Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week’s coursework has heightened my awareness that there are times when verbal behaviors create feelings of uncertainty, inferiority or marginalization even though no offense was consciously intended. Such behaviors are called microaggressions (Course Media, WK 4).

 

My personal experience with microaggressions or with having witnessed microaggressions came to mind after I studied this week’s resource materials.  Several years ago, I went out to dinner with some colleagues after attending a training session in Denver, CO.  There were six of us and I was the only African American.   As I was looking over the menu, one of my colleagues said “You won’t find any Hog Chitterlings on the menu.”  After laughing, he added “Why do y’all eat that stuff, don’t you know it holds the hog’s bowels?”  Before I could respond, another colleague spoke up and said she loved Chitterlings and that he shouldn’t “knock them until he has tried them.”  Another of my colleagues said he liked them, also and that his mother often prepared them every New Year’s dinner.  They realized how insensitive his remarks were and tried to defuse the situation as I tried hard to not show my anger at his remarks.  This colleague had been so kind to me all week during the training sessions.  We had worked closely together on group projects during the week and I had not detected any signs that he was racist or bias.   I don’t believe he really meant any harm, but was probably just trying to be funny.  Never the less, his remarks infuriated me and I believed they were made because of my race and southern heritage. 

My insensitive colleague displayed the characteristic of racial microaggressions that is most harmful, including the two that I learned about this week, microinsults and microinvalidation.  According to this week’s course media, they are unintentional, subtle, and invisible to the perpetrator, outside the level of awareness. And as a result, the person never has the ability to self-correct, because they are unaware that they have engaged in something that is harmful, oppressive and detrimental to the person of color or to other individuals that represent what we call marginalized groups in the society.  If we are to overcome bias stereotyping, intimate contact must occur, not just transitory, superficial contact (Course Media, WK 4).  

Reference

Course Media: "Microaggressions in Everyday Life"

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Attending a birthday celebration for my deceased father (it is part of my family culture to continue to have birthday celebrations for our dear loved ones, even after they have passed away) provided me the opportunity to talk to a variety of family and friends about their perspectives on diversity and culture.  After everyone got over the amazement of me going back to school after over 30 years since I last attended, we really had some interesting conversations about culture and diversity.

I will reflect on the definitions I received from my 14 year old granddaughter, a retired school teacher and a bi-racial couple (the husband was Black and the wife was White).

My14- year old granddaughter defined culture as “Culture is like… the way we are because of how our parents raised us and taught us about different things. For instance, eating chitterlings and Black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day; always hold your head high and look people straight in their eyes when you talk to them; go to church on Sundays; say your prayers every night before going to bed; respect old people; and don’t talk back to your parents or you’ll get a spanking.  There is a lot more to culture because it’s like a we lot of rules that your family teach you about how to be and conduct yourself.”  She said that diversity is difference, doing things different from others, being different from others, just like a rainbow that is different colors, yet beautiful.

The retired African American school teacher said that race, ethnicity, religion, and economic status are some characteristics of culture but not necessarily what culture is.  Cultured is patterns of behavior that are passed from one generation to the next that people draw on, consciously or subconsciously, as they live their lives.  Culture is so broad; it’s a person’s beliefs, their values, their customs, it is a system that gives meaning, happiness, and direction to life.  She defined diversity as the inclusion of different types of people or people of different races or cultures.  To sum it up, it is a condition of having or being composed of differing elements.

The bi-racial couple seemed to be in agreement on their perspectives about culture and diversity.  They both agreed that everyone is affected by many cultures and that they find themselves rejecting some parts of one culture and accepting some parts of others and cultures change as people change.  Culture is the traditions, beliefs and values instilled in us at an early age by our parents and loved ones.  Any group of people may have its own values, customs, the way they dress, the food they eat and assumptions… culture really do not have to only be taught by your parents.  They defined diversity as difference and having different cultures respect each other's differences.  

In conclusion, all aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received.  Thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics in terms of realizing just how enormously interesting and complex the subject is.  Culture affects every action and every thought.  Cultural assumptions affects everyone, even unconsciously.

My Family Culture

My Family Culture

 

Imagining that my immediate family and I are among the survivors of a catastrophic event would give me more reason to praise and thank God for his mercy and grace upon my family.  It would not matter that we would become refugees in a country whose culture is different from my own, as long as we were all together.  In the event that I could only take three items with me, it would be my laptop, bible and flat-irons for my hair.

 

First, I would take my laptop because it stores all of my family pictures, favorite music, recipes collected from my family members, and it provides an avenue to get in touch with other family, regardless of where they are located in the world.  It contains links to everything that I hold dear.

 Second, I would take my bible.  The heart of my family culture is centered on our Christian beliefs.  My family instilled Christian values in me at an early age and I did the same for my children.  Although I have the old and new testaments loaded on my laptop, I still prefer the family bible my father passed on to me.  I remember when my father purchased that bi bible over 50 years ago.  He took the time to complete the sections that contained information about our Family Tree, including birthdays and names of family members I had never met.  It contained hi-lighted areas of verses that meant a lot to him.  He passed away three years ago and I considered myself very fortunate to acquire this bible because it meant so much to him.

 Aside from the aforementioned items, the only other thing I probably would take with me would be my flat irons.  I know this probably has nothing to do with my family culture, except that all the women in my family take pride in their hair and we’re always getting together to do each other’s hair.  I have been known to forget a lot of things whenever I travel, but my flat irons have never been one of them.

Imagining that upon arrival in my new country that I could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two, the item I would keep would be my laptop.  Keeping my laptop would better serve my family and me in a new country because of all its capabilities.

The insights I gained about myself, my family culture, diversity, and cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise are as follow:

·         My family culture is less about material items and more about values, traditions, and spirituality that are instilled within me.

·         When you are blessed to survive a major catastrophe along with your loved ones, it doesn’t matter how different a culture is from your own, what matters is being thankful and proud of your own culture and being respectful.