Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

Purposeful, unintentional, implied, or blatant microagressionism can be hurtful to the victim of those thoughts and words. Personally I have experienced multiple situations of microagression, however most of them I do feel the insult was unintended and seen as a friendly “joke”.

My Experience

Growing up and even into adulthood I have experienced racial microagression. It started to feel like regardless of where I went, who I was with, no matter how hard I tried to fit in with my peers I got the same burning question asked…” What are you?” I am put aback by this rude question every time I am faced with it. “What are you?” What exactly are they asking me, do they mean who am I, all these feelings run through my mind, yet I end with the same result… just let it go Frances, they don’t mean it in a rude or mean way. Coming from a mixed culture and being a Mixed-American, I was never black enough, white enough, or even Native American enough to truly be accepted by either of the groups. Now, however, I began to realize the questions were paired with comments such as, “your hair is so pretty, your skin tone is beautiful, I wish I looked like you,” but my listening normally stopped right after they asked that dreaded question, “What are you?” I have opened my heart, mind, and ears to understanding the people are asking questions to get to know me better and see if they can relate more to me as a person, they are not asking to hurt my feelings or make me feel like I am a “What” rather than a “who”.

 I being from southern Louisiana and from a predominately white demographic area, I have experienced out right racism, while also experiencing microagression. After learning about microagression I am now able to understand more clearly that some statements or words do not have to be meant or intended to hurt or be rude. I can now relax a little and listen to the rest of the conversation before shutting down and getting offended.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

1.    Samantha-

·       Culture- a person’s foundational belief system based in/on their religion, morals, and values.

·       Diversity- a group that have minor similarities and more differences; but can coexist seamlessly

2.  James-

·       Culture- A family’s entire being from raising their children to jobs and anything else a family would do as a unit.

·       Diversity- various cultural groups

3.  Veronica-

·       Culture- the way a group of people live

·       Diversity- multiple groups of people that have different cultures.

 

Reflection:

During this course I gained a better understanding of what each other terms: culture and diversity, meant. Mirroring the collective opinions of my family and friends, I learned culture means what a single groups stands for including religion, morals, values, traditions, and lifestyles. I automatically think about cultural invisibility comes to mind when thinking about examples of culture and diversity. People are so consumed with their personal ideas and beliefs that they are blind to their uniquenesses.

When interviewing friends and family about culture and diversity I feel they omitted their person thoughts and examples of how culture and diversity have effected them. They were focused on defining the term and not really going pass their assignment.

I was enlightened mostly by others definitions of culture and diversity. I had similar views and definitions about bother terms, but was surprised how deep they got with their ideas and thoughts about the meaning of the words. I have definitely opened my mind about the meanings and deeper understanding of culture and diversity.

 

My Family Culture

•If I was forced to select three personal items that could effective represent my family and our culture, I would first choose a cross statue. This cross has been passed down through about 3 generations and now lives with my mother waiting to be passed down to one of the next group of children. The cross represents our family’s faith and religious back ground. It is a clear symbol of what we believe, our values, and what we find important in life. The second item I would want to bring would be my hand-made Native American Chief sculpture. My great-grandmother created this sculpture and has also handed it down through generations. This items embodies our cultural background and family legacy. It shows the pride and strength of a family and an entire ethnic group that refuses to die. The last item I would

select a huge family photo album, which holds hundreds of pictures throughout many years and represents our family. For every family event from wedding, births, and baptisms to barbeques and family reunions we take loads of pictures and put them all in one book.

•I would most likely be devastated if I had now give up two of my three treasured items after we arrived in our new country. It was hard enough selecting three, and to have to be told I would have to limit it to one would be heart breaking. All three of those items have their own significance to my family and me.

•I really set down and thought about all the important things and symbols that could represent our family as a whole and noticed it was actually hard and confusing. Something that I think or hold as important or symbolic someone else in my family might not have the same feelings.  I also found myself looking for items that could show different segments of our culture, from religion, family lineage, and family heritage. I think I did a pretty good job narrowing my entire being into three items, even asking my parents if the items were good and appropriate (which they agreed).