Practicing Awareness of Microaggression

In the media segment, Dr. Sue defined microaggressions as verbal behaviors usually containing an insulting message to women, people of color, gay or lesbians intentionally or unintentionally that may cause severe or psychological stress and harm. (Laureate Education 2011). 

I am employed at a non-profit organization where mostly African Americans and sometimes homeless children attend. Despite how some people my just see us as daycare, we do a lot more than normal childcare centers. We have 2 Georgia Funded Pre-K programs, a community outreach team, health coordinators, parent social committee coordinators, and a safety committee. Most of the committees are filled with teachers within the program whom all work together to make out program a success.

About two weeks ago the speech therapist, whom is a white female that, comes regularly to our school maybe twice a week and who also knows all about our program complemented us on how awesome of a job she thinks we are doing. She stated, “I’ve never been into a low income school that is as dedicated as you ladies are. I am so stunned at how much you all value education and also how the parents in this area participate. You don’t usually find that in a lot of rural neighborhoods.”

The only thing I could do was to say thank you, smile, and walk away.

 I feel as though this was a microinsult. Even though she was consciously giving us compliments I feel as she was unconsciously saying that most African Americans do not value education and that the teachers of these schools are lazy and aren’t passionate into teaching these kids because there is not hope. As an education professional I feel that we should take our job seriously and to not have biases towards children because we are there to help them and no matter of the economic status they all have a chance.

Gaining the knowledge of microaggressions effected my perception that stereotypes have a huge influence on the way we discriminate and also the prejudices we have against each other because it has an impact how we perceive one another. We often treat people unfair and think that it’s justified because of a specific stereotype that we may believe about them. We must overcome stereotypes by becoming aware of thoughts and feelings that we have about one another and the behavior it may bring about. It is important to get the facts on the individual and not look at them as a group.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week we were asked to interview three people, at least one in which was culturally different, and their views on the definitions of culture and diversity. I interviewed the following:

·         25 year old African American female with a Muslim religion

o   Culture: Family traditions, values, morals, gender roles within families, as well as beliefs including religion and old wives tales even.

o   Diversity: The difference between an individual’s families and cultures.

·         28 year old Caucasian female

o   Culture: A person values, traditions, surroundings. Everything from their past generations, language, the way they dress, and the way they think.

o   Diversity: Difference in language, dress, thinking, and appearance.

·         52 year old African American female

o   Culture: Family traditions. How you were brought up.

o   Diversity: A variety of ideas and groups.

  

“Culture is like an iceberg, the part of the iceberg that is celebrated is the tip sticking out of the water, but the ninety percent that is lurking beneath is where the tension comes in. (Laureate Education 2011).

            When defining culture people usually only realize what is visible. By my surprise after interviewing these three ladies they all have shared their knowledge on deep culture such as stating culture being based on language, how people were brought up (historic events),or their traditions (old wives tales). All of the ladies I interviewed are colleagues of mine. Even though we work with a diversity of children whom are from different cultures when asked these questions, each said, “Let me think about it.” This gave me the impression that they thought of culture being deeper than just what we see.

After studying the aspects of culture and diversity, when I think of the word culture I think of a family’s values, religions, morals, beliefs, and customs the customs they live by. Culture is the traditions within a family that they feel are important enough to pass along from generation to generation. Culture can be as specific as someone’s race, the way they dress, how they speak, the type of language they speak, what they may or may not believe, or may or may not eat. The word diversity makes me think of the way we define people based on their unique characteristics. This can be a person’s race, gender, abilities, religions, or culture. All in all, culture is what we make it.

Reference 

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

My Family Culture

In the event of a major catastrophe devastating the infrastructure of my country and as a result having to evacuate, three things that I would choose to take that represents my families culture would be an embroidered baby blanket, a ring, and an old journal.

The blanket is handcrafted with the letter S embroidered in the middle to symbolize the Smith family. This blanket is passed from generation to generation. It is said that the baby blanket covers the baby with angels, including the family members who have passed on to the afterlife, to protect them from evil spirits.

The ring was worn by the first woman of the Smith family. This ring is passed from generation to generation from mother to her first born daughter on her 16^th birthday. Unfortunately, I will never be an owner of this ring being that my mother or grandmother is not the first born.

The journal is more than 120 years old. It’s full of recorded stories of past events of things from our family history. The writer of the journal was not very educated but I don’t know if they were an adult or a child but it is very interesting reading direct experiences of some traditions of our family from a family member.

If upon arrival I was told that I could only bring one out of the three things I would be devastated because I would feel as though I would be losing some of my families’ culture. I think that I would be torn between the journal and the blanket but I think that I would choose to bring the blanket. The reason being is that the blanket protects the babies which are the future of our family’s name. Being that I would not have any else but stories to tell the future generations, the blanket will protect those who will carry on a start new traditions for the Smith Family.