Microagressions

This incident is one I had shared in my reflective journal for this week, but is one that stays with me, so I would like to share it here as well.  My very first year of teaching, I was on the receiving end of a microassault. I had just moved from Michigan to Las Vegas and began teaching at a school in a low-income, mainly African American populated school.  I was team teaching in a first grade room with another first year teacher who was white, like me.  We had a few behavior issues, but, overall, we had a great class.  One of our little girls, who was African American, began being defiant and disrespectful.  I pulled her over one day to speak to her and try to figure out how I could motivate her again.  I asked her what wrong, she looked at me and told me, “My momma told me I don’t have to listen to you white teachers so I’m not going to listen to you.”  I did not know what to say, this poor little girl was just trying to do what her mother told her to do.  I calmly said, “I apologize you mother feels that way and I will speak to her.  For now, I would like for you to sit down and finish your work.”  We scheduled a conference with the mother, who admitted she has told her daughter that.  The mother said she did not trust us as teachers because we were too young and could not understand where “her people” were coming from.  We assured her we wanted what was best for her daughter and would be open-minded with all of our students.  The little girl began to participate more and listen better after a while, but it was a struggle all year.  This incident is something I will never forget.  I was shocked and hurt by the mother’s words to her daughter. 

 

I have done a lot of reflecting on this incident and wonder if I could have done things differently.   Ever since this incident, I have been very careful to be aware of and sensitive to the cultural needs of my students.  I now send home questionnaires with the parents and ask them specific things about their child and family life in an effort to get to know the families better. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

My husband, who was born in England and raised in England and South America, defines culture as the difference between different ethnic groups of people.  How they celebrate, what they eat, how they behave.  He defines diversity as what sets people apart from each other.  

My sister in law, who was born and raised in Michigan, defines culture as the way one group perceives another and defines diversity as the differences in people.  

A colleague of mine, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, defines culture as how we behave and defines diversity as what makes us unique.  

The answer from my friend reminds me of what Nadiyah Taylor stated in our video Family Culture from week 2, “Culture is our way of being in the world” (Laureate, 2011).  This explanation helped cement the meaning of culture in my brain.  The video from week 3, Culture and Diversity, also helped cement the meaning for me.  Before watching the videos, I thought of culture in terms of celebrations, food, customs; the same things my husband stated above.  After listening to Janet Gonzalez –Mena speak in our video, I realized I was only looking at the surface things.  The things that Janet refers to as the “10% of the iceberg you can see”. (Laureate, 2011). 

One thing that was not mentioned by any of my friends/family was the fact that culture is learned from the people around you, something Janet Gonzalez-Mena mentioned in the video Culture and Diversity.  This class has helped me realize this point.  I look back at many of my habits and everyday actions and realize I am my mother to a tee. 

Listening to others define culture and diversity made me realize just how difficult they are to define.  Each person I asked took a couple minutes to think about their answer before they responded.  I enjoyed listening to their various responses and discussing each topic with them. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Culture and diversity. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Family culture: Dynamic interactions. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

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.
Blog about all of the following:

• A description of the three items you would choose
• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you
• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you
• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise

The first item I would bring is our box of family photo albums.  This would be something we could always look back on to help remember the big and little special moments we had in the past.  The second item I would bring is our video camera to help us preserve new memories. We could use it to take videos and pictures of our new experiences and make new memories.  The third item would be a collection of family recipes. Everyone in our family gave my husband and I their favorite family recipe in a beautiful box as part of our wedding gifts.  This is something we can pass on to our children to help represent how food played a role in our family culture.

If I was told upon arrival I could only keep one of the items, I would be devastated.  It would not bother me to give up the video camera, but I would not be able to choose between the family photos or recipes.  They both mean so much to our family.

This assignment made me realize what things are truly important to my family and what we could not live without.