Diversity learning · Intermediate

Responding to Microaggressions: Microintervention Practice

Choose a useful response to subtle exclusion, support the affected person, and follow through without taking over.

About 48 minutes, plus optional practice · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning

Start learning

All diversity courses: Foundation, Intermediate, and Advanced

Course outline

Notice the message and choose the immediate purpose
Separate the words heard from an interpretation of their impact.
12 minutes
Rehearse three response routes
Write a clarifying question that does not disguise an accusation.
12 minutes
Offer support without taking control
Offer support that leaves disclosure optional.
12 minutes
Turn an isolated response into a better practice
Identify a repeatable condition that made exclusion easier.
12 minutes

Share this course

What you’ll be able to do

Explore and practice

Separate the words heard from an interpretation of their impact.
Write a clarifying question that does not disguise an accusation.
Offer support that leaves disclosure optional.
Identify a repeatable condition that made exclusion easier.

What you can take into your work

Explain a response to each fictional case.
Use the job aid to prepare one proportionate action.
Distinguish an intended improvement from evidence that it occurred.

Use the job aid to select one response and one process change. Identify an owner within the work process, a reasonable review point, and an observation that could lead you to revise the approach.

Microintervention response and follow-through card

A personal practice aid for voluntary learning; use fictional or nonidentifying details.

Choose a useful response to subtle exclusion, support the affected person, and follow through without taking over.

Attend to observable actions and effects.
Do not infer another person's identity, motive, or IDI orientation.
Use established workplace support channels when a concern needs a formal response.

Use the job aid to select one response and one process change. Identify an owner within the work process, a reasonable review point, and an observation that could lead you to revise the approach.

Observe

Write the words or action without assigning motive.
Separate a possible message from what you know about another person's feelings.

Choose a purpose

Restore a turn, correct an assumption, set a boundary, or offer support.
Choose clarification, directness, redirection, or a later response based on role and context.

Preserve choice

Offer support without requiring disclosure or gratitude.
Explain any actual role-based limits on confidentiality before asking for details.

Review the practice

Name the process change, responsible role, review point, and observable evidence.
Distinguish a repaired moment from a claim that the broader problem has ended.

Complete a private practice note

Situation: describe the fictional case or a nonidentifying work process in two sentences. Separate what was observed from what remains uncertain. Do not include a colleague's private history or guess at an identity.
Response: write the actual words or process change you would use, identify the role that can act, and explain why the response fits the stated purpose.
Review: choose an ordinary observation that could show improvement, a point to reconsider the approach, and one possible unintended effect. A completed note shows preparation; only later evidence can show whether the action helped.

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.

Sources and further reading

Sue and colleagues (2019): Disarming racial microaggressions
The authors propose a microintervention framework. It is a practice framework, not proof that every response works in every setting.
Xie and Galliher (2023): Social cost of bystander intervention strategies
Research on how observers evaluate intervention strategies; effects and costs depend on context.

All research and sources across the program

Opening your page…

You can still use the navigation while it loads.

Course outline