Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

It was immediately after I had completed my undergrad course entitled “African American History in the 19^th Century” that I first became aware of the acts of microaggression towards African people that brought them and my family to this country after the colonialization period of the 1800’s from Africa that I felt empowered to take charge of my life; tell  my own personal story, live life from  my own cultural perspective; forever wear my own natural hair as a proud symbol of my personal  identity and live by my own choice to be forever free from the dominate culture’s distortions.  

“All my life I had to fight” (Walker, 1982) the myths about my culture and somehow, I never believed that my culture wasn’t as intelligent, as beautiful or as articulate as the dominant culture. My grades were great. I had earned some spelling-bee awards for being one of  the best spellers in the city, then state and I was offered the choice of taking one of two tests for High School—Girls High, one of the top college bound schools in Philadelphia and Murrell Dobbins, one of the top vocational schools.

My mother encouraged me to take the vocational school and come out with a skill that she said would guarantee a way for me (a female) to take of myself, in case something ever happened. So, I chose the vocational school and became a respected Secretary/Administrative Assistant in the field of business. I married shortly after High School. We bought a two-bedroom house and I bore two children, spaced 5 ½  years apart. After another 5 years, I divorced my husband but the most important lesson I’ve learned through this journey is that after I graduated High School, I felt empowered. After my marriage, I felt empowered. After we bought a house, I felt empowered. After the children were born, I felt empowered. After the divorce, I felt empowered because like my mother noted, I was able to take of myself and my children. I still feel empowered today--both my children are grown now. Both, have decided to continue their post-secondary education and as graduate student, I still feel empowered to tell my own story and walk towards my own dream of becoming the educator who is committed to eradicating the chains of classism, racism, the myth of the culture of poverty by continuing to make a meaningful contribution to the lives of preschool children, from birth to 8 years, where it can really make a difference.  

Reference

Walker, A. (1982), The Color Purple,             retrieved from

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/542253-all-my-life-i-had-to-fight-i-had-to

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

What is your definition of culture?

Relative 1 (female):                 Culture is the practices or rituals that are taught.

Relative 2 (male):                    Culture is your background; where you come from.

Family Friend (female):          Culture is understanding where people come from.

What is your definition of diversity?

Relative 1 (female):                 Diversity is putting different people together in one

place.

Relative 2 (male):                    Diversity is accepting everybody’s differences

Family Friend (female):          Diversity is not necessarily agreeing with but being  

accepting of other peoples’ differences.

A cultural group’s practices and rituals can be thought of as a group’s surface culture or the  things people on the outside of the group can easily see, taste and define such as a groups costumes, holidays, food and historical artifacts. In addition, an understanding of where a group’s background and their ancestors are from can be thought of as a culture’s deep culture such as their language, their values, their ideas on education, their gender and children roles, their connections to the community and  their religious beliefs, etc. (Derman-Sparks, 2010).    

According to the responses I received, diversity is not necessarily agreeing with but putting people together in one place and being accepting of other peoples differences  such as their race, gender, age, abilities, disabilities, their language, social class, economical level, their ethnicity and national origin, their religious and spiritual practices, their sexuality and after considering the examples, I found all the responses to be on-target and somewhat inclusive of all the ways culture and diversity can be explained (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008).    

References

Derman-Sparks, L., Edwards, J.O. (2010).Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and

Ourselve. pp. 56–60.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in Early Care and Education. Boston, MA: McGraw 

           Hill. 5th ed., pp. 8–1. 

My Family Culture

          For my simulation exercise, the three items I choose to take with me to a foreign country are: a picture of my childhood family; a picture of my mother’s childhood family and a picture of my dad’s childhood family.

Assuming that my current family is with me in this new place, I would explain to others like the immigrant children did in the article entitled “How Immigrant Children Enlightened Their Teachers with a Camera” that these pictures are my mother’s childhood family, my father’s childhood family and my mom, my dad and my sisters and brothers. I would then explain the rules my mother set for us to follow and why. I would also explain that my mother was in charge of the family unit and my dad always stood behind her in a kind and gentle way.  I would also share our birthday and graduation celebrations and how my mom would cook a big one pot dinner and everybody—my aunts, uncles and cousins would come over to celebrate during those times. I would also share how my mom would make a covered dish and take it to her friends and family’s house in times of weddings, graduations, newborn babies, christening celebration and they would laugh and dance together. During difficult times, my mother would also cook and take a covered pot over to friends and family’s house and they would cry and hug together.  On holidays, we would all rotate the cookout location. There was always music, food and fun. I would also talk about my sisters and brothers and how we got in trouble together and the things my mother did to compensate for a friend or families mishap. I know I would have so much to share—who my siblings and I look like; how many children we each have; how many children we each have; who they look like and what they are doing in life.

If I could only take one picture however, I would choose my mom’s childhood family because I for some reason still hold her so close to my heart. She was a loving, caring person who worked tireelessly to  take care of her family after she and my father divorced. Like a momma bear, she left no stone unturned ad she left a wonderful model of self-respect for her daughters to follow.  I’ve learned that a family unit can be large or small—the size doesn’t really matter. The fact is the family unit is what sets the foundation for its individual members and no matter how different we all are, we all need our family to affirm us and teach us how to grow into productive citizens in the world. I’ve also learned that a family unit can have various types of leaders at the helm – there could be a heterosexual male and female; a single mom or dad; a gay or lesbian couple or single parent, etc. but,  all families have rules, roles, boundaries, hierarchy, climate and equilibrium (Christian, 2008).  

References

Christian, L. G. (2006). Understanding families: Applying family systems theory to early

     childhood practice. Young Children, 61(1), 12–20.

Keat, J. B., Strickland, M. J., & Marinak, B. A. (2009). Child voice: How immigrant

      children enlightened  their  teachers with a camera. Early Childhood Education

      Journal, 37(1), 13–21.

Reactivating My Blog for Perspective Diversity & Equity

    I am so open to considering this class to be a new beginning of another way of looking at the

world. I am already finding the videos and articles very interesting and I can't wait to our 

sharing of ideas and comments together via our blogs.........