Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week we all learned about microaggressions and it's affects to the people that are it's target. Now that I have become aware of this particular word, it has made me look at my life (past, present and future) to see how these types of situations have come into play in my world.

For this assignment, I had to think back to when I first started work at this particular child care center. There were two other Guyanese workers along side me at this program during that time. One day we had a breakfast celebration for the ending of the school year. I took a glass of orange juice and another co-worker pass me the container of salt. I asked her why she passed me the salt. She stated "Don't you all like it that way". I replied, "What are you talking about?". She took a while before she spoke, she tried to explain and I still did not understand. Then I asked her to just tell me why she made that assumption and she began to tell me a story. 

My co-workers told me she observed one of the Guyanese workers put salt in her orange juice and she asked her why she did that. She told her I like to do that to remove the sour taste. She said I found that very weird because she has never seen anyone do that. She told me when she saw me take  the orange juice, she assumed I would want salt as well because I was like the other worker. I did not feel insulted because I did not feel she was insulting me, just making a conclusion based on what she saw. 

Now that I am aware of this particular term and I can say my co-worker did not intentionally mean to insult me or my racial heritage. She was making an assumption because of her interactions with someone else that shared the same racial heritage as I have. I am not down playing the situation, but I was not offended. I don't know how someone else that is Guyanese would have reacted but I can see how her comment was inappropriate in many ways.

This week's observation experiences has changed my perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping due to the way people can fall prey to these types of insults. Your best friend could hurt your feelings without intending too, or a random person can insinuate a comment that hurts you. People that faces these types of insults are very unlucky and I hope they can be strong enough to stand up for themselves. No one deserves to be judged and insulted for being themselves. This week, I have taken a good look at myself and how my words are affecting the lives of the people around me. 

Being the target of microaggression, is not easy or at all fair, but now that I am aware of how easy it is to become one, I will definitely stand up for myself and any other individual that faces the same scenario. Everyday is a learning experience and I believe that because I am learning so much about myself during this course. 

Different Perspective Views on Diversity and Culture

I choose to ask three professionals from my working environment. Kai Summors is an African American women, who has spent the last 17 years as an early childhood teacher. Maria Vega is a American with Puerto Rican heritage, she has been working in the field for over 13 years, as a babysitter, tutor and now a full time teacher. Marie Arbeeny, is also American with Irish/Italian heritage. She has been teaching for 22 years as an infant toddler head teacher. Marie is a devoted Catholic and celebrate all her important days by going to church.  I choose these three individuals because they are different from me as they were all born here, but what I liked is that they maintain their culture as a part of their every day life. 

Kai Summors

I define culture as a person’s beliefs, traditions and values. For example in my culture it is a tradition for the family to make a quilt to tell the story of our history.

My definition of diversity is acceptance, respect and openness for all people such as women, men, various ethnic groups and people with disabilities.

Maria Vega

Culture to me is the distinct ways in which a particular group of people live. Some of the aspects of culture are language, food, music, religion and holiday traditions.
Diversity is the differences between individuals or groups, whether it be race, color, language, gender, culture or social and economic status and our acceptance of them.

Marie Arbeeny

Culture is a particular form or way of life to which one is born into. Knowing one’s own culture helps with understanding those who are of the same heritage, beliefs, way of life and religion.

Diversity is different forms or ways of life in which people live. Knowing and understanding how people live will help me at work and in life in general. To be aware of our surrounding will help me to understand people.

After reviewing my colleagues responses, I am amazed of how they see culture and diversity. They all define culture as being personal to how they live their own lives. When reading through their definition it is obviously they are aware of the differences and how important it is to accept people. Learning about new cultures provides all of us with more knowledge about our surrounding. One important thing that I learned that relates to my course, is the definition of culture and diversity has its own meaning to everyone. We all know that their are differences out their, but we still value what is unique about us. 

Working in a field with such diversity individuals, allows me to see how everyone values and traditions can be applied in the classroom to benefit our children. I they have encompass all the course work that I have completed so far. They all have their own identities and their culture has helped in defining their identity. After reading through their definitions, my ideas and thoughts are re-enforced about the important of culture and diversity in the world especially when it comes to teaching children. 

I have realized that being open to other's definition gives me more knowledge to experience the world and have a greater impact in the field of early childhood education.

My Family Culture

Facing a major catastrophe in my country that faces me to relocation to another country that is providing refugee will be very difficult. Leaving all my personal belonging and having to pick up and leave would make very sad. Seeing that it is important to save the lives of my family and myself, I would leave right away. Three items that I would take with me is a photo album, tawa and my country's flag. I have chosen these items because they mean a lot to me in order to maintain my family culture.

The flag for me is a symbol of my birth place, and what my countries represents. The flag has five colors that hold symbolic meaning. The green represents the land, the white represents the waters of the country (Guyana is known as the land of many waters). The yellow represent the mineral wealth of the country, the black represents the thrusts that the people have continues to go through to create their independent country. Red represents the zeal and dynamic power of the country to continue to build forward into the future.

The tawa is a piece of cooking equipment. The easiest way to explain it's purpose, is for toasting. It is very similar to a toaster as it purpose it to cook dough. My son and my husband love to eat roti, bake and dumplings which is a main dish for them throughout their daily lives. I could not imagine not having them fulfilled with a reminder of sweet Guyanese style food.

The next item would be a special photo album that I have maintain during my youth. I have pictures of all my family members and I hold this book to be very important. I created this book so I could show my kids their past generation of families. It is important for my kids to know who and where they came from. I also feel it is important to remember what our relative looked like because children's features can be so different or similar to their parents. In my family my son looks like his father but he has a slight resembles to his cousin that he has never met yet. I love to look at old photos and remember how everyone lived at different times and to see how our family tree has grown and developed over time.

Arriving at this unknown place of refugee, and having to face another dilemma of giving up two of my items. I would feel horrible but I honestly believe I would keep my photo album because of it's importance to me and the generations before me. I would have to do my best to adapt to the new country. During this exercise I have begun to think about the value of items in my life. It makes me think of people that lose their homes and all their personal belonging to fires. They have to start over and they do, they build their house again to make new memories. The most important thing to me is having my family around me and that is my culture. Spending my day making my husband and my son happy brings me great joy and gives me my identity as the type of person I want to be seen as. A loving wife and mother , who is full of compassion. I love children and I hope throughout my life I can continue to be a significant figure in the field of early childhood education.