Recognizing and Mitigating Racial and Ethnic Interview-Associated Microaggressions Across the Academy

Abstract

The impact of microaggressions in pharmacy education interviews reinforces a message of assimilation for acceptance rather than inviting a potential underrepresented minority (URM) colleague’s authentic identity they could bring to diversify and strengthen the institution. Interviewers may ask inappropriate questions or make offensive comments without intending to cause harm; however, the impact of the words on the interviewee are valid and cannot be ignored. This text focuses on the challenges faced by URM faculty in the context of academic pharmacy interviews which potentially contribute to their underrepresentation in academic pharmacy. The authors provide examples of perspectives and experiences from URM pharmacy faculty when interviewing for academic pharmacy positions. This text proposes several recommendations such as microaggression prevention strategies, bias training, and institutional culture improvement. These solutions can help institutions achieve a sustainable means of recruiting and retaining URM faculty.