Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Microaggressions happen to people everyday regardless if there intentional or unintentional.  When communicating with other's we need to be aware of and sensitive to other's feelings and background.  Recently I witnessed a microaggression occur between a husband and wife.  My husband and I were invited over to another couple's house for dinner with other couples.  Before dinner the couple who was hosting the dinner was showing us a room they recently painted.  Knowing the wife painted the room herself, a comment was made by one of the other couples stating "You did a nice job painting this room."  The husband replied. "Yeah it turned out pretty good, considering a girl did it."  This is an example of a microaggression against a girl because of her gender.  Although it was a harmless comment made by her husband, it still suggested that a woman is inferior to a man when it comes to painting.  Normally I would take this type of comment simply as a bad joke however, after learning about microaggressions I recognize this situation as such.

Things that I noticed this week when looking for microaggressions, was that there seemed to be a lot of settle occurrences.  All of the microaggressions that I noticed were based on typical stereotypes that many people have.  Many of these times I would not have noticed, but when simply looking for them it was obvious.  While people are not intentionally trying to hurt other's feelings, it is important that we all think about consequences of our comments. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Learning what others definition regarding diversity and culture was interesting and inspiring.  When asking my brother in law who is Hispanic he mentioned that culture relates to your ethnicity, traditions, and values.  To him diversity is the differences that lies among us.  My friend who is married to someone of a difference race said that culture is basically who you are and how you relate to your traditions, beliefs, and family.  She said that diversity is the difference between people and the way they think or act about certain issues.  My co-worker stated that culture is all the the things that make you who you are and the decisions you make.  She said diversity consists of the difference between different ethnic groups.

Many of the things these people used to define culture and diversity relates to what we have been learning about in this course.  I have heard many times that culture is what makes us who we are.  I have also learned that ethnicity, traditions, values, family, beliefs are also related to culture.  Everybody touched on pieces on diversity which include the differences between one another.

Overall, they gave brief explanations regarding culture and diversity.  They only touched the surface with regards to the both of these topics. While they noticed the obvious characteristics of culture and diversity they didn't mention the more subtle aspects of culture and diversity such as the differences of opinions and the differences in interests. 

This assignment made me realize that many people view culture and diversity in very basic terms without having a deeper knowledge of what culture encompasses.  It is important to understand not only what culture and diversity is, but what it means to you. 

My Family Culture

When you going through a catastrophic event the most important thing to me would be family.  As long as I had my family I know that everything else would fall into place eventually.  If I were to be moved to an unknown country the three items in addition to my family and change of clothes would be my Bible, family album, and my family cookbook.  I would share with others that my faith and my relationship with God is my first priority in life.  My Bible is one of my most valued possessions that I hold dearly.  I live my life through my Bible and I reference it often to help get through difficult times.   The second item I would take is an album with family pictures.  This album represents my family and the history where I come from.  My family is a big part of who I am and feel truly blessed.  The third item I would take is my family cookbook.  This cookbook is filled with recipes from my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, aunts, and cousins.  These recipes are staples at every family gathering and is something that I would like to continue using to represent my family culture. 

If I was told that I could only keep one item, I would choose to keep my Bible.  As difficult as it would be, my faith is my foundation and with that, I could lean on God to face any struggle and begin to build a new life for myself and my family. 

As culture is important, and would hate to loose many of things that make me who I am, I also realize that my culture and my values are instilled in me and would go with me wherever I went.