Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

After completing this week’s discussion board post and talking with my family and friends, I have been bothered by a micro-aggression that I believe was completely intentional. Here is the scenario:

Susan, who is white, attends a staff party at the day care where she works. She is looking for one of her  coworkers, Denise. The two women like each other a lot and often attend social  events together. Susan spots Denise with a group of other employees who, like  Denise, are black. They are talking animatedly, laughing, and apparently having  a really good time. Susan waves and Denise leaves the group to join her. Susan  sighs and exclaims: “Gee, Denise, why do you people always have to be so loud? Can’t you just calm down like the rest of us?”

I feel as though the micro-aggression was completely intentional and directed specifically at the African American race. If the group of individuals had been a mix of race, would Susan have made that comment? She felt that she needed to belittle Denise and her race based on the fact that she is part of a dominant race. She felt that Denise and her friends needed to be more like the dominant race, rather than loud like she alleges. It is one thing to be loud and talking or having an argument, but to be laughing and having a good time during a staff party, it was the right context and setting to be loud. I would have cut off all ties with Susan after that comment and would o longer associate with her and her ignorance in order to avoid further disagreements.

I felt like it was me being offended rather than it being a simple scenario. I don’t like it when people, especially white people, try to belittle or make African Americans feel less than at any time. White people are just as loud as Black people, so I would have made a big deal over that comment made by Susan. My observation of this scenario affected my perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes of people by making me more aware of micro-aggressions and making myself be more professional in handling these situations. When I was younger, I probably would have responded to this scenario very emotionally and would have wanted to fight. Now, I would use my education and skills to stop individuals from talking.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

          I was able to interview 3 people who have a significant amount of cultural differences than me. These individuals consisted of my husband, my co-worker, and a client that I serve at my second job. I will include the results from the interview with my husband in this post. My husband and I have some significant cultural differences. For one, our genders are different as he is a male and I am a female. Our religion before we became Husband and Wife were different. My husband attended Church of God In Christ as a child and I attended Episcopal churches. We also have a 2 years age difference, and some physical differences. My husband suffered a back injury to his lower back last year and is unable to work. I have no medical issues that I know of and am physically able to do anything.

          When I asked my husband his definition of culture he responded that culture to him is broken down into different religions, races, foods individuals partake, language, where they come from. He also said it is more than what the eye can see. When I asked him what diversity meant to him, he stated that diversity is a set of differences that make up an individual or group of people. He also stated that diversity is both internal and external, meaning that some diversity is not visible to the human eye. Our families have and accept diversity on a daily basis. We have some family members who are mixed with black and white, Italian, Puerto Rican, and we all celebrate something different. We appreciate the diversity because it is what makes our family so unique.

          The aspects of culture and diversity that I discussed in this report and are similar to what I learned in the text are everyone has a different definition to what culture and diversity are. There is no right or wrong answer, but the foundation of these definitions are that each individual will have a different culture or diversity that they will identify with. I was unable to find any aspect that was omitted. Thinking about other people’s definition of culture and diversity have influenced my own thinking because I appreciate that even though my definition and others definition are not identical, we all seek on common goal and that is to embrace and be more accepting of individual differences.

My Family Culture

            If I were ever involved in a catastrophic event where my family was to be evacuated to a country that was completely different than mine, and I could only choose 3 items to take along with me I would take; my laptop, my family photo album, and a weekender bag of BBQ Middleswarth chips.

            My laptop carries a lot of valuable information on it, and my husband is somewhat of a computer genius. I would explain to anyone who inquired why I brought this is to be able to communicate effectively no matter where I am. I would use the computer to learn more about my new culture and find out ways my family and I can adjust and become more comfortable in our new surroundings. I could also learn the native language spoken, if not English, and teach my family how to speak the language so it does not become a barrier. My family photo album is an item I hold near and dear to me. Ii contains pictures of my family who have passed away as well and lasting memories of good times we shared with them while they were alive. I would keep this album as a reminder of the good times and allow it to motivate me to keep pushing forward no matter where my family is evacuated to. I love to look back at all the fun times captured in a single moment. It helps me through tough times and I can foresee this working even in a new part of the world. The weekender bag of BBQ Middleswarth chips is a necessity of mine only because these chips are very limited to the Northern States in the US, so I know that in a foreign country there may not be any. I enjoy eating these chips as an adult and I was introduced to them as a young girl. My daughter loves these chips as well to pass on the tradition of eating these chips would mean more to me than anything.

            I would feel devastated to find out that I could only keep one personal item. I would see if there was a way to give an item to my daughter and to my husband as their personal item, that way we could keep all three since they all have meaning to us. If there was no other way around this protocol, I would probably give up the chips and the laptop. I couldn’t fathom not having pieces of my family that I could look forward to seeing every day.

            An insight I have gained about myself is how materialistic I truly am. This was difficult to sit down and think of only three things I could bring with me. I thought I had a lot of precious items in my home, but after sitting down and thinking about what has meaning, these are the only three things that if anything ever happened I would always bring with me.