When I asked Sue if he could provide me with an instance of a borderline racial microaggression, he disagreed with the premise of the question. “[Racial] microaggressions represent a clash of racial realities, and the question you’re raising is whose reality is the correct reality,” he says. “It’s an issue of power, the power to define racial reality.”

Generally speaking, when identifying microaggressions Sue considers it best to believe the one who perceives the bias. “Almost all of the studies indicate that the people who are most disempowered have the most accurate perception of a situation of bias because people who have power don’t need to understand the situation in order to do well,” he says.

So, for example, a woman employee has to understand the male mind in order to do well in the company, Sue says, whereas a man has no need to understand the female mind to do well. So the woman is a much better judge of the gender bias in her office.

Because these microaggressions go largely unnoticed by the alleged perpetrators, Sue thinks we must use education to end microaggression.