Derald Wing Sue

Sue defined racial microaggressions as brief, everyday verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that communicate hostile or derogatory slights toward people of color, often unintentionally. He published his influential framework on microaggressions in the early 2000s, which helped bring the concept into mainstream psychology.

Sue categorized microaggressions into microassaults (conscious, intentional slights), microinsults (unintentional remarks conveying rudeness or insensitivity about identity), and microinvalidations (communications that negate or exclude the lived experiences of marginalized groups). These categories have become standard in diversity research and training.

Sue co-authored 'Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice,' a widely used textbook now in multiple editions, and authored 'Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation.' Both are considered foundational reading in multicultural counseling curricula.

Sue is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has been one of the most cited scholars in the field of multicultural counseling and cross-cultural psychology for decades.