Awareness of Microaggressions

I work part time for a restaurant that employs many Hispanic people, both young and old. A while back I observed an older employee trying to speak Spanish to one of the younger employees. The young guy did not speak or understand Spanish, so he had no idea what the older man was saying. I, being a white woman who had Spanish class in High School, understood what the man was asking and translated for them. The older man was astonished that the younger guy did not understand Spanish and, basically, reprimanded him for it. The younger boy was very insulted and asked me later why many older people thought it was ridiculous that he could not speak Spanish. He said that he has encountered this alot and many times was made to feel inferior.

Learning the subtle ques to microaggressions has made me more aware of how people can say things that sound insignificant to them but hurt the target. I have become more careful when choosing my own words.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

All three of the people that I discussed diversity and culture with this week limited the discussion to race, ethnicity, food, clothing, and holiday traditions. It was interesting to me that, even though we live in an area where the majority of the population is Hispanic, all three corelated being non-white as being 'diverse'. None of them thought of 'white' people as being diverse. They also were not able to define or see the 'white' culture, but saw the Hispanics as having culture. This told me that all three looked at surface culture but did not concern themselves with understanding deep culture.

My Family Culture

The most important item I would take with me would be my collection of photo albums. My family (immediate and extended) values documenting not only special events but daily living that happens! We often look through our albums and reminisce about occurances in our lives. I am also able to share with my children stories of family members and friends that they did not have the opportunity to meet.

The second item I would take would be our collection of board games. We are a family who enjoys all types of games from scrabble to scattegories to yahtzee. We spend alot of our free time playing games. I think this is an important aspect of our family culture because it shows our spirit of competitiveness and our value of having fun with each other.

The third item I would take would be our holiday/season decorations. Our decoration collections have grown over the years. Even though they include store bought trinkets, the most important part of these collections are the homemade treasures. My children range in age from 15 to 21 and they still make decorations for each holiday/season. Their expertise has grown over the years, but we still value the thinkgs they made in their preschool years. A person can look at alot of these creations and determine what was important to that child at the time.

If I were told to leave one of these items behind I would have a hard time choosing between the photo albums and the decorations. Both are treasures to me that are irreplaceable and help define who we are as a family!