Awareness of Microaggressions

I can recall a situation from High School where I was a target of microaggression. I was a target of verbal unintentional microaggression. My field hockey team and I were working on posters for our team. We were each to make our own and I was hesitant about mine. I had made people aware of this verbally. Another team member came over and told me mine should be great because I was left-handed and left-handed people are artists. At this moment I felt unsure of my poster and that I had more to prove because I was left handed.

Reflecting back on this scenario I feel as if the person who made that comment to me had a stereotype about left-handed people and how they are good artists. Thinking about this makes me realize the number of stereotypes that people have and how it seems one can have a stereotype for anything.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

 I asked four different people what their definitions of diversity and culture were. These are the responses I received.

Jeremy- There are many things that make up a culture; food, language, traditions, beliefs, surroundings, morality, personality, attitudes, etc. The people one is surrounded by, their heritage, language, food etc. Diversity is the separation between different cultures due to every aspect that makes up a culture as well as political, geographical, and mental boundaries.

Sean-Culture is the sum of all behavior; learned or innate. Diversity means that there are cultures that are just different from each other.

Heidi- Culture is a way of life. Diversity is different ways of doing things.

Ricky- Culture is all aspects of a given society that defines society. Diversity is the differences in the physical, financial, and mental qualities of a population.

I found many aspects of what I have learned in this course have been included in these definitions provided above. For example Jeremy's definition of culture includes all aspects of what makes up a culture. When it comes to the definition of diversity Ricky pointed out that diversity includes differences in physical, financial, and mental qualities of a population. I do not feel at this point much has been left out in these answers other than going into specifics about what the physical aspects are or the different religions that can be included in culture.

Thinking and reflecting on these definitions has truly impacted my way of looking at culture and diversity. Diversity is shown in the answers given as they are all different. I also never looked at mental qualities and boundaries as being an aspect of diversity before completing this assignment.

My Family Culture

If my family were to be evacuated to another country and I could only bring three small items that represented my family culture I would bring my bible, my phone, and a family scrapbook. I would bring my bible, because it shows the beliefs of my family for many generations. I would explain to others the meaning of my bible but talking to them about my religion and beliefs. I would bring my phone as it represents how my family has adopted what the dominant culture had brought to my family of using technology for daily occurrences. I would explain to others about how I used this in my day to day life to contact people, as a calendar, for social media, and to take pictures and videos. Finally, I would bring a scrapbook as it would show the closeness of my family. As part of our culture we spend a lot of time with family. I would explain this to others by showing them the pictures of family gatherings. When they looked at the pictures they would also see the physical piece of our culture; Caucasian Americans.

If upon arrival I was told I could only keep one of these items I would be okay, because I could still keep my bible. My bible is what has given me a solid foundation of values, attitudes, and beliefs to live by.

This assignment was difficult for me to complete as I had a hard time coming up with three items to represent my family culture. The more I thought about it the more I understood about my family culture. I found myself asking family members the same questions. The common answer was “this is difficult”, but the first item anyone said would be the bible or a cross.