Awareness of Microaggressions

Several years ago, I lost about 35 lbs. I worked hard. I watched what I ate and exercised regularly. It was a life changing experience for me.  I have a friend who constantly makes comments to me about being “thin and blonde”.  She is tall and dark haired and her body structure was bigger.  When we would go out together for dinner or drinks and were approached by men, she would always assume they were interested in me because I was “thin and blonde”.  She always made these comments in a joking manner but afterward I always felt uncomfortable and more self-conscious about myself. She was committing a microaggression about my physical appearance. She assumed that because I was “thin and blonde” that was “lucky in love”.  When the reality was that I had gone through several bad relationships and my appearance had nothing to do with it.  There were many times when she made comments to me and I didn’t say anything. Eventually, I had enough of feeling bad about myself and told her how her comments were making me feel.  She didn’t realize how her words were impacting me and she made an effort to stop. I think it is important to have an open dialogue with people about microaggressions and how to eliminate them.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked my husband, sister and co-worker their definition of culture and diversity. Each person had a different perspective.  My husband’s definition of culture is based around a person’s lifestyle.  It is the way they eat, live and their set of beliefs. Diversity is a melting pot of many different cultures to make unique populations of people.  My sister defined culture as a group of people who have similar values and beliefs.  She feels diversity is the opposite of culture. It is the different values and beliefs of people in the same place.  My co-worker defined culture as the encompassment of different groups including work place, ethnicities and religious groups. She believes that people behave differently based on which group they are with.  Diversity is the differences within a culture.  Diversity may connect individuals to their cultural group. 

I think each definition is reflective of the aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied within this course. I think each definition is individual to each person’s life experience.  It is difficult for me to evaluate their definitions of culture and diversity because I see how it is reflective of their own life. 

I think my husband and sister could have been more descriptive in their definition of culture. Within their definition I feel as though they were only describing “surface” culture and could have thought harder into “deep” culture. Obviously, my co-worker is a part of early childhood education and had a solid definition. 

As I said earlier, after listening and talking with each of individual about their definition of culture I could tie in their definition to their own life experiences.  For example, my sister lives in an area that is not very diverse and I believe her definition reflects that. It is important for me to respect individual definitions of culture and diversity and to remember there is no right or wrong answer.

My Family Culture

If a major catastrophe devastated the infrastructure of our country and I could only take three things I would bring a necklace, our family photo album and my journal. I would bring the necklace because my granny gave it to me on my 16^th birthday. It was a gift from my grandpa to her. She is my favorite person in the world and very important to me. I would bring our family photo album because it has pictures from both my husband and I’s childhood, pictures from our wedding, pregnancy and baby. The photo album represents our history and our future! Finally, I would bring my journal. This journal was written to me while my mom was pregnant with me. She talked about her feelings, thoughts, fears and excitement about being pregnancy and having a baby. She gave it to me at the beginning of my pregnancy and I wrote to my son while I was pregnancy. When he is old enough he will be able to read about his grandma being pregnant and his mom.

            If I was told that I could only keep one of these items I would be very emotional and torn between them all. They each represent a piece of who I am and having to decide which has the most meaning would be difficult.  I think what would help me make the decision would be thinking about my son’s future. I would want to choose the item that would give him a good representation of our family culture and history.

            In June, our city was devastated by a fire. Our city was on fire for days. Hundreds of houses burned and thousands of people were evacuated. Many of my friends’ had minutes to evacuate their home and gather important papers and keepsakes. Thankfully, we were not evacuated but we were on notice. During that time, I had to decide what to bring with me in case we were evacuated. These items were the ones I packed first. When I read this assignment I knew my choices right away. Those things can never be replaced and strongly represent what is important to me, my FAMILY!