Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions:

My personal experience…

Recently, I went to the post office to send my husband a box of goodies since he is deployed. As I was leaving out of the building, I saw an older, white lady struggling with her packages as she was trying to enter the building. She dropped some of her mail and being the helpful person that I am, I offered her help. Instead of accepting my offer to help her, she yelled at me saying, “No! I don’t need help from a n….. or anyone else like you!” As the target of microaggression, I was shocked because it is 2013 and there are still ignorant, racist people in this world. I did not let it bother me though. In return, I said to her, “Have a blessed day.” There were other people around and they looked at the woman in disbelief and shook their heads in disappointment. When she said “or anyone else like me” I understood that she meant other people of color. As I reflect on this situation/experience, I am truly saddened because there are people who do not know/ don’t care about the impact they may have on another person’s life. Colleagues: What would you have done in this situation?  

Blog Assignment: Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Family Member (African American):

Culture- peoples beliefs and values

Diversity- differences such as race and gender

Friend (Panamanian):

Culture- is about things like foods, clothing, and the ways and reasons things are done

Diversity- a lot of different things

Colleague (Caucasian):  

Culture- refers to the ways different people do different things

Diversity- a variety of things, for example, race

Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

Surface culture- - how cultures are viewed only be what can be seen. (clothing, food, music)

Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

Deep culture - - religion, marriage, gestures, ethics

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

I realized that no matter the race/ethnicity, we all seem to come up with similar definitions of culture and diversity. No one seems to discuss the deeper meanings of those topics.

3 Items: Family Culture

If I had to evacuate to another country and could only bring three small items that represent my family culture with me, I would bring my Bible, family photo album, and video camera.

I would bring my Bible because we are a Christian family that loves the Lord. I would continue to read my Bible to help keep the faith and it will also make me feel at peace. Reading the Bible would help me and my family survive our new journey.

I would bring the family photo album to help remind us of the “good times” we had back at home. We would be able to look at it and remember each other as life goes on in our new place. Remembering family is an important part of our culture.

I would bring a video camera to record our new journey and things along the way. We can use it to create a visual journal of each other. My family enjoys watching old videos from the past. We are thankful that we get to see family members who are no longer with us in those videos.  

If I was told that I can only keep one personal item and give up the other two items, I would feel very upset. I would really feel like my world was ending.

I realized that family is truly important to me considering the items I chose to bring. Family is more important than anything else.