Lack of participation trophies is the root problem.
Via Campus Reform:
Two professors recently discovered that there are five different types of “invisibility microaggressions” women of color face, according to an article published Monday.
Jasmine Mena, a Psychology professor at Bucknell University, and Annemarie Vaccaro, who teaches Higher Education at the University of Rhode Island, claim they are the first academics to argue that “invisibility” is a “common form of microaggression” experienced by professors of color.
“There is a growing body of literature that suggests invisibility is a common form of exclusion—or microaggression,” Mena and Vaccaro suggest. “However, no studies have focused deeply on the ways women faculty and staff experience invisibility microaggressions on college campuses”
To remedy a lack of research on the topic, Vaccaro and Mena interviewed 13 women of color working at “predominantly white institutions,” the majority of whom were heterosexual and middle-aged. From their research, they discovered that there are five types of “invisibility microaggressions,” three of which are “environmental,” while two are “interpersonal.”
According to their study, which was published in the NASPA Journal About Women In Higher Education, the three environmental microaggressions that women of color face relate to their “invisibility” on campus, in disciplinary/professional settings, and in their local communities, because they are “among the few, or only” people of color in each context.
Interpersonal invisibility microaggressions, on the other hand, involve what they call “professional and leadership invisibility,” both of which hinder women of color in their “everyday work roles.”[…]
First, they ask college administrators to publicize and “celebrate the accomplishments of women of color on campus” through “alumni magazines, campus newsletters, and the university website.”