Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

       Work is such a large part of our lives that it is “everyday life”.  Situations that caused me to question people’s intent and to realize that unintentional microaggressive acts are common and acceptable at work every day.  One such act took place after a white colleague fell and became injured while shopping during her lunch break.  A different white colleague said to me, “Oh, she’s just going after disability.  Isn’t that what people like her do”?  She was perpetuating classism and buying into the myth that there is a culture of poverty because of where the first employee grew up (Gorski, 2007).  I found this to be confusing and questioned the intent because these colleagues are in the same job classification, the injured employee has many more years’ experience, and both are extremely intelligent evidenced by their photographic memories.  I now realize the comments reflect vying for power and a superiority attitude (Laureate, 2010).  What I have learned in this course thus far has taught me that I should have made the second colleague aware of the implications of her statements and not have accepted it as an everyday occurrence.  A similar situation occurred when my supervisor made a comment about an employee of color, stating “she’s just using the system, aren’t they all like that”?  Again, this statement indicates a superior attitude, racism, and discrimination due to negative stereotyping (Teaching Tolerance, n.d.).

          The effects of microaggression I have observed in my present place of employment is that a cumulative effect and disempowerment.  The women of color or from a different class than the dominant group do not point out the aggressions and silently “move on”.  Their acceptance and “harmony” in the work place seem to take precedence over their feelings of being slighted and demeaned (Laureate, 2010). Although the comments were not made directly to the women, there is subtle attitude that not everyone is fully accepted into dominant group which pervades the office.  Awareness, self-reflection, and breaking away the “norm” or “in-crowd” are steps we should all take to strive to break the “-isms” cycle.  The onus of responsibility for change (Gorski, 2007) is on all of us.

My experiences this week have made me keenly aware of the heart-wrenching plight of marginalized people.  Aside from the “office politics”, my job involves listening to and reading complaints, many of which are prompted by microaggressive behavior as well as behavior related to the “-isms”.  I hear people say, “My relative was made to feel like a second class citizen because he/she speaks a different language”; “I was singled out because of my color”.   I hear the loss of dignity and helplessness.  My passion to re-enter the early childhood field is renewed and strengthened.  Our job to identify patterns of behavior and to supplant the beliefs and assumptions that undergird the behavior (Margles, 2010) begins at the beginning when attitudes are forming as studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice (Teaching Tolerance, n.d.). 

References

Gorski, P. C. (2007). The question of class. Education Digest, 73(2), 30–33. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27177336&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Microaggressions in Everyday Life [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism's distortions. Our Schools/Our Selves, 19(3), 137–149. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=51372248&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Teaching Tolerance. (n.d.). Test yourself for hidden bias. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

     In preparation for this blog entry, I interviewed three individuals.  Although all three are family member, one is much younger that I, one is a different gender, and one is younger and teachers in a high school.  All three interviewees agreed that culture is about family, values, and upbringing.  This definition is the basis of what this course is about.  We are learning the importance of empowering children to value their family culture while learning a new, dominant culture (Laureate Education, 2010).  Sarah further explained that her definition of culture includes “what is socially acceptable within the social ‘norm’”.  Culture has more to do with socio-economic status than with race even though race plays a part (Sarah, 2012).  She provided an example of a playground that many of her students talk about at school.  The homes around the playground have furniture and couches on the sidewalk where people sit and drink beer all day.  Children must earn their way onto the basketball court.  Drugs are a big part of the scene.  Sarah explained the importance of understanding this type of culture in order to know what each family values before calling home to report that a student is not doing well in school.  For instance, it is important to know the extent to which the parent values their child’s education or if the child is attending school just to get a meal (Sarah, 2012).  The culture Sarah described is different than what we have learned thus far in class because the students are older and the emphasis is not on race, ethnicity, religion, language, family structure, or sexuality (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). 

          Defining diversity, the interviewees named ethnicity, language, dress and religion as part of the definition, as well as how individuals from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other (Lee Ann, 2012) (Brian, 2012).  Sarah defined diversity within her school as teachers knowing and understanding what different families’ values are and introducing cultures from all parts of the world into the classroom; as well as students respecting each other’s cultural backgrounds and not having “clicks” or a hierarchy of popularity such as “cool kids”, or “popular kids”.  She explained that it is quite a challenge to be culturally diverse, and feels her school is successful in making “the playing field” more even for the students (Sarah, 2012).  The definitions of the interviewees correspond with what we are learning in class in that we learned that diversity is rooted in the assumption that there are many different kinds of families in the United States and around the world (Harris, 2008); and children need to feel their families are acceptable to their teachers (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008) and that they fit in with the dominant culture (Laureate Education, 2010). 

