Microaggressions

I really enjoyed this week’s lessons about micro-aggression. I have experienced and witnessed this type of behavior many times in my adult life, but did not know the proper term for it.

In the video “Micro-Aggressions in Everyday Life”, Dr. Derald Wing Sue talked about how he felt when people assumed he was not born in America, because he did not look like your stereotypical American. This also happens to me quite often. I am bi-racial, half black and half white and even though my Dad has a beautiful chocolate brown completion, I am extremely pale white, even paler than many of my “white American” co-workers, (this could be from my mother’s Irish heritage) but my hair is jet black. So, given this information you could say that I do not look like a stereotypical half black and half white individual; because of this I am constantly being asked “What country are you from?” When I reply “I’m from here, I’m American” they say “No, where are your parents from?” then I have to explain that I am biracial. It was not until I watched this video that I even thought about why people would question whether I am American or not, even though they always do. It opened my eyes to what people think a “real American” should look like. It made me realize that when people see me, they don’t see a “real American”, though I am truly American, born and raised. I began to feel a little insulted, even though it never bothered me before. Now, that I have a new insight and I little more knowledge, I realized that the people asking me this question may harbor biased that they don’t even know that they have. I believe this question of my nationality falls under a non-deliberate, microassualt. Though the comment was not meant to be negative, it is. The comment “Where are you from?” makes the assumption that all Americans should look a certain way and I do not fall into that category, so I could not possibly be American. It is an unintended insult.

After carefully looking back at my own experiences and watching those around me this week, I came to the conclusion that racial stereotypes are still very much alive in this country. I can be quite naive about this type of thing do to my upbringing. I may or may not have mentioned in an earlier post that my family is extremely bi-racial on both my mother’s and father’s sides. I have black, white and Asian family members on both sides of my family. Growing up and seeing our commonalities, despite our difference in appearance, made me very insensitive to stereotypes. I have intimate relationships with people of other races, they are my family members, therefore I know that these stereotypes are not always true, we even joke about them in our family.

I have absorbed this week’s lessons about microaggresion and will be much more aware of them in my everyday life.

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

Responses	Definition of Diversity	Definition of Culture
Response #1	Diversity is what makes one person different from another.	Culture is who you are. It is your race, your religion and what you believe is important.
Response #2	Diversity deals with how people view themselves and others. Someone may have a diverse or different perspective than I do.	Your culture involves your traditions and beliefs. Culture is in what we eat, what we wear and what we believe in.

These are the responses I got after asking two different people their definitions of diversity and culture. It seems to me that their definitions were similar. They both thought that diversity had to deal with being different and that culture comes from family background and traditions.

Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

Some aspects that I have studied in this course and see in the responses are that culture involves aspects of family, traditions, foods, religion and how we perceive things around us.

Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

No one referred to how our cultures affect how we operate in society or how our cultures cause us to take on roles in society.

I still believe that culture is rooted in family. Your family teaches what you will value and how you will perceive the world outside of the family unit. I still believe that diversity is the uniqueness in people and what makes them different from each other.