Students of Black or African American Ancestry in Grades 10th -12th Perceptions of Their Schooling Experiences

California continues to tackle blatant racist acts within school systems across the state as recent headlines read, “Deeply offensive blackface video of California high school student sparks backlash” (Yancey-Bragg, Guynn, & Rhor, 2019, n.p.) and “Four teachers and their principal placed on leave after cheerfully posing for photo with noose” (Lunning, 2019, n.p.). Gaining a greater awareness of the non-headlining actions that take place on a day-to-day basis that have an equally powerful adverse effect on the school experiences of black learners was the focus of this study. Microaggressions are “subtle, stunning, often automatic, and non-verbal exchanges which are put downs” classified as microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations. For this study, emphasis was on race-based microaggressions. The presence of racial microaggressions impacted student participants’ perceptions of their schooling experiences. Microassaults were the most experienced racial microaggressions generally instigated by peers followed by microinsults, equally exhibited by teachers and peers. Microinvalidations were not as common but when they did occur peers were often the perpetrator