Practicing awareness of microaggressions

    When I read over the assignment this week, I really thought I would struggle with finding something to write to about.  Well, here it is only the 2nd day of this school week and I already encountered two examples of microaggression.  I was excited at first because I was able to make the connection between school and my personal and professional life, but then sad that I was already able to see two microaggressions in just one day.  How many have I seen over the course of my life???

1.) My first encounter happened today at work.  The teacher I used to work with, an African-American lady, was sitting outside with her class getting ready to ride the bus up to the "Big Gym", which is what the children call the School-aged center where they get to go do their sporting/large motor activities with our sports director.  Another teacher, who is Mexican, came by with her class and asked where the children were going.  They all said "the big gym!" and she just stared at them like she had no idea what they were saying.  My old co-teacher said, "the big gym. Have you ever heard of that or do you not understand these words?"  Now this all sounds incredibly harsh without knowing these two teachers, but they really have a great relationship.  The Mexican teacher openly talks about her lack of knowing English words on a daily basis, plus reminds us that she is Mexican daily, so she was not offended in any way.  To an outsider though that does not know their relationship, it was very demeaning and condescending.  It was insulting to the Mexican teachers racial heritage because she speaks Spanish as her first language and struggles at times with English.

2.)  The second encounter was much more obvious.  I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with people from my softball team after our game and there was a high school aged boy that decided to do the blazing wing challenge at the table next to us.  For those of you who do not know what that is, you have to eat 12 traditional chicken wings(not boneless) with the HOTTEST sauce you can think of as fast you can: no drinks, no other food and no wiping of the hands or face during the challenge.  Well, this boy did the challenge in less than 5 minutes and really did not seemed bothered by it.  I made the comment how impressive that was because my medium wings were spicy to me and I only ate one.  The one guy with me said, "Well, I think he has had probably had some practice eating some spicy foods."  I asked how he knew that and he said, "Well, just look at him. He's Mexican or something and they eat spicy stuff all the time.  No actually I think he's Indian, so I'm sure that's nothing compared to what he eats all the time at home.  Yeah, he's probably straight Ingun."  (He used what I was always taught was a racial slang for an American-Indian and I'm not sure how to spell it).  The other two guys at my table both laughed and agreed this guy was probably right.  I was shocked and couldn't believe it because that was a clear example of what we had been talking about in class!!  I am not sure how this kid felt because he was long gone by the time this conversation had taken place, but I felt it was degrading to him to make this assumption based on the outward appearance of this boy.  I realized that my preception was affected because I did not see the kid as anything more than a crazy high-schooler doing a really awful (my opinion) challenge. I was happy that I had not jumped to that conclusion about him, but just looked at him as a male high school student. 

This assignment made me realize that prejudice and discrimination are all around me, even being used by people I hang out with on a regular basis and really admire.  People are very judgemental and I need to work on seeing past these things and helping them see past them as well.

Culture as it relates to my family and friends

For this assignment, I chose to email my mother, my sister, my two best friends and my great-uncle to get their responses to culture.  The reason I chose these five people is because they are all close to me, but they all have different views and experiences that have happened in their lives that affect their way of thinking.

-My great Uncle Jeff-he has a bachelor's degree-culture is developing something or someone and diversity is different ways of doing something

-Amy (my sister)-she has a Master's degree and lives in Kentucky-

1. Culture: A common behavior or belief in a group of people that would include their values, education, recreation and social opportunities
2. Diversity: Differences within a group of people such as education level, race, age, political view and specific religious beliefs/rituals

-Leann-She has a bachelor's degree in Sociology and she lives in the same town as me-1) Culture to me is the way that people live and I believe to be impacted by their previous and current surroundings. Cultures vary all over the world and are constantly changing or evolving.

2) Diversity to me simply means variety or a difference in something. I think diversity is very much impacted by one's culture or surroundings.

 

 

-Sarah-she has a bachelor's degree in communications and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Culture to me is a person's heritage. Their traditions, beliefs, ideals. A person's culture is how they were raised and they choose to live based on what they've been taught about where they come from.

Diversity is when you have a group of people that all come from different cultures and live in a common place. Whether it's race, religion, or even just the kind of financial background a person has, the differences within that group creates a diversity of lifestyles

 

 

-Mom-no degree-lives in the same town as me and is a social worker minus the title-

1. Diversity - I think it means people from all kinds of backgrounds living together. The differences can be language, ethniticity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political views and I'm sure there is more. But they can all live together fine.

