Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

As I listened to a lecture on microaggressions by Dr. Derald Wing Sue, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University (Laureate Education, 2011), so many light bulbs came on in my head. All the behaviors I have been observing that deeply disturbed me in the international school setting where I work finally had a name: microaggressions.  Microaggressions are ,"verbal behaviors that create feelings of uncertainty and inferiority and marginalization, even though no offence was consciously intended" (Laureate Education, 2011, :24). They are harmful on many levels; the person who delivers the  microaggression is not aware of the underlying attitude that is being conveyed; the person on the receiving end of the microaggression is hurt in a deep way; and, the relationship between the two is damaged or destroyed over time (Laureate Education, 2011).

In the span of my career at international schools, I have observed countless microaggressions, and if I must be honest, have probably been the perpetrator of countless more. One example comes to mind, one that saddens me so.  The school was set up for western NGOs who are mainly of the Christian faith. In one class, we had a beautiful little girl whose mother was a Christian from Asia and her father, a Muslim from the Middle East.  The girl's teacher, a loving, well-intentioned woman from a Christian background, would often talk to the students about the lost Muslims and how they need to be saved from Hell. The girl would go home every night and cry, expressing confusion to her parents. She interpreted the things the teacher was telling the class as "Muslims are bad". How could the grandmother and aunts and uncles who were so loving and kind to her be evil and bad? She was deeply traumatized.  When the administration heard of this, they tried to help the teacher understand how what she was saying was impacting the girl.  We sent the girl to the school counselor for awhile to try to help her. The mirror image of that experience happened to my children when they attended local schools where Islam is the dominant religion. 

Seifert (2007) talks about the implications of Christian privilege in the United States and how, unconsciously, the dominance of Christian religious architecture, cultural observations, and assumption of rights can marginalize those of other religions.  This is true, but Christians do not have a monopoly on asserting their religious privilege. In each area of the world, Hindu privilege, Muslim privilege, Buddhist privilege, Jewish privilege, etc. etc. is having an impact on marginalizing the religious minority others.  It is endemic in human societies.

How can we make a difference? We educators need to be the change. Self-education and introspection is where I will begin. Where am I projecting microaggression? When I observe it happening in the classroom, workroom, or playground, I must have the courage to intervene, to help others realize what it is they are doing to another human, to give alternatives.  As I have the knowledge now, I have the responsibility to be the change. We all do.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked three people for their definition of diversity and culture, a Palestinian, Christian, middle-aged male, a Palestinian, Muslim, female, thirty-something Palestinian, and an Anglo-Saxon, Christian, twenty-something, American.

The first person responded, "Culture is a set of values and habits that people start doing, and they keep on doing. They would be difficult to change later. Diversity is differences, being different".

The second person's response was similar. "Culture is, the ideas, the customs or social behaviors as part of a society. Diversity a range of different things. I think the culture of each society would make this diversity because each culture has, even small things that are different than the other.

The third person responded, "Culture includes but is not limited to a group's ideals, beliefs, customs, practices, values and mythologies. Each person is a part of many cultures, and some of our cultures may play bigger roles in our lives than others, and this balance may shift over the course of our life. Culture helps inform who we are in the world, and we reproduce and contribute to our various cultures. Although culture is typically thought to pass from one generation to the next, it also passes intragenerationally—especially with the internet which allows for easy contact between groups that were once isolated from each other. Diversity is the variety that allows for the sustainability and advancement of natural and human systems. A group or system can be diverse in countless ways including ethically, socioeconomically, religiously, linguistically, by age, gender, skill sets, and much more".

All the responses touched on some aspects of culture and diversity that have been discussed in this course. The third person added an interesting idea not discussed before, that the balance of aspects of our culture may shift over the course of our lives.  It takes culture out of the realm of a static fact and into the realm of a living, growing aspect of who we are. I have found this to be true as I have moved into different cultural circles as I began living in different countries and taking on their cultural worldviews.  Culture can be static too if a person does not have the opportunity to move or the desire to embrace a new cultural point of view or way of living when presented. I have met women who have married into a new culture but have maintained a static culture stance. They did not embrace the customs or language of their husband's culture. They remain always on the outside and miss out on knowing the culture in a more intimate, relatable way if they had added on a new layer of cultural identity.  

