Practicing Awareness of Micro-aggressions

Micro-aggression is the ideas that interact between those that are from different culture, race, or gender. Micro-aggression can be intentional or unintentional towards people of color, people, and so forth. It is a verbal behavior that we use against other people with different background such as sexism racism, classism, and ableism. For example we are dealing with micro-aggression on a regular basis because the thought of interacting with someone from a different background disable us from communicating with no judgment. I have many experiences where people treat me different because I come from a different country. One experience I had is when I went into a store and I was not acknowledged as a valued customer because of two reasons, I was black and I did not dress with my best outfit. The message I get is that white people are more valued customers than back people and also I felt like I did not belong. As an immigrant in the United States I am always a target for micro-aggression because people do not like anything that is different from them. Therefore they behave in a manner that can show they have power over other people that are different from them.

This week course resources help me to a clear understanding of micro-aggression. Dr. Derald Wing Sue discuss five categories on micro-aggression such as social psychology factor associate with micro-aggression, condition needed to prevent micro-aggression, psychological dilemma associate with micro-aggressions, forms of micro-aggressions, and micro-aggression itself.  I learn that micro-assault is a verbal or nonverbal act that takes place to hurt someone else intentionally. In many cases people would make racial comment to target another race. My observation on micro-aggression makes me realize that it is very important to think before we act. For example when Dr. Derald Wing Sue discuss micro-aggressions are brief everyday indignities, it may be verbal behavior or environmental. For this reason I say majority of us are stereotyped against one background. We usually prejudge before we know the whole fact or story regarding an individual’s background.  As a result I learned that it is very important to keep an open mind when interacting with other people that are different from us.

Reference:

Laureate Education (2011) "Micro-aggressions in Everyday Life" (approximate length: 27 minutes) In this program, Dr. Derald Wing Sue presents a lecture about the concept of micro-aggression in everyday life.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The question here is how much do we know about our culture? I do not much about my culture because for the past twenty years I have been living a different culture. I learned that culture is what we make it to be. For example my husband and I have to deal with being from different cultural-backgrounds and our unique ways of doing things. When I ask my mother to defined culture, she said culture is your belief, your values, your likes and dislike. When I think of my husband and I living a collaborated culture, were we put both culture background into practice such as we eat the food we like, the music we listen to, and the thing we value the most, e.g. family. When I ask how would you defined diversity? My mother’s response is that we are living in a diverse environment now were we experience other families belief, values, norms and so forth. I learnt not to ask your parent to help with school stuff because it makes you feel like a kid again.

For the past few weeks I have identified social identities as well as understand family culture. After I spoke with my mother I got a clear understanding on culture. She confirmed what I have learned in my perspectives on diversity and equity course. This course helps me understand the meaning of culture and diversity. For example culture is a strong path of our life and it also influences our views, belief, values, and so forth. For this reason, culture is very important to everyone that shares the same value and belief such as our family and friends. It was nice talking with my mother regarding culture and diversity because when I was growing up my mother was all about status. For example culture is our attitude, our skills, and techniques. Our culture influences our day to day experience.

Overall I had a great experience talking with my mother on this subject because my thinking did not change about culture and diversity. I belief culture is what we make it to be because it is based on the kind of music we listen to, the food we like to eat, and the tradition we follow. All aspects of culture should be considered and understood because we are living in a diverse world where we are interacting with people from all over the world.

My Family Culture

The Haiti culture had its independence in 1807 and the native language is French and Creole. We enjoy eating rice and beans on a regular basis. Right now many children do not attended school due to the lack of funding. In fact most parents are unable to pay for education. This week enhanced my knowledge on family culture. I have lived in the United States for over twenty years and have lost some of my culture tradition. Even though I use to think that my mother still kept a lot of culture tradition, I still do think differently because my social circle is mostly Americans and they have a different culture. I, however feel that they learn about my culture and experience my culture such as eat the food, celebrate New Year’s Day, and so forth.

 When I left Haiti I brought a few things that was dear to me such as pictures of my grandparents, sister, and other family members. The second item was my grandmother recipe book. My grandmother used to make porridge every night before bedtime and that is the only dish I learn how to do well so that I can do it for my children. The third item is the memory of the kind of life I used to share with my grandparents, our value, and what we use to enjoy as a family. Each of this items means a lot to me because they are lifetime memory that I can pass onto my children. The recipe book is something that I can use to show them some of the food that I use to enjoy when I was their age.

If I have to give up any of my items it will be a challenging experience because I do not know if I can give any of my three items. My grandmother’s pictures and her cookbook that she put together mean a lot to me. However if it come to give one up it will be the book not the picture because I want my children to know my grandma. One insight I gain in family culture is that we support each other as well as respect and care for each other. My family take care one another which help them in with any obstacle they face. We believe that together we can achieve any obstacles. Overall it was a great experience learning about family culture and how it can affect our life as individual.