Practicing an Awarness for Microaggressions+

This week I experience a sexual orientation micro aggression. I was in church an a homosexual guy was in service. The row that he was on nobody would sit on that row because in their eyes he is different and people do not want to deal with things that are different. I feel they did not want to sit by him because his hair was long, mascara on his eyelashes, nails was long and manicured, and pants rolled up at bottom to sit on top of his shoes. I could scene that he was feeling uncomfortable because nobody would sit on his row. I got my purse and I moved from the row I was on and sat next to him. I spoke to him and told him my name. He smiled and told me his name. I knew that I made he feel comfortable to be at church. After church, he thanked me for coming to sit by him and I gave him a hug. He said he will be back next Sunday. I am glad that I did what I did because now he will feel more comfortable coming to our church.

My experience taught me that we need to change our way of thinking. We should treat all people the same way. We need to think really hard before we do or say something to people. Just because someone is different we should

Perspectives of Culture and Diversity

The first person I talked with was a 20 year old Caucasian female. She defined culture as the way you do things, how you survive in this world including belief, morals, custom, and habits. She defined diversity has differences of culture, background, and experience among individuals and groups.

The second person I talked with was a 35 year old African American male. He defined culture as beliefs characteristics of an ethnic or age group. He defined diversity has the quality of its physical, social, cultural, and intellectual environment which embraces the rich difference within the human characteristics.

The last person I talked with a 54 year old mixed female. She was Caucasian and African American. She defined culture has shared patterns of behaviors and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. She defined diversity has the welcome and support of individuals from all groups encompassing the various characteristics of people in our community.

　

The Caucasian female really thought about the words to give me a definition that went beyond the surface layers of the words. Some of the comments she made was in our first week of class. The African American guy definition of culture was similar to mind before I started this course. His definition of diversity covered the person as a whole the same way we are learning this term in class. The last lady defined culture and diversity deeply going pass the first layer.

　

From talking with 3 of my friends I found that we all have our own definitions of the words culture and diversity but to some point we are all on the same page. I have learned that we have to go pass the outer skin of the words and must look deep into the words so that we cover it all.

My Family Culture

The three items that I would take with me are my deceased mother’s ring, my bible, and my sd card. I would take my mother’s ring that her grandma gave her at the age of 16 because she means so much to me. I will take my bible because that is what I live by on a daily basis. My bible will help me keep my faith walk going strong. It will also keep me on right track on knowing how to survive with it seems like everything is falling apart around me. I will take my sd card because I have all my pictures and videos of my family on there. I have all of my children important events on their from the time they were born. Most importantly I have our family last vacation with my mom on there and I enjoy watching it. If I had to give up one item that would be hard to choose which one because they are all important to me. Each of my three items has its personal meaning to me.

I learned that if you take me from my physical home I still have my culture. You can take all of my tangible things and I still will have my culture.