Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

      Recently, a prospective parent/client stopped by my facility to make inquiries regarding my school operations, I told her what she needed to know and do, in response she said "good, that's interesting but you have an accent, where did you come from?" I told her that I was born in Nigeria and also asked her if she understood me or needed more explanations. I repeated the highlights of my operations to her and asked her if she has questions. She said she understood me and will decide and get back with me. She left.


     I decided to focus on the issue being the operations of my facility instead of accent. I am aware of the fact that accent is a relative term. Instances of accents abound in the United States from the eastern, western, northern, southern and central regions which have different accents. Therefore, operation of my facility was the focus of our discussion and not accent. The way she presented the issue of accent was very belittling to me. While reflecting on microarression this week I was able to learn that they happen more often than we think and in many forms of settings. So I need to be aware of my words and actions toward others.

PERSPECTIVE ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

For this week’s blog assignment I asked three (3) of my friends what they understand by culture and diversity.

Chinese Friend: She said their culture has a lot to celebrate from Chinese New Year which they cherish, and to the art. People use different signs and gestures to communicate but in another culture they convey different meanings. For instance Chinese people cross their hands to mean they are paying attention but in another culture it might mean being rigid.

Indian Friend: She said she liked to see the uniqueness in every individual. Most of her people have different religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity and they love their music, silk sari, and bright colorful clothes for wedding. They have different types of dances that make them different from other people.

Jamaican Friend: She said they have rich culture in their history, music and food. They have multi-racial group and people from different nations.

Diversity can be described as groups of people from different backgrounds, races, cultures, and religions.

Diversity can also include experiences and circumstances amongst human beings such as economic and social statuses and creates classification to social identification that helps us recognize similarities and difference within a group.

Listening and understanding more about people’s culture and diversity make me eager to learn more about other people. Now I understand more about the unique differences which we a ll possess in our own ways. After the evaluation I realized that everyone has similar idea about what culture or diversity meant. So culture is our way of life, the way we raise our children, tradition, religion, and what we eat.

MY FAMILY CULTURE

If I were to be evacuated to another country and I could only take three representatives of myself and my family I would be so devastated. Most of the things that I hold dear are not physical things, but traditions, my beliefs, practices and my religion. They are with you no matter where you are. The three things that would represent my culture are:

1. My family album that represents our culture with memorable moments like holidays, festivals, family weddings, birthdays, graduations and other memorable events that would help remind and strengthen me of the family I have.
2. My laptop that has downloads of cultural music, some family pictures, scanned documents and stored family recipes.
3. My documents: I will put all my important documents together like birth certificates, and marriage license.

If upon arrival at this new destination and I am told that I can only keep one of these items, this would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do because it is so disappointing to leave a part of oneself and history behind but if I have to choose I would choose my computer because as much as I love my family album which shows my family culture and our family over generations and my documents, my computer has all my documents, and family album which will help prove who I am. 

The insights I have gained about myself include realizing how important  my family, and family culture are less about material things but more about what I stand for, believe about my heritage which are very important to preserve the memories and life history to  be passed down from generation to generation. These are the things that I pass on to my children and they can not be taken away from them. It is absolutely clear that the culture I am passing on to the next generations will make them have a sense of empowerment by their rich culture.

This exercise has led me to think about people who are forced to leave their homes, communities, and counties to start a new life in a foreign country.  They have to learn to adapt to cultural changes, shocks, and adopt new cultural opportunities that are not similar to their own while trying to preserve their own cultures. 

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).

Video: “Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions”
 In this program, three early childhood professionals discuss culture, its nature and scope, including family culture diversity, and introduce ways to provide respect, support, and empowerment when working with Family Diversity.