Saturday, July 26, 2014

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions


            This week I focused on listening to conversations for microaggression.  To my surprise, I encountered a multitude of microaggressions.  I thought about keeping track of them and I realized there were too many and could not remember them all.  The biggest one that stood out in my mind involved gender microaggression.  Working closely with a group of women and just two men, one can imagine that they would hear several gender microaggressions.  This week I noticed microaggressions against the male gender.  Most of them comprised of stereotypes and how they would be lost without their wives.  One of the husbands was sick and it was said that men turn into big babies when they are sick.  The major hidden messages are that women are the superior gender and men need us for survival because they could not do it on their own.  During these conversations, I sat back and listened.  I admit in the past I had participated in the conversations when it was pertinent to my situation.  I am guilty of gender microaggressions, especially if I am frustrated with my husband.  During my reflections this week, I realized how we harbored these microaggressions and it affects the way we interact with our spouses.  I also realized how hurt they would probably be if they heard some of the things that are said.  I know when I hear gender microaggressions/stereotypes about women, I get upset especially when they are not true.  So I can now imagine and empathize with males when females do the same.  To either party it is not fair for things to be said especially when the party being mentioned is not there to defend their actions.  However, I do realize that men and women do need to vent their emotions from time to time.  During this time, we need to be mindful of what we say, who we say it to, and who could overhear it.  This is especially true when adults are talking in front of children who are listening and absorbing these microaggressions. 
            My observations opened my eyes this week.  In the past I would notice obvious discriminatory remarks.  However with the microaggression lens on, I noticed how in numerous conversations we say things unintentionally and/or unaware of the hidden messages we are conveying.  From time to time, I even caught myself about to say something.  I stopped myself because I realized what I was about to say.  My mother was right, “Think before you speak.”  I realized how these microaggressions could impact others and perpetuate stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination on a group of people.  If we hope to start eliminating discrimination and celebrate diversity, we all need to be aware of microaggressions especially since they are usually unintentional.   

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity



            For this assignment, I asked my mother, husband, and best friend/work colleague to define culture and diversity.  My mother is a former elementary school teacher, my husband is a lawyer, and best friend and work colleague is about 3 years younger than me and is African American.  My mother said that culture was the way of life of a particular people.  My husband defined it as your family history and traditions.  It is the thing that connects one to other people.  My friend said it was the commonalities and traditions shared amongst a group of people.  My mother defined diversity as the differences in people and everything, differences in race, culture, income, etc.  It is everything about them that is different.  My husband said diversity is differences based on culture.  My friend defined diversity as the valued variations or differences between people.
            When reflecting on their definitions of culture, I noticed that everyone said it was a way of life and culture is shared between people.  People are connected through culture.  This is also one of my definitions and what we have learned in class.  People identify themselves by their culture.  It reminds me of social identities and our first reflective journal assignment about “I am.”  People connect to each other through their cultures because of shared ideas, beliefs, and identities.  The word diversity itself speaks of differences.  Everyone commented in their definitions that diversity is about differences between people.  My mother went to describe ways people are different and aspects of diversity that we have discussed in class such as race and income level.  I love how my friend said that diversity was valued variations and differences.  I think the word value is key because that is what we are learning and striving for:  to value everyone and see differences as beauty.  The word “variations” was another important word in her definition because as we have learned, there are variations within cultures that create diversity.  This is something we need to remember so we do not make assumptions about someone based on what their culture may be. 
            For me, a huge omission in everyone’s definition was the idea of deep culture.  Each definition alluded to surface culture and did not speak of the cultures that are hidden.  My husband did touch on family traditions, which is an aspect of deep culture. But for the most part, people were speaking of culture in broad surface culture terms.  Also most spoke of culture as a way of life or tradition, but culture is more than that.  We are also born into certain cultures such as genders and races.  These necessarily do not define us but we do not need to forget that each one is an aspect of culture.  I am struggling to find omissions in the diversity definitions.  Diversity does mean there are differences between others.  I would have hoped that one of them would have gone further into diversity and talked about how it was not a bad thing and that diversity should not define us.  I guess through my learning and newfound knowledge, I had high expectations of what people would say.  Through that, the biggest omission is not going into further detail about differences.
            The biggest influence on my thinking is that we need to further educate everyone on culture and diversity so they can see past the surface of these two words.  I would like for people to dig deeper and contemplate the meanings of culture and diversity.  I suppose I am being idealistic.  However, it is important that people consider these words and what they mean.  Both influence each other and have a huge impact in early childhood.  I realize that we need to work harder than ever for people to understand the importance of culture and diversity and its impact on early childhood. 
           

Saturday, July 12, 2014

My Family Culture


            If I could only take 3 small items to represent my family culture, I would take our family Bible, my college diploma, and a book we created about our family trip to Disney World.  I would take our family Bible for two reasons.  One, it contains our family tree and other important information regarding our family.  Family is extremely important to me so it would be important to have a piece of that written down so I could pass on to future generations.  The second reason is the most important it is the Bible.  My family and I are Christians and our faith is of utmost importance to us.  The Bible is a representation and guidance of our faith.  The new country may practice a different religion so I would want a representation of ours so we could continue practicing our faith.
            I would want to take my college diploma because I worked hard to earn it and my education is important to me.  I am proud of it and want to keep it as a reminder to myself and son to work hard and you can accomplish anything.  Plus, I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, which is also important to my family since my husband and I are alumni.  The Hill holds special memories for us.  Also in the new country, education may be equally important as in the United States or even more so.  Therefore, I would have proof of my education level that could enable me to get a job.  Obtaining employment would be crucial to our survival in the new country because we would need to the money to get a place to live and food to eat.
            The book about our family to Disney World is special to our family for two reasons.  We love Mickey and Disney and the book would be a representation of that love.  Also, the trip was very memorable to our family and even though it happened two years ago, we still talk about it like it was yesterday.  It was a wonderful stress free time that we will never forget.  The book also contains many pictures of my little family.  I love pictures and since we could only take three items, I would try and grab something that would have the most pictures.  The book is filled with some of my family pictures of my little family.  It would be nice to take a keepsake to a new country to remind us of potentially happier times.
            If I were told I could only keep one of the above items, I would be devastated.  It would be so hard for me to choose and I am not sure I could.  Each have a special meaning, importance, and could aid us in our new country.  It was agonizing narrowing my decision down to three items, I could not imagine having to give up two of those. 
            This assignment took me several days to complete.  It was hard to narrow down my family into three items.  I kept changing my mind on which three to choose.  I realized that I have lot that represent my family culture and simply cannot be summed up in three items.  I had to choose the three that was the best representation of our life.  As a result of this assignment, I can see what immigrants go through when they come to our country.  Many have short notice and can only take the things they can carry.  Somehow they have to pick and choose the most important items to their potential survival in the new country and what represents them so they can keep a piece of their family culture.  Also it was hard for me to choose because I did not know what to expect in the new country and what I could bring that could aid me in survival.  The same is true for immigrants.  Yes, they do know they are coming to the United States and have heard stories, but they do not know what to expect and what items could aid them in their survival in our country.  This assignment has made me realize some aspects of what immigrants go through and to remember that when interacting with them and their children.