the company feel when they take training.
Goodman (2012) would describe this vignette in terms of empathy. "Empathy involves being able to identify with the situation and feelings of another person. It incorporates affective and cognitive components, requiring both the capacity to share in the emotional life of another as well as the ability to imagine the way the world looks from another's vantage point" (Goodman, 2012,
p. 122). The executive who provided the presentation in Spanish was asking the audience to live in the emotional and cognitive space that a non-native English speaker would inhabit and develop a sense of social justice empathy. Goodman makes a point to differentiate this from pity. Empathy, she explains is "more like compassion. It recognizes our shared vulnerability while also acknowledging the differences between ourselves and others" (Goodman, 2012, p. 123).
This turn in the industry is a deliberate step in a more positive direction both for the industry and for worker satisfaction for migrant and immigrant non-native English-speaking workers, however it is one that has been identifiable for generations. On personal reflection, why did it take so long? This simple experience could have been provided years ago. I have been in positions where this change could have been advocated to a greater degree by me or by those who work for my organization. However, again, according to Goodman (2012) there is a desire by leaders in the dominant group to reinforce and continue the system of dominance, whether consciously or unconsciously. Now, seeing this change taking place, and being a part of this change, I wonder if to some degree I was reinforcing the power systems that helped sustain the standard and bolstered my own position of power.
Although there are changes taking place, there is still a large segment of the work force, especially of migrant and immigrant workers, who are experiencing microaggression while on the job and at the training site. Whether that is through the system that reinforces English speaking to be successful in an energy industry career, or by having safety standards in a language that they have trouble understanding. There are more systems that need to be put in place to help these workers become more successful in the energy industry, but this is a first, deliberate and positive step toward overcoming this specific need.
References
Lehmann, S. Hunt, N. Frongillo, C. & Jordan, P. (2021). Diversity in the U.S. energy workforce: Data findings to inform state energy, climate, and workforce development policies and programs. Naseo.org. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.naseo.org/data/sites/1/documents/publications/Workforce%20Diversity%20Data%20Findings%20MASTER%20Final42.pdf
Lucia, B., & Marek, S. (2021, November 10). Opinion: Texas’ economy can’t work without immigrant workers. Austin American Statesman. https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/2021/11/10/opinion-texas-economy-cant-work-without-immigrant-workers/6339753001/
Meneses, M. P. (2017). Images outside the mirror? Mozambique and Portugal in world history. In International Critical Pedagogy Reader (pp. 128–138). Routledge.
Mohamed, T., & Beagan, B. L. (2019). ‘Strange faces’ in the academy: experiences of racialized and Indigenous faculty in Canadian universities. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 22(3), 338–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1511532
Roy, D. (2022, November 30). Ten graphics that explain the U.s. struggle with migrant flows in 2022. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/article/ten-graphics-explain-us-struggle-migrant-flows-2022
Semotiuk, A. J. (2022, December 30). U.S. immigration-2022 year in review. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2022/12/30/us-immigration-2022-year-in-review/?sh=5a1a842a1da3
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]. (2022). Foreign born workers: Labor force characteristics-2021. News Release. Retrieved March 21, 2023, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/forbrn.pdf
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