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Ethnoracial minorities report a variety of discriminatory experiences due to systemic racism. Yet, few studies have examined whether gender and race/ethnicity interact to predict institutional discrimination and racial microaggressions through an intersectional approach.

A predominantly female (60%), ethnoracial minority (20.8% Black, 31.6% Asian, 30.8% Latina/o, 8.2% White, 6.6% Middle Eastern) sample of 895 undergraduates attending a minority-serving public university in an urban setting completed self-report measures of sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of racial microaggressions and institutional discrimination.

Significant (p < 0.05) gender × race/ethnicity interaction effects were found in several institutional discrimination domains: Males reported more police/court discrimination overall, but gender differences in police/court discrimination were less pronounced for non-Black vs Black students. While males tended to report more institutional discrimination than females, the reverse was true for the Middle Eastern group: Middle Eastern females reported institutional discrimination in more domains and more discrimination getting hired than their male counterparts. There was a significant race/ethnicity × gender interaction effect for environmental microaggressions: White males reported more environmental microaggressions than White females, but gender differences were not found in the overall sample.

This study is the first to the authors’ knowledge to assess the interactive effects of gender and ethnicity on the type of microaggressions experienced in a diverse sample that includes individuals of Middle Eastern descent. The authors highlight the range of discriminatory events that ethnoracially minoritized undergraduates experience, even at a minority-serving institution.