Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

One example of micro-aggression that I detected this week:

I was out at the mall and there were some people that were Burmese and the men were wearing what look like wrap around dresses.  I heard some people saying that if they are going to live here in America they should dress properly in pants.

This was a public place that everyone has the right to shop and wear what they feel comfortable in and if it is the way they always dressed than they have the right. It made me mad that those people were so closed minded. Everyone has the right to show pride in their culture and to keep it alive.

My observation of microaggression made me aware we need to be careful of how we are speaking to others because even the best intentions can be insensitive. We need to treat all people with respect to their ways. We are all different and that is what makes us special.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The three people that I talked to all had about the same definition of culture and diversity. My son defined cultural has the beliefs that people have. Diversity he described is the way people are different about their cultural.

My brother-in-law said that culture is that of a person’s race, choice of religion, and how they live. He believes that diversity is what makes you different from others.

The last person I talked to was a friend who is a teacher and he says that culture is a quantity of the life people live. It includes morals, behavior and the principle that is handed down over generations. Diversity is the mixture of all different types of culture and how people live.

I agreed with them all but words that sounded very familiar were beliefs, way of life, action and everything about them.

 

I think that all the information that I received from the answers to the questions are things that I have studied in this class and others. Especially, when it came to the words of their beliefs, their way of life and how they lived and passed it on.

As educators, we need to put our prejudices to the side and focus on the children and families that we work with.  Another thing we need to do is make sure that we are respecting and honoring their background.

In any case regardless of where you are from you will always come in meet someone that comes from a different culture?  It is what makes a person who they are.  It is valuable to know how to interact with people that are different because that is what the world is made of.

 

My Family Culture

During this catastrophic event, I know that I would have to reevaluate my whole lifestyle.  In choosing three things that mean something important to me, I would pick my bible, photo album, and my tweety pillow. I would explain I pick the bible so that I can continue to worship and read the bible with my family. The photo album would be so we can continue to remember those that we have lost but still have one another. Has for the tweety pillow it was the last gift that I got from my husband before he died.

Arriving in a new place and only be able to keep one personal item it would be very hard to pick just one but I would keep the bible and put pictures that were important in it. It would still be counted has one item I hope because of the pictures being in the bible. I would still be heartbroken but having my family being with me would make the move and loss of the other items worth everything.

What I have gained is that I would be able to still continuing living and remembering my culture and where I came from because our family culture is a major part of our identities.