Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

           The incident I am about to relate to you happened a couple of weeks ago while I was on vacation.  My husband and I went to a very family, friendly chain restaurant.  We love to eat breakfast there, especially on road trips; however, this particular experience rubbed me the wrong way.  I am probably taking it way too seriously and being overly sensitive about the experience. My husband and I went into the restaurant and we waited to be seated.  First of all, the hostess took her time getting us a table.  I believe we waited a good five minutes before being sat down.  It was a situation of we were the only people to have had walked in within the last ten minutes, however, she never said there might be a slight wait with your table, but she never took her time to look over to see that there was a small, clean table for two that we could have been sat at over five minutes ago.  When we were finally sat down, our waitress did not even give me time to open my menu before asking what I wanted to eat.  I told her, ‘I don’t know yet but I do want orange juice to drink (she did not even ask my husband what he wanted to drink.)  It was ten minutes before I got my orange juice and my husband’s drink order was taken.  When she came back with my husband’s drink, then the waitress took our meal order.  Our meal finally came out to us about thirty-five minutes later.  Our check was handed to us within five minutes of receiving the meal.  Not once, were we asked for refills or if our meal was to our liking.  However, the waitress was very friendly with another couple who were of the same race as her.  She asked them how they were and let them have time to order while she brought the couple their beverages.  I noticed the waitress was the same way with other couples who were of the same race.   Now, I may be looking at this too deep like I said, but I felt slided by this particular waitress.  I will say that our food was good, but I did not feel we were receiving the same customer services as the others at her station.  The microaggression may have been unintentional simply because this waitress was busy and tables were full, and she may have detected a vibe that we were a little put off from the way the hostess greeted and seated us. 

                One thing I have learned about microaggressions is that sometimes when another person’s mood or emotions spill out from circumstances of the day it has nothing to do with that person’s culture, race, or ethnicity group.  However, we must learn to take the good with the bad and not prejudge a person’s actions on the basis of their culture, race, and ethnicity in order to prevent ourselves from saying something we might regret later.        

Culture and Diversity Perspectives

o    Their definition of culture:

I talked to my husband, my lifelong friend, and my mom about what they believe culture is and what factors it entails.  All believed that culture deals with one’s race, religion, language, and socioeconomic status.  However, how far with the definition each person went was very different. For example, my husband went into the fact that culture dealt with an individual’s day to day routine, my friend explained that it deals with someone’s views and opinions, and my mom felt that culture deals with how someone dresses, acts, and the interest of that person.

o    Their definition of diversity:

Each of the three people I interviewed also gave me their views on culture.  My husband said diversity is differences between culture’s, races, religion, and language.  My friend added that diversity is all the things my husband said but it is also everyone learning to respect each other’s differences, and my mother added that diversity is change.   

Reflection :

            Aspects of culture and diversity that have been included from the people who I interviewed are seeing a person’s surface culture and learning to respect each person’s differences through education.  I found all three of my interviewees did not bring up the fact culture is how someone perceives themselves as an individual and learning to love and accept his or her differences. Through interviewing my friends and family about culture and diversity I have realized that we, as educators, need to place children’s thoughts and feelings about themselves and other as our number one priority.  When we do this it accomplishes two things:

1.)    It provides the child with a sense of empowerment and ownership that we take seriously what the child says as important.

2.)    It provides the teacher with an armor of knowledge and support from the children and their families to help their children grow. 

Dear Dairy: Change Equals Survival

Dear Dairy,

We have just been told to leave the U.S. due to a major, devastating earthquake. We have been told to move to another country since most of the U.S. has been physically destroyed.  Survivors are ransacking other property for any tools to survive.  

I am bringing my family pictures, Bible, and also the quilts my grandmother has made for me over the years.  The whole idea of having to choose three items is very difficult, but I understand that it is a necessity for the purpose of making sure that my family and I are able to get our new country safely and quickly.  I find that bring pictures of my family is important that way I will be able to help preserve the history of my family through photos.  Next, bring the Bible will be important also because it will serve two purposes. One, it will have historical information in it about my family’s history since it will be a family Bible and it will serve as comfort for purposes of reading and helping preserve my Christian faith.  Finally, the quilts my grandmother made me will provide warmth and comfort to me in a foreign country and will make me feel some sense of home that I will need.

