Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Wow! Much learning and self-reflection has taken place this week.

Awhile back, I heard a male coworker compare a soda machine to a woman in the break room.  His soda got stuck in the machine so he hit the machine and the soda fell down. He got his soda, laughed, and stated, “its just like a woman, you have to hit it a time or two for it work right.”  I was furious along with a few other women and men. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the remark was quite hurtful for me. I felt disrespected as a woman, devalued, and as though women should be subservient, and were below men.  This was clearly a sexist remark and he may have been joking and did not intend any harm, however, it was hurtful to me and had no place in the work environment. I had just ended a marriage in which I was hearing such remarks from my husband and being physically abused so I was already questioning my value and place in the world and this incident did not help at the time.  I overcome with the help of supportive family and friends, but it took some time.

A microaggression that I observed relates to having different expectations for a black male child’s behavior than for a white male child’s behavior. One little incident involving the black child and he was disciplined by being sent home by a white teacher. White male children engage in many of the same behaviors and they are redirected.  I really think this is the result of stereotypical ideas. It has been pointed out to administration and they are investigating. I am sure the child feels devalued and marginalized. He is disciplined so much for what seems like everything he does, he is probably wondering what is wrong with him and has low self-esteem.

The effects of micro-aggression  can be emotionally and psychologically harmful, deter learning, and hinder one from reaching his or her full potential. It can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy as the targeted assumes the stereotype.  That is a big concern in racial and gender microaggression such as my examples above. I think I will be engaging in even more self-reflection to identify and be mindful of hidden biases. I do not want to cause anyone harm jst because they are different than me.

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

I contacted several friends and colleagues  asking them for their definitions of culture and diversity. The first defines culture as family background or their heritage, ethnicity, race, and gender and diversity as the differences among culture.  The second defines culture as the beliefs and customs of an individual, or a group of people, or of a society and diversity as the differences among individuals, groups of people, and societies. She adds that diversity also involves incorporating the different cultures into a group of people or society.  The third defines culture as the heritage, traditions, and beliefs of a particular group of people and diversity as recognizing unique qualities or characteristics of people or groups.   If I were to combine these definitions,  I would come to the definition of culture as family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, customs, traditions, and beliefs of an individual, group of people, or society.  Diversity’s definition would be recognizing the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society and perhaps incorporating the differences into a group of people or society.

Our readings includes aspects of family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, gender, customs, traditions, and beliefs in defining culture (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). These aspects are closely intertwined with culture playing important roles in who people are. However, they do not give a complete picture of a person’s culture. My friends and colleagues omitted aspects of culture that our readings do discuss including language, economic status, class, gender and sexual orientation, abilities/disabilities, religion, values, relationships, migration, work, and ideas about education, health care, roles, expressing emotion, to name a few (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

To see who families and children truly are and understand them, we must move beyond surface culture such as artifacts, dress, foods, holidays and aspects that are easily identifiable (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). We  must realize that their culture influences everything about them including their lifestyle, how they think, attitudes, and behaviors, how/where they live, their work, organizational affiliations, family and community relationships, ideas about education, health care, gender roles, roles of children, parenting practices, recreation, religious practices, expressing emotion, ways of communicating and interacting with others, and more (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

The cultural group that we belong to begins shaping the way we live at birth through a process called cultural socialization.  As we grow, we learn how to name, describe, and feel about our cultural membership. As we mature, enter adulthood, and establish an adult life and family, we  choose aspects of our cultural socialization that we wish to continue, modify, or reject (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Therefore, time, place, and historical context are also aspects of culture.

Yashika Wilson’s who is a colleague shared her ideas with me on culture a few months ago. I feel that it sums up our discussion on defining culture quite well and is in line with our text regarding the dimensions of culture discussed in the preceding paragraph.  Ms. Yashika states (2016),

            “…Culture is similar to the sticky side of masking tape. In life there are traits that we are born with, traditions we become accustomed to ,things instilled in us, and things we've learned.      Additionally as we grow and adapt to our environment, there are other things that we accurate and we add those things to the sticky side of the masking tape and it too becomes a part of who we are; thus accumulatively becoming the total make up of our culture" (Yashika Wilson, personal communication).  

Now for a word about diversity.  The combined definition of diversity from  my friends and colleagues would be the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society. They all acknowledge the importance of  recognizing and incorporating the differences  - for example in early childhood education.

It is worth noting that everyone has culture that influences their way of life, thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.  Children come to our classrooms from all walks of life and are becoming more and more diverse. While there are similarities, many differences exist due to the complexities of culture and the many differences that lie within the culture of our children and families. When we begin to recognize the differences in deep culture that exist, this is when issues related to diversity will raise its ugly neck. Even then we must realize that it is the differences that create unique abilities, qualities, and characteristics in each individual, group, or society. Diversity is rich, a benefit, and a necessity (Laureate Education, 2011). A deep understanding of culture and its relation to diversity is the first step in creating environments that will lead to helping all children and families feel visible, valued, accepted, and empowered.

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)

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

Wilson, Y. (2016). Personal Conversation. Yashika Wilson, MA in Early Childhood/Educational Psychology

My Family Culture

In the event that My family was evacuated to a new country or refugee camp, the three things that I would take that represents our family culture are our family Bible, family photo album, and recipe box.  I choose these items because they reflect   my family values, beliefs, traditions, practices, and culture. The Bible reflects our religious practices, beliefs, and guidelines for living a Christian life that are important to our family culture.  My family finds much comfort,  peace, and hope from reading many of the passages especially in times of adversity. Within my Bible are pages for recording information such as outlining a family tree, births, deaths, marriages, baptisms, that I have completed that gives some history about our family. My family photo album includes pictures of family that has passed on,  pictures of my children and grandchildren as they grow, graduations, marriages, births, baptisms, holiday celebrations,  family vacations, special events, accomplishments, and more. It represents the importance of family, values, traditions, and more as well as a good deal about what my family sees as important. Much of my family culture revolves around southern tradition, coming together cooking, and enjoying southern food especially during holidays and special events, which is why I would take my recipe box that includes recipes for my family’s favorite foods.

It would be very hard to choose just one artifact and I really pray that this exercise never becomes reality.  Being the elder in my family, I would probably choose the family photo album as my family and our values are important to my life.  It could be used to teach my grandchildren about our family culture and to help them understand their family history.  I believe I could keep our religious practices, and beliefs alive giving them comfort in the event my Bible was taken because its teachings are engrained into my life, heart and mind.  As far as southern cooking, I have been doing this my entire life and can do from memory and so can my older children. The pictures offer a visual for discussion about our family to its youngest members and can play a huge role in keeping our culture alive throughout generations.

I have learned from this exercise just how important passing my family’s history  and its values down to the younger generation in my family really is to me. I think I have taken this for granted.  I’m sure the family photo album along with discussion will become a new tradition in future family gatherings. I also learned how important these artifacts are to who I am as well as how blessed I am to have easy access to these things and that it would be devastating to lose anyone of these representations of my culture.