Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

During this week, I have seen the behavioral microaggression occur.  It happened at my place of work where a parent comes in to pick up their child and he was of an Asian.  I spoke to him and we held a conversation about the school and education objectives.  During that conversation my case manager, who is Caucasian, walked pass and looked at the parent strangely.  I stopped in middle of my conversation, because the parent’s eyes left mine to look at her.  When I looked at the case manager, her face was showing a face of discouragement.  I looked back at the parent and the smile left the parents face.  I felt uncomfortable when I looked at the way she looked at the parent.  It made me feel awkward and different.  Therefore, I know the parent felt the same way.  I immediately begin to return to my conversation about inviting him to the Open House that night and the parent said he would try.  After the parent left, the case manager came to me and said, "I doubt if he comes because those families do not have time to come to this type of event."  I looked at her and walked away.  However, that evening the parent did show up and I greeted him with pleasure and my case manager did not even acknowledge his presence.  I felt that she only assumed because she had encounters with other Asian families that did not show interest in coming to Open House, that this parent would do the same.  This made me think immediately that she had placed him a group of different people to the point of stereotyping.

Observing other people this week on verbal and body language, I learned that people say things to each other that contains microaggression in brief conversations or non-verbal looks.  I realize that we only say things unintentionally that can be harmful to children and adults.  Therefore, there is a need for change in every one.  As in the video as Dr. Sue  explains how he felt flustered and embarrassed at how people thought that he was from another country just because his looks.  I thought about it all week and in my observations of others and myself, I seen that we actually do make assumptions of people.  One incident as an example that occur this week, is that a parent comes in and drops off her child, but if you did not know that she is the mother of the child you would of assumed she was the grandparent because of her looks.  I did it to her when she first started coming to our center.  I called her grandma and she corrected me to say that I am the mother but I started late with my children.  At that moment, I apologized and felt horrible for making the assumption.  Now I understand it as environmental microaggression.


Reference:
Video, (2011). Microaggressions in everyday Life. Dr. Derald Wing Sue. Retrieved from:http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I spoke to two friends and one relative about their meaning about culture and diversity.

            The first one I wrote to on face book and he is an African American Male in is 50’s.  Cecil comment was short and to the point. He said, “People is your culture.” In addition, “Diversity is how you deal with the culture.”

            The second person I spoke to was my cousin, she is a African American female in her 40’s. Tammy stated, “That culture is what you wear, how you talk, where you live, and how you do things.”

On diversity she said, “It is the difference in people such as race, religion, social and economic status.

            The third person I spoke with lives in Spokane, Washington and She is Caucasian. Heidi has been my friend since 7^th grade.  She said, “Well...it is teaching different cultures...  like Native American, Chinese, African American...etc...  Their life styles. Like some Native American’s children think it is rude to look at an adult in the face...  but as teachers we want them to so we can see they are listening.”  As far as diversity she said, “To me it is how people are different and learn in different ways because of their back ground.

It is like a multiple of differences.”

     My friends and cousin meaning of culture and diversity reflects the same thing I learned in the course so far as that culture is unconscious. For example, Cecil spoke about culture as though people make up culture and diversity is how we deal with culture and in our studies about learning about culture. A quote by Wade Davis, an anthropologist said,

“ The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you:

They are unique manifestations of human spirit.”  By Wade Davis (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010)

This shows that what Cecil spoke about is true that people are our culture and diversity is how we deal with it. Whereas my cousin Tammy said, that culture is what reflects your identity of the way you live. According to Sparks and Edwards culture identity influences how we live. (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) However, when she described diversity she focused on the inner self whereas in the video, Janet Gonzalez-Mena spoke about how culture and diversity is the unconscious parts of people. In addition, when Heidi explained her view, I recognize it from the article by Ngo on discourse, by understanding a person history, ideas, and images of who we are to represent our lifestyles.  (Ngo, 2008)

The interviewers omitted the individual identity, such as the holidays, celebrations, backgrounds, and languages. (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010)

Thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my thinking about culture has meaning meanings to all. Before I took this course I had very little awareness of culture being invisible. I have always defined it by celebrations, languages and holidays until I learned that there is more to culture than what we see. It has helped me identify my own culture and diversity values.

 References:

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. (2010).  Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves Chapter 5, “Learning about Culture, Language, & Fairness” (pp. 56–60).  NAEYC.

Laureate Education, (2011). Culture and diversity. [Video Program]. Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com

 Ngo, B. (2008). Beyond “culture clash”: Understanding of immigrant experiences. Theory into Practice, 47(1), 4–11 Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

“A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country.  The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees.  You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event.  However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details.  You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently.  You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take three small items with you.  You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.” (Blog 2, 2011)

I would choose to take my Holy Bible, because it holds the words my mother and father taught me as a child.  The second item I would take is pictures of my photo album that holds pictures of my childhood, family, and friends. The last item of the three that I would take is a gold engraved picture of the escape to the Underground Railroad.

The items I chose to take with me are a part of my family.  My family reminds each generation of the importance of knowing God, by understanding that the Bible is the path to knowledge and understanding.  The photo album is a reminder of the love we share as a family and the gold engraved picture holds the value of where we struggle to get where we are today as African Americans.

If I had to give up two of the items I chose and keep only one then I would keep my Holy Bible.

Because of this exercise, I learned that I hold the truth dear to me.  The Holy Bible is the passage to truth, freedom, understanding, faith, determination, peaces, and love.  However, my culture identifies what I was taught as a child.  It taught me to obey rules, to be who I want to be, and how to handle my feelings.  My family believes in God and knows that without him in your life there is no understanding, peace, and love.  It does not matter where you are or how you feel, the word of the scripture will get you through.  I have actually learned how important it is to hold on to your culture and understand the differences of culture in others.

In addition, I have learned how important to begin this process in the classroom so that children do lose sight of their own culture and beliefs. (Video, 2011)

Reference:

Blog 2, (2011). My Family Culture.  Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5691618&Survey=1&47=8342480&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Video, (2011).  “Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions”. Sylvan Learning Center.  Walden University. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5691618&Survey=1&47=8342480&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1