Yours,

Scared

Dear Dairy,

                        We have just arrived to our new country and they told me that I could only keep one item and give up the other two items.  I am feeling very scared and sad because I feel my new country has let me down because they could not keep their promise of three items.  I do not think that I can handle so much change at one time and my trust in my new country is not very high. I believe that I will find I way to place the photos in the Bible, which means I am being sneaky, but I find that in order to preserve my family history it is important and the Bible will give me the strength I need to make it through this unbelievable time that I am having a hard time accepting.

            In conclusion, I find that under pressure change is something that is hard for me to handle but I realized that sometimes in order to survive it is a must.  I also find that family is truly important to me and it is the only thing that matters because friends can come and go, but family sticks by you through it all, at least mine does!

       Yours,

        Uncertain 

Wishes For Equality

 My biggest hope when I work with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds would be for children and families to help educating, communicating, living, and working together without bias.  By doing so we will model for children the way they should respect their peers.

                                One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field that is related to diversity, equity, and social justice would be to help promote ways for every child to have an quality early childhood education so that there will be no institutional bias when they are older.

                                I would like to say thank you to my colleagues for your support and help.  I wish everyone the best in continuing on this journey.

Making Cultural Connections with Families

I have a student that is from the country of Chad, which is found in central Africa.  There are five big points that I need to know in order for me to be culturally responsive to this child and his family. These points are as follows:

1.)    Who or whom does the child live with and why do they live with these particular person(s) if it is not biological parents?

2.)    What is the educational background for this child?

3.)    Does this child have any particular special interest?

4.)    How do people in his home country work and live?

5.)    What main language does this child speak, and how much English does this child know, if any?

6.)    I would want to learn about the country Chad.  So,  I would do research on the internet, read books, and do research with DVD’s or CD’S on Chad.

Asking and looking for answers to these questions from the family or guardians would help gain insight to the child’s and child’s family background.  These are questions that reach beyond the surface of the child’s race, culture, and ethnicity.  It helps myself as a educator get to the heart of the matter with the child’s actions.  For instance, if the child is fearful, little education, and live with adoptive parents.  It could mean that the child has come from a poverty-stricken, war-torn country that has many refugees.  His parents were not able to give him the safe, caring environment he or she needed.  In return, the parents placed their child up for adoption  for a better life in America.

Building Up Power

My Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have experienced bias particularly when I have been in groups with people and I have ideas for a project that totally get ignored.  For instance, I remember, having to work on with a group of students to read a book in junior high on the novel, A Christmas Carol. The school did not have enough funding for everyone to have a class set of the novel, so it was up to us to share as copy as a group of three.  I distinctly remember the other to girls who I had to work with were purposely not letting me see novel while were reading it during class.  I had asked nicely to please put the novel in the middle desk between us that way three of us could see it.  However the girls just put the novel in between the two of them.  Now, I do not know what caused these two girls to do this, but it definitely put me in a situation where I became a much more introverted person in my junior high and high school years.   When I was younger I was a much more extraverted child and loved singing, dancing, and acting.  My mother will even tell you that I changed from being that girl who love saying, “I will only sing for big crowds.”  to a child who has not sung a solo for the families at holidays or even a solo at church  in over fifteen years.  This specific bias diminished equity in myself because anytime group projects came up I did not really want to provide my opinion anymore simply because I did not feel important enough to stand up for myself.  I think there is a part of me is finally realizing at thirty years old that I have to begin putting a little more confidence in myself and take action for some balance of power to begin in my life with peers.  To me, if you see something unfair happening to someone you must stand up for yourself or the person it is happening to.

Microaggression and Being Aware of It

This past school year was very interesting for me because I had an assistant that was very difficult to work with because she wanted do things a certain way and I wanted to do things a certain way.  At one point during the year, it got to the point to where she did not want to help me do anything to discipline the children anymore in the classroom.  For instance, there were times that I felt my assistant did not get the full story on what was going on with the child and would punish the child before there was any reasoning behind the actions of the child.   It was for little things like the child needing to get a tissue when they are in line.  However, I am saying that I don’t agree with letting the child just get away with anything, but there is a point where you have to listen to a child and understand where he or she is coming from.  Especially, since there are circumstances that children come from that need to be address.

At one point this year, my assistant decided to explain in front of the children everything she thought I was doing wrong.  First of all, I found that being a microaggression because she made me feel like I was not doing anything right.  Now, I felt she could have talked about this situation with me during a time when the children were not in the classroom, but I understand that sometimes my assistant could be very direct and to the point without realizing she was doing so at an inappropriate time.  I know this is a silly microaggression  but it did hurt what I was trying to do with the children at the time,  because she took the focus off my lesson.