Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

I remember detecting a microaggression a time in my life. This particular microggression happened to be a gender microaggression. One day, I was in a store and I noticed one of my old friends that I grew up in my neighborhood with that I hadn’t seen in over ten years. As we had a brief conversation, I noticed he had on a uniform shirt that read a logo, “Greenville fire dpt.” And blue khaki pants. I asked him of his occupation as a fire fighter and if his company were currently hiring for new trainees, and he bluntly stated, “You don’t want to do this type of work, this is a man’s job. You should be sitting behind a desk in an office instead.” After hearing this comment, I was instantly caught in a “catch 22” phase. I was so caught by surprise that I did not know how to respond to such a comment from my old friend. Therefore I quickly changed the subject and spoke no more of it. Although my old friend’s intentions may have been good with no intent to harm, I felt that he thinks women can’t complete any tasks that men can and that women are made for inside a more feminine jobs only.

After experiencing this kind of gender microaggression, my perception of discrimination, and stereotypes have been affected because the encounter that I had with my old friend was one of the many examples of how women are discriminated against in society. There are companies that will not hire a woman simply because she is a woman. Women tend to be stereotyped as feminine individuals who are unable to work as hard as a man. My opinion on this stereotype is that I feel that this stereotype is more of an ego and pride issue. Men do not want women to be seen as tough as them. We are usually expected to be dependent on man, when there are some things in society that we actually do better than a man and is done on a regular basis this day in age.



          For this assignment, I chose to contact three people that I have close relationships with, who I believe, in some ways, are culturally different from me. I chose my neighbor, Robert who is a wheelchair bound male, my old male co-worker, Abdul, who is Jewish and one of my undergrad college classmates, Cassie, who is Caucasian. I asked these three individual their definitions of culture and their definition of diversity. Their responses follow:

Definition of Culture:

Robert: “Culture, to me is our way of life and the way we do and view certain things.” (Robert 2016)

Abdul: “Culture is how we as a people acknowledge our traditions, customs and beliefs. And we must follow them” (Abdul 2016)

Cassie: “Culture is how we adapt to the world around us on a daily basis and take advantages of the resources we are provided with.” (Cassie 2016)

Definitions of Diversity:

Robert: “Diversity governs the difference in people, regarding race, gender, abilities and many more.” (Robert 2016)

Abdul: “The difference of all people” (Abdul 2016)

Cassie: “What separates the differences from the similarities in us” (Cassie 2016)

 

        The answers that I received displayed quite a few aspects of what I have learned in this course. For example, Abdul explained that culture has ties with traditions, customs and beliefs, in which he leaned toward defining culture as in what he shares with his family and others of the same ethnicity as him.

        Robert mentioned abilities as part of his definition of diversity. By Robert being a wheelchair-bound individual, his abilities are slightly shortened. This difference, which I would rather say uniqueness, is one of his characteristic that makes him diverse in his own way.

        I did not notice any aspects that I felt were omitted in the definitions, although it is possible that I may have missed some. If anything, it has broadened my thinking.

        Thinking about the definitions I were provided with by these individuals has influenced my thinking about culture and diversity by allowing me to realize that culture does not always have to be a particular method followed by a group of people to considered as a culture, nor is it a requirement. Individuals are allowed to follow their own culture freely. I now understand that culture and diversity go hand in hand. Some of the cultures that an individual chooses to possess and follow could possibly make them diverse in some form

My Family Culture

A major catastrophe has hit the U.S. and my immediate family and I are among the survivors. We are being relocated to a new country to take refuge, and I am not able to make any decisions about the evacuation plan or the final destination.  I have no details on the final destination in which I will be placed and I may be forced to stay there permanently. I can only bring one change of clothes and three small personal items.

          Along with my change of clothes, I would also take with me a copy of my Birth certificate, my college diploma and a copy of the photos of my relatives.
          
           I would explain to others the significance of these items by informing them how important it is to be able to prove my identity and my homeland from where I am originally from, regardless of where I am replaced, the proof of the education I received and the remembrance of family members that did not survive or were located in a different place from. All of these items are able to help symbolize my personal identity and family culture.
     
           I would be very devastated if told I could only keep one of the three items upon arrival. It would be a tough decision to make, because all three of those items help to define who I am, where I come from and one of the most important accomplishments that I completed. Being that I would be in a totally new environment, with new people and not having a single person who knows me personally, besides my own family would be very frightening for me and for my family. I would think about the possibilities of being separated from my family that I evacuated with, being given a new identity and losing my own culture and being forced to practice new beliefs. And most importantly, having lost all visual memories of my relatives, whom I may never see again.

This exercise has given me new insights on what it is like to lose everything and be forced to move from an area that you have lived practically all of your life and that is all you know. Throughout the course of completing this exercise, I could not help but to think of those refugees and immigrant that I have actually faced this exact kind of adversity and I became very emotional. It is one thing to see and hear about these kinds of situations on the news, but actually experiencing these are so much different. I pray that America is never put in this kind of situation and that we as a people are able keep our homeland, freedom and rights and to never have to be forced to give up who we are.