The definitions of diversity reflect the cultural context of each responder.  The topic of diversity is in the news, taught in schools and propounded universities especially in North America and Europe. It is not generally discussed in the Middle East, at least in my experience here. The first two responders, both life-long residents of the Middle East gave a textbook answer which reflected their understanding and interest in the topic. To a culture that has had to survive by emphasizing the collective and similar cultural characteristics to live in harmony, diversity can be there, but must be de-emphasized to avoid conflict. The American included a more in-depth discussion that included some of the ideas of individual diversity that we have been discussing in this course.  Like the Middle East, the West has been struggling with conflict among diverse cultures, but instead of pushing diversity to the side, they are educating, celebrating and working for society to embrace diversity in order to avoid conflict.  I think each approach has its merits based on the cultural context. 

My Family Culture: Facing Disaster

My Family Culture: Facing Disaster

In the past six years, I have been witness to the horror of sudden catastrophe as the so-called Islamic State terrorist organization moved through the region committing atrocities and displacing hundreds of thousands of families. In the church nursery where I volunteer once a week, Mother after Iraqi mother spilled out the tales of horror as the Christian population of Iraq had less than twenty-four hours' notice to respond to the ultimatum: leave the country or convert to Islam or pay the ransom tax, or be killed. Families crammed in their cars if they had them, grabbing whatever valuables that could be of use to them, and headed toward the border. Along the way, they were stopped, stripped of everything they owned, money, food items, and their vehicles, and sent on their way, walking. If they were lucky, the women avoided being raped and the men killed or conscripted into the ISIS army. It was beyond traumatizing.

What would I take with me in such a scenario? Knowing that all material valuables will most likely be either stolen or needed to be used for obtaining resources, I would swallow as much gold as I could tolerate. In the Middle East, gold is a common gift and way to save up for a rainy day, so most households stash a good supply. A phone, photo albums, any other item would become a burden to carry or a risk for attack. I would include a backpack style, high capacity water reservoir, and some sort of small, solar charger, if for some reason, I would be able to keep my phone.  That's is all I could expect to possibly keep. In the worst, and most probably case scenario based on the realities of sudden displacement and the stories I heard from those who experienced these traumas, all I would have is the gold that I had swallowed. The practical approach, giving up all ideas of attachment to sentimental possessions before hand would protect my heart from breaking. I would mourn their loss much, much later.

This pragmatic, unsentimental approach is no surprise for me. My parents, both children of the Great Depression in the United States and the World War 2 era, were very practical. They were second generation immigrants and the offspring of pioneers. My mother would save a spoonful of leftovers from a dinner bowl. When my father passed away, I cleaned out his shed which was full from floor to ceiling with small bits of copper pipe, wire, recycled nails, and small pieces of leftover everything. Waste not, want not, we were told on a daily basis. Don't buy it if you don't need it. My romantic soul baulked at this Spartan approach to life.

When I was in high school, we moved to the Mid-West.  We drove through the countryside looking for our new home. I remember one old rambling farmhouse that caught my imagination. Growing up in a simple log cabin, I had always dreamed of fixing up an "antique" house and all the fun of discovering hidden spaces. My pleas to purchase the old farmhouse were soundly beaten down with, "It is impractical. Too hard to heat in the winter." I was devastated and vowed to never let the practical drown out my romantic ideals.  Forty years down the line, I realize how much I have, despite my romantic notions, always defaulted to the pragmatic decision. This subconscious stance has allowed me to live simply and take the higher ground in financial decision making. My husband and I now own our home free and clear and have been able to put our children through university free and clear as well. My parents would be proud. 

I still cling to my romantic soul and long to be free to live a crazy life full of romantic, emotion-driven choices. The only problem is, whenever I have followed this heart, I feel guilty. At the end of the movie, Sense and Sensibility, I wept buckets knowing that I was just forever programmed to make the sensible decision and would not follow my heart as the characters were finally able to do. I don't think I will ever be able to change.  It is part of my heritage.  

Family culture transcends race, nationality, and ethnicity. The ideo-syncretic characteristics of each spouse, born of circumstances beyond their control, meld to form a unique flavor of the family which is passed down to their children.