Wang, Leu and Shoda (2011) hypothesized that while many individuals may believe that racial microaggressions are harmless, in reality, racial microaggressions could have deleterious effects on the emotional well-being of racial minorities. The authors hypothesized that the potential emotional “sting” of seemingly innocuous microaggressions is proportional to the strength of such a belief. In addition, the authors hypothesized that appraisals of these microaggressions would be associated with externalizing emotions. To assess the issue, the authors conducted two studies. In the first study, the authors conducted a focus group with nine self-identified Asian American college students (78% women; ages 20 to 26). During the course of the focus