Week 4: Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week I had to rack my brain about an incident because I just have not been in a micro-aggression situation. Therefore, I will discuss an incident that happened to a friend. We all went to a night club and it was about six of us. They had a dress code and so that was followed and we went in to find a table. We had not been in there a good two hours before one of our friends was being asked to leave. Now, we were all together but our friend, who is six feet and very dark, black man. He happened to be dancing and we saw the commotion because we had a table that faced the dance floor. Keep in mind, we had not been there long and he had been in our view the whole time. We went over to see what was going on and they just wanted him to leave. We all left but after just getting there, we were dumbfounded about the whole situation. In our opinion, he was sized up but was a case of mistaken identity because we had just got there and we were all laughing and together. There was no way he could have done anything. This can be put in the category of micro-invalidation, which “is considered to be the most insidious form because it invalidates a person’s differentially reality” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011, Video). He felt they were picking on him because he was a tall, dark-skinned man. He was very hurt about it because we all knew but especially he knew, which made it worst. He was a target of a stereotypical incident. The reason why we know this is true, because we went back a couple more times and he had to leave most of those times to where we have not even been back. He has not been targeted, since, in any other club.

My observation of this incident was a stereotype incident because the club was a predominantly Caucasian type atmosphere. Unfortunately, they saw him as a troublemaker, I guess, but he is so harmless. His dad is African but he was born in America but he is extremely dark and so he gets picked on. Dr. Sue (2011) stated, “Most people of color will ask themselves, is this really happening to me” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011, Video) and it can be a very painful incident for one to go through, especially a black man, because it takes them back to terrible times in history. Racism is not good at all.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved September 24, 2014, from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_5572146_1%26url%3D

WEEK 3 BLOG: PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

WK 3 BLOG

I asked three different individuals, who range from age 18 to 36, what were their definitions of culture and diversity is from their own standpoints. One individual stated, “Diversity is many people combined into one tradition for many people. Culture is a lot of different people and ideas in one place”. The second individual stated, “Diversity is the different characteristics within a group of people, such as race, gender, financial background, educational level, etc. Culture can be one’s own values and morals, as well as, a person surrounding beliefs, where the different races, economic level and environment can influence their culture”. The last individual stated, “Diversity is a different group or kind of people and environment, as well as, can be a mixture of people in one area. Culture is a way of living or lifestyle or what one is used to living”.

From receiving their answers, they all seem to revolve around the same answers for the most part. Diversity was many people dwelling in one group and what each one would bring within the group, which made things diverse. It could range from their race, gender, educational levels, economic statuses, etc. the cultural aspect was the way each person may decide to live depending on what they had been exposed to along the way, which influenced the way they may what to live or how they decided to belief was the way they believed as a person. Each person I asked seem to focus on the deep culture aspect to represent their definitions, such as “a person’s community connection, gender roles and values” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 56).

Neither person named anything that most people would name, which mostly represented the tip of the iceberg or the surface culture. Some examples would be “artifacts, costumes, foods or the holidays” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 56). This shocked me because this is the first things that most people think about when asked those two questions. They all were on the right track, in my opinion, although their definitions were short and to the point. I would have definitely liked for them to expand on their definitions but I did not want to persuade them in any way. I just wanted their first reactions to the given questions.

The definitions given by each person made me realize that as we grow, we use want we are exposed to each day to eventually gravitate to the true person we will become in adulthood. Although we are influenced greatly by our family cultures, which is the first culture we are exposed to from birth. We will continue on to school age, which is where we exposed even more to how the dominant culture states is the correct way to be in society and definitely tells us what will be accepted by most individuals. This will have an individual questioning most of what we were taught, especially if different than the teacher or the dominant culture. We have to adjust to maintain functionality within each situation. In my opinion, as we grow older, each experience will help us become the best we can be to succeed in the life we are dealt.

Reference

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). Retrieved September 18, 2014.

Week 2: Family Culture

First of all, if I were told that I had to evacuate with minimal belongings and did not know where I would end up, I would scared out of mind for me and all family members –here and far away. I would be having an anxiety attack and would have to get a hold of myself for my children and family. Although due to many sad incidents, I have lost my son and have lost many valuable pictures and items; so I have tried not to get too attached to material items. Nevertheless, if I had to choose only three objects to take with me, I would, first, choose to bring my photo album because I would not be returning to the life I once knew so I would want to keep those visual memories near me. Second, I would choose to bring my cell phone. Although it is not a family item, this would be a way that I could keep in contact with my friends and family, who may have their outlet of communication. Assuming there would be coverage wherever I would end up, I would be able to stay in touch with whomever at all times. I know that this is not an item that most will not choose to bring because it does not have any valuable significance to one’s heart. Last item I would bring would be my laptop so that I could keep up with what was going on in the world and I could save valuable, helpful information, such as new pictures that we would make with one another in our new location. I know it seems like I am all about technology and nothing is dear to my heart but losing my son has changed the way I really view material objects but that is a whole other story.

Since choosing my items and explaining why I chose them, I arrive to my area only to be told to choose one of the three items to take with me and I am devastated again. So I guess I would have to choose my cell phone because I would definitely want to be able to stay in contact with my friends and family and actually hear their voices. I know that I could probably have a face-to-face conversation on the laptop but my older family members do not know how to work a laptop good enough to have me feel secure with keeping in contact with them on it. Although I would be sad with having to part with my beloved pictures, I would know within that I would always have my memories of whatever had been captured on each picture.

An insight that I have gained is that we are all a part of a family culture that helped mold who we are as a person. We took those lessons taught by our family members and used them to mingle with others, such as friends or peers, in different social settings, such as school, the neighborhood or random “get-together”. From absorbing other's cultural influences and using the ones that we feel can compliment what we already claims as our own anyway, we take those and mesh them all together to function in a society -that has been influenced for so long by the dominant culture. In a nutshell, we –as humans do whatever we have to do to survive as well as excel in life to be considered successful, even if it is measured by the “dominant culture’s scale of success”.