Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I was on the hunt this week...the hunt for micro aggressions. At first, I thought, wow this is going to be hard, but it only took one evening of television watching for me to see an instance.

It happened on the season premier of Survivor. The tribe is sitting around the fire getting ready to vote someone off, and one of the people makes a comment about how one of the guys (a gay man) is trusted more because he is "just one of the girls". The host of Survivor interjected and asked if that was because he was gay..

Now, I can only assume that the person didn't mean malice or harm by her uninformed comment, or maybe the bright lights of the Survivor jungle were making her nervous. Regardless, she made a statement that could cause harm (albeit unintended harm) to the other person. A typical definition of micro aggression.

In this day and age I think that as a society we take our whit, humor and sarcastic nature too far. What can be seen as a "joke" can be truly offensive to someone else, and cause them harm. As a whole, I think we all should take a moment and think before we speak and look at the unintended consequences of our words.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I took time to call and speak with three different people in my life to get their opinion and question them about culture and diversity. I spoke with my mom, a colleague who is the director at another center, and parent at my school.  These three women represent diversity in my life, from age, to religion, to geographical location.

Becky (mom):
What is your definition of culture: Culture, for me, is the network of beliefs and aesthetics and values that each of us builds around ourselves and our family.
What is your definition of diversity: Diversity is all the networks that each of us builds, each different and unique.

Elsie (colleague):
What is your definition of culture: Culture is a specific way of living/being typically in a group. Most times in a specific culture (I'm thinking of religion here), people tend to think their way is the best way, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does narrow people's views on outside ideas and views.
What is your definition of diversity: Diversity is a group of people from different backgrounds, including race, sex, and religion. Personally, I feel diversity is how society survives, without change and people of different backgrounds coming together we would be in a stagnate way of life without excitement or adding growth to our life.

Stefanie (parent):
What is your definition of culture: I define culture as the base of family values and traditions. The culture of a person is determined by their individual beliefs, heritage, religion, etc.
What is your definition of diversity: Diversity is what makes each of us different, yet brings differences together.

The three women that I spoke to are all educated, but represent diversity and culture in their own ways. Their definitions are similar to what we have been studying in our course this week. We have learned that culture is unconscious, sometimes invisible, and is a part of every person. Each person I interviewed had a similar definition, but it reflected their individuality. I would have to say that I agree with each of their definitions, and respect what each of them had to say.

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

This is a tough blog to write this week! Thinking about completely being displaced into a new environment is a scary thought. The items that I would take that would appropriately represent my family culture would be: 

• A family photo--depicting my entire family at our last vacation to New Mexico
• My Grandmother's engagement ring
• My families' genealogy

Explaining to others what these items mean to me and my culture would be relatively simple. The family photo speaks for itself. It would be a representation of those that I have with me, and those that have potentially been displaced into other parts of the world. My Grandmother's engagement ring is a family heirloom that means so much to me, and would be more of a keepsake and remembrance of her. My genealogy and family history would be important to me moving forward, and might help me and future generations to understand our background regardless of where we ended up. I would be able to explain to others what my background is--which is quite diverse. 

Giving up two items--in the case that I wouldn't be able to keep all 3--would be devastating! With only 3 items to keep my families' history alive it would be very hard to let any of them go. 

This exercise has really made me think about what is important to me, and my family, and I think has exposed that history and memories are what drive my family culture. 

This situation is less than ideal, however, has happened many times in history. From the Holocaust to the relocation camps of Japanese Americans, many families have been displaced and forced to leave their homes, family's and culture behind.