2. Culture - I think this is more about where you live and the differences about you because of where you came from (does this make any sense?). I guess it would be your customs, values and things like that.

 

 

 

The reason's I defined everyone the way I did is because in the responses my sister and my two friends gave me, they all said these questions reminded them of their undergrad experiences and courses they had in college.  Sarah told me living in Denver for a year helped shaped her views on what diversity and culture is, so I felt these titles were important to explain where they were coming from. 

 

After looking over their answers, I can tell, probably because I know all of these people really well, that where they have lived, the experiences they have had in life and their education has helped shaped how they view culture and diversity.  For example, my sister and my two friends were able to answer right away what they thought these meant, but my mom had to call me and ask what kind of answer I wanted, then she still seemed unsure in her answer.  Because my sister and my girlfriends have had to discuss these ideas before, it is an easy question to answer.  I think they also recognize diversity and culture more because it is something they have had to learn about.

 

 

 

I think of all the answers that I had been given, Sarah's is the one that I like the most, not that I don't agree with all of them.  I like how she mentioned culture is a person's heritage because I think this goes into the deep culture we discussed in class this week.  It covers all aspects of how a person's lives and how they were raised, which is a huge part of how a person gets their perceptions on culture and diversity.  I also like how my sister mentioned education, social opportunites and recreation because, again, these all are a part of the deep culture that we discussed this week.  I really believe that a person's education is a huge indication of their undestanding of culture and diversity.  Most educated people have been afforded more experiences in life and usually make more money in their careers, so they are able to go out and experience more of the world.  This is not to say that those that are not educated, do not understand culture and diversity, they may just not have had as many opportunities to experience it.  For example, a friend that I had growing up went on vacations all over the world, China, Japan, Korea, different places in Europe because his father was a professor at a private university and his mom was a teacher.  They could afford to take him to these places growing up because their financial situation allowed it.  I'm sure he learned a little more about the Chinese and Japanese growing up by visiting these places than I ever did just reading about them in a textbook.

 

When everyone discussed diversity, I liked how they mentioned differences in lifestyles because I really feel like this is a large part of diversity.  Diversity is created by many different factors and almost all of the people I asked mentioned financial background, race, age, and political views.  All of these create diversity in people and can also be affected by the culture they come from.

 

What I found the most interesting was that I agreed with all of the answers that everyone gave out.  I think this is because I am close to all of these people in my life and my viewpoints of culture and diversity have been shaped by each one of them.

 

 

My Family Culture

     When I thought of this assignment, I thought of my most priceless possessions.  To me and my family, the most important things we have are our photographs.  From my earliest moments as a child, I can remember my mom taking pictures of everything, yes, literally EVERYTHING!!  My siblings and I have all our first moments, first days of schools, dances, school programs, sporting events, holidays, get togethers and on and on.  You name it, I'm sure my mom has a picture of it.  It annoys me at times, but photos are very important to me.  Our refrigerator is covered with photos of important and fun times we have had lately and new babies my friends have had recently.  I think photos are a great way to save a memory and look at it at later time to remember how much fun you were having.  So, if I had to take 3 small items with me, it would be three different photographs.  My brother got married this summer and my entire extended family was able to make it and we have a large family photo of all of us, which never happens!  I would definately take this with me and share it with new people that I may run into. I can show them my family and talk about the fun we were having at my brother's wedding.  The second thing I would take with me is my photo book I just made recently of my boyfriend's and I trip to Italy last year.  It documents everywhere we went and I love showing it to people.   The last group of photos I would take with me is a photo book I made for a girlfriend of mine when she got married a few years back. It is all of our pictures from the time we met in college to her wedding.
    If I arrived and I was only allowed to keep one item, I would choose the family photo from my brother's wedding.  It shows the most important people in my life and is a memory I love thinking about.
   I have realized that a lot of my family culture is tied to the pictures we take.  I come from a close knit family and I am lucky because I see my extended family on a pretty regular basis, which is important to me.  We document all of our moments and share them with each other.  To me, family is extremely important and I feel photographs are a great way to preserve all of the wonderful memories we have together.