          My own thinking about culture and diversity has been validated by the viewpoints of the family members I interviewed.  My understanding of the importance of getting to know every family, regardless of culture has been broadened by my interview with Sarah.  Her teaching experience exemplifies that putting into practice what we are learning can reap great rewards.  Sarah attended a high school that was not culturally diverse yet had many social hierarchies such as “cool kids”, “jocks”, and “popular kids”.  The students in the school where she now teaches are quite culturally diverse.  Because of the hard work of the administration and teachers there is not a clash of cultures (Ngo, 2008), but an acceptance and harmony.  Conducting these interviews has been very rewarding to see the potential for a continuum of cultural and diversity acceptance throughout a child’s schooling. 

References

Brian. (2012). Retrieved from a phone interview on March 17, 2012

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in Early Care and Education (5th ed., pp. 8–13). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Harris, S. R. (2008). What is family diversity? Objective and interpretive approaches. Journal of Family Issues, 29(11), 1407–1417.
Retrieved from the Walden Library using the SAGE Premier 2010 database.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Culture and Diversity [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

Lee Ann. (2012).  Retrieved from a phone interview on March 17, 2012

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.

Sarah. (2012). Retrieved from a phone interview on March 17, 2012.

My Family Culture

            Following a major catastrophe from which my immediately family survived we cling to each other and express extreme gratitude that we are able to be together.  We are sympathetic for the tremendous loss and seek ways to comfort each other and others less fortunate.   We follow our customary tradition by praying together and jointly deciding the items we value most to take to a new country.  We decide first to select pictures depicting our lives and place them in a small photo album.  We select everyone’s baby picture and baptismal picture to remind us of our religious upbringing and how influential religion is in our everyday lives.  Sports played a major role in three of my four children’s upbringing, so we chose one picture a piece as mementos of their favorite sport and of my other daughter and me attending their games as a show of support and encouragement. Education and training are highly valued in our family, so we chose everyone’s graduation pictures, including mine and my son’s graduation from basic military training.  Maintaining close ties with extended family and carrying on traditions of our heritage is of great value to us, so we included a family reunion picture and pictures of my parents and siblings, and of my children’s father and his parents, their stepmother and step family.  Some of our best memories are of playing and having fun together, so we included pictures of our family vacations and birthday parties. 

          Our second treasured possession we decide to take is our family cookbook.  We have recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation as well as new favorites.  Sharing meals by sitting around the kitchen or dining room table was of particular importance to us.  One of the most frequent calls I receive from my daughters is, “Mom, how do I make this, what ingredients do I need to buy”?  My son was a great helper in the kitchen.  Our visits now center on me making everyone’s favorite meal. 

          Third, we decide to take my son’s notebook.  He has many games, music, and movies that we would be able play and watch.  As a family we enjoy listening to music.  We love playing games together as well as watching movies.  We have always enjoyed these are activities and feel that if we incorporate activities that are familiar we’ll adjust more easily and readily to our new country’s culture (Derman-Sparks, 2010) (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

          Upon arrival in our new country we are told we can have only take one item with us.  I explain to my children that I have many recipes memorized and we are all creative chiefs.  One of my daughters is a Consumer Science teacher and also has many recipes memorized.  We give up the cookbook and plan to enter as many recipes as we can remember into my son’s notebook as soon as we get settled.  My son already has an array of pictures saved in his notebook and we ask if we can upload the pictures from our photo album before relinquishing it.  I realize how devastating it will be not to have a picture of my parents or siblings and for my children not to have pictures of their father and his family.  After much debate, we agree that we could write our recipes on paper.  We could learn to enjoy the music of our new country.  We are all very creative and could make familiar games from various items or make up and/or purchase new games.  However, we would never have the opportunity to take pictures of our loves ones that did not survive.  Our decision would be based on whether or not we are given permission to upload our pictures.

          The insight I gained from this exercise is that it is very difficult to pinpoint items that are more important than being with my immediate family.  Our family culture will bind us together and help us integrate into a new culture.  We will have each other.  I taught my children to be resilient and the dominant culture (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010) in our lives taught us as a family to be resilient because we are a single parent family.  We will have each other for support and learn from each other how to become integrated into a new way of life.  I foresee that we will become dependent upon each other in new ways and will need to draw upon each other’s strengths to adapt and change. 

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). P. 5.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com