Microaggression Awareness

During this week, I observed an incident of microaggression.  While driving to Thanksgiving to spend the day with my in-laws, my husband stated that he was feeling unsuccessful because of his place of employment.  My mother responded to him, "well, I used to feel that way all of the time, but I just put up with it".  While my mother's intentions were not negative, I explained about our learning about microaggression.  I explained to both of them, that while there was no malice in what she was saying, it still made my husband feel invalid.  It made him feel that his concerns were of no consequence. 

She apologized, which was not the reason I was telling her about it.  I wanted both of them to understand that although we are all challenged, it is important to listen to another's perspective.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

What does culture mean to you?  This was the question that I asked three different people.

- Culture is about your family. Diversity is the celebration of differences in others.- 36 yr. old middle class bi-racial male

- Culture is my community, and friends.  Diversity is differences in a community, and knowledge of that difference.- 22 yr. old upper class Caucasian female

- Culture is everything about my history, my family, my community, and my future.  When I was growing up, diversity was not accepted.  It wasn't until the mid-1960s that people of different backgrounds were socially permitted to co-exist. - 69 yr. old middle class Caucasian female.

I look at these answers and think to myself about diversity and culture.  I believe that each person made valid points in their definitions of both.  However, I believe much of this is surface culture.  According to Derman-Sparks and Edwards, "deep culture is language, migration, gender roles and connections" (2010).  This is the way that we should interact with the children we serve.

I believe that listening to others' beliefs about diversity and culture proved to me that perople really don't understand the importance of these topics.  I feel that there is still so much to leran. I appreciated the point that was made by the older generation, that we have begun to break the ice in celebrating diversity.  We still have a long way to go.

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).

Cultural Possessions

I'm asked to imagine the following scenario:


A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

This is a very difficult question for me to answer.  If my immediate family and I were some of the only survivors left in my culture and I had to choose three things to take with me I would probably take the following things:

1. My laptop- Most of my pictures are saved on my laptop computer.  My family tree information is saved on my computer as well.  Additionally, this would give me access to the world outside of the local culture.  It would allow me to obtain information from the internet, and even give me the ability to translate information into a new language.  Furthermore, I would be able to access information that would help stay abreast of the situation, and continue learning.

2.  My engagement ring- My ring is part of my culture because the diamond solitaire is actually from my mother's wedding ring, and it means a lot to me.

3. My Nook- I love to read, and my Nook has copies of my favorite books on it.  Additionally, it has games for my daughter to play on it.

If by chance I was told upon arrival that I was only allowed to keep one, I would choose my laptop.  The most important thing would be that my family was safe.  Any materials possessions are not that important, but if I had to choose, I would choose the laptop for all of the reasons listed above.

I guess what I have learned about my own culture in this exercise is that I depend a lot on technology outside of my family.  It surprises me more than I thought.  I never considered myself an extremely technical person, but I realize now how much of my daily activities and those of my culture revolve around technology.