Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

This week's assignment was a real eye-opener. I had never thought much about some of the comments I have heard throughout the years. But, through this assignment I can completely see how some people would take offense to comments made toward them.

I have spent the week in DC at the NAEYC conference and haven't had a lot of time to observe others. I mentioned my coworker who made a comment about not taking a class presented by a Jewish man, because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to understand him.  He just assumed that this presenter, whom he had never seen nor met, wouldn't speak clear English.

Another example I witnessed was when my colleague and I went out to dinner. I had intended to pay for dinner, however, the server handed to check to my male colleague. I understand that usually the man pays the bill, but we were not there as a couple, we are colleagues and it was presumptuous of the server to think the male was paying the check.

This week I have been enlightened about microaggressions. I am not a prejudice person and have a difficult time with people who are prejudice. I never thought about some of those very slight words or actions that could cause a person to feel insulted. This assignment has helped me to become more aware of microaggressions and I feel confident I can help others to understand how the little things we say and do, even unknowingly, can cause a person to feel bad.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week’s blog assignment was interesting in that it allowed me to see how friends and co-workers viewed culture and diversity. People don’t see things the same way, everyone looks at things through their own cultural lens—they bring with them the culture from their own family, from their school, their church and other organizations with which they are affiliated. Culture is not static, it is changes and evolves as the person or group is exposed to other’s culture.

The first person I talked with is a 35-year old, Caucasian male. He believes culture is a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, customs, arts etc.; and that diversity is understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences, race, ethnicity, gender, etc.

The second interviewee is a 60-year old African American female. Her definition of culture is inherited beliefs and values, types of food eaten, how the families are arranged, and religion. Diversity in her opinion is differences, variety, a group of people having many forms and shapes.

The third person is a 20-year old Hispanic female who believes culture is the way a group or race live, from language, beliefs, religion, and arts. She went on to say that it was the way certain people live. Her definition of diversity is the accepting of people for who they are. Positive acceptance of people who have different beliefs, cultures and ethnicities.

The interviewees described both surface culture and deep culture. They spoke about art and foods which are both surface culture; as well as religion, family roles, and language which are all deep culture.

This class has helped me to reinforce my understanding that people see culture and diversity in many different ways. Many people think of surface culture, but a great deal of people do look deeper and see more of the deep culture such as a person’s values, religion, language, roles of children and other members of the family, and historic events.

My Family Culture

In the event of a major catastrophe the three items I would want to take with me to my host country would be my IPhone, a thumb drive with family photos and contact information to family and friends, and perhaps a Kindle reader.

I would choose my IPhone because it has so much information on such a tiny device. There are phone numbers and addresses to just about everyone I know. There is music which is very important in our family. We are always listening to music of all different genres and on this little IPhone we have everything from Christian Music to Hard Rock and everything in between. It also contains auditions samples my daughter has made and those are priceless. The IPhone also contains many apps that keeps my son occupied when he gets figity. The IPhone also contains a camera and pretty good flashlight which I think might come in handy in the event of a catastrophe.

About two years ago our pasture caught on fire during a very dry Texas summer. I was at work and my brother saw the flames and called me. As I was driving home he called me back to tell me the house was about to catch on fire and what did I want him to get out before the fire consumed the house. My children were safe and my husband was at work, so there wasn't a single item I could think of to send him into the house to get. I am not attached to material possessions. My husband said if anything run in and get the external hard drive from the computer as it contains a massive amount of pictures and videos of the kids and the rest of our extended family. Since then we have purchased a large thumb drive and have transferred photos and videos as well as important contact information to the thumb drive and we keep it in a fire proof safe. Luckily, just as the fire was at the house the wind shifted and went the other direction. We were very lucky to have not lost anything, but honestly the only thing we really cared about losing were the photos. Photos tell so many stories and evoke so many memories--they are very important to our family.

The Kindle reader would be loaded with books for each member of our family. We all enjoy reading and having the opportunity to read a book of our choice would be comforting and would ease some of the stress of the evacuation.

If I were only allowed to keep one item it would be the  thumb drive. The IPhone would very quickly lose its charge and would be harder to keep up with than the small thumb drive that could easily be carried in my pocket. The Kindle reader too would lose its charge and the only value of this item is the ability to read our chosen books. My children would probably choose to keep the IPhone because of its versatility, but I think I would prefer have copies of old (and new) photos.

The only real insight I gained from this exercise is that I am not a very sentimental person and our family doesn't have a lot of "tradition". I also realize it is time for me to update my thumb drive with newer photos and videos.