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Structural Microaggressions for Explaining Outcome Gaps
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2023
Abstract
Microaggressions are hypothesized to play a causal role in undesirable population effects such as racial health gaps, but the mechanisms through which this occurs are not yet well understood. I call inquiry about these mechanisms the “explanatory project.” I suggest that the explanatory project has been hindered by microaggression concepts tailored to be applicable under conditions of lived uncertainty, rather than to facilitate understanding of structural causes. I defend a pluralist, structural account of microaggressions from objections by Regina Rini that, while appropriate for ethical projects, do not apply to the explanatory project.
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- © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association
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