Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

            This week’s observation of microaggression occurred yesterday morning and the statement came from a family member. The family member who made the statement never appeared to be that type of person. I was so surprised, but I made sure to make her aware the statement she made was a prejudice remark. The scenario: I was going to have my hair braided because I wanted less work when I workout.  I knew I would be at the hair solon for at least nine hours, so I acted a family member to drive me to the shop. After arriving at the shop, the family member said, “These Jamaicans just come here and take all of your money just to braid your hair”. I made the statement, “It is an African Hair Braiding shop. She said it is the same thing.  I had to remind her that we are African Americans. I asked her how she feels when others say that all black people are the same. I did not expect an answer; I just wanted her to think about what she said and why she said it.

            This week’s observation allowed me to realize that prejudice exists even when the person is unaware. I also realized the people who experience prejudice and microagressions on a regular basis still have prejudices. They still have prejudice and microagressions against the same type or even race of people. I understand that prejudices run deep and the prejudices are planted deep inside of most people based on society.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

     The assignment for the week was to gather three individual definitions of culture and diversity. We were to include diversity of in the people we select to answer our question. The three people I interviewed and their answers follow:

Stormy is a Caucasian woman in her early thirties. She defined culture as a group of people that are joined together with common beliefs and practices. She defined as the opposite of culture. She said it’s a variety of people with different beliefs and practices.

Qamarah is an African American in her early forties whose religion is Islam. Qamarah defines culture as the characteristics of a group of people, defined by language, religion, food, social habits, music and arts. Diversity is having many different types, forms and ideas.

Joe is a fifteen year old African American male who is a Christian. Joe defines culture as traditions, customs, the way we live, our life style. And he defines diversity as different group of people. 

     Each person I asked to give their definition of culture has included some of what I have learned as about culture and diversity. No one really mentioned the deep culture. No one mentioned language, costume, etc as part of culture. My thinking about culture remained somewhat the same when I think about other people’s definition of and diversity. I began to realize out diversities can lead to the creation of new cultures. An example of the creation of the new cultures is my parents. My mother was raised in the south to a traditional African American family. My father was raised in DC. My mother in father ate different foods and their holiday traditions were different. Some of the foods that they ate on holidays were the same types, but prepared differently. My mom was used to having cornbread dressing, but my dad was used to bread and herb dressing. My dad did not like my mom’s dressing and my mom did not like the type of dressing my dad liked. To make sure that my dad enjoyed the holidays, my mom started making a little of both dressing; However, when we became older by mom combined the two types of dressing. My dad and mom were satisfied with the outcome of the dish. For us, the children, a new tradition/culture was created for our Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday.

My family Culture

           The objective for the week is to reflect on my culture. The question is to think of three small items I would take with me if I was only allowed to take items with me. I begin to think about items. All of the items of great significance I hold close to my heart and reflect my heritage from my maternal and paternal side were large items.  I kept thinking and was able to come up with items that would be portable. One of the items I decided to take an old Bible my maternal grandmother kept. The Bible is not just a bible, but it was a way to document history. The bible is white and on the inside it list family members. Each entry includes a page labeled birth certificate, baptism certificate, marriage certificate and death certificate. In the bible, my grandmother had information about her parents, grandparents, my grandfather and his family history and information of her thirteen children. I also decided to talk my mother’s old photo album. It is a green paisley photo album. The photo album was a way to record history with photos, news paper excerpts and much more.  The photo album contained pictures of my father’s family, her family and pictures of me and my siblings. The pictures and other memento spanned decades and even a century worth of pictures and etc that had been passed down through generations. The last thing I decided to take was a cell phone. I know it does not sound like much and it is too modern to have any significant, but my black LG cell phone is able to hold photos, videos and voice recordings of my family and our traditions.

            One question is how would I explain to others what these items mean to me. I do not think that I would have to do much explaining. I would show them some of the contents of my items; this will allow individuals to view my history and traditions. They will have the opportunity to see some of my culture. If have to explain, I will explain to them how these items allow me to view my history through photos. I can explain how my mother’s photo album shows the photos of large black cast iron “kettles” pots my family used to fry chicken and fish in when we would have large gathering. I would show the photos of the large wooden vessel my great grandmother used to make biscuits in when we were growing up. We watched my 90 something year old grandmother make dough in the bowl. I would have the chance to point out the finger marks in the bowl that was passed down through generations. The bowl was over 100 years old when I was a young child. I will have the chance to let them know that the bowl still exist, but I could not bring it with me. I will use the cell phone to allow them to hear some of the stories that the family had the chance to record and video of my grandmother. I will explain that I was unable to bring the original recordings, but I was able to make a copy using my phone.

            If I was told I had to give up two of the items I took with me, I would be heartbroken to the point of tears; but as long as I still had my phone,  would store as much information from the other two items as I could. I would take pictures of pictures from the photo album and I would take pictures of the entries from the bible to ensure I still had as many of those memories as possible. The phone would not replace having the real thing, but it would be better than having nothing at all.

The weeks exercise caused me to view my culture. Many of the things I took for granted as part of my life. Many of the things which reflected my families’ culture just seemed like a part of everyday life. When I am forced to see life without them, I had no idea where to start. The exercise allowed me to see the rich experiences I gain from listening to my maternal great grandmother who died at the age of 105 years old when a teenager was and from my maternal grandmother who died at the age of 94 years old almost 9 years ago. The cooking traditions of my parental grandmother and grad father are truly missed even though we try to continue some of the traditions. I have always realized my immediate family was a different. I understand being raised by two pastors made my life unique, but I never thought about my families everyday routines, the way we communicate with each other or our holiday tradition as part of a culture.