My Horrible Mistake
I choose an example that happened to me just this week. My class was working on a cornucopia for Thanksgiving. We were discussing the different fruits and vegetables that were in the basket. Without thinking I asked one of my Hispanic students about the hard green bananas that they sold at Food City (a grocery store that caters to Hispanic cooking supplies). I assumed that since he was Hispanic that he would know what I was talking about. This is an assumption that I have to get rid of. I am quite embarrassed by my behavior.
The second example was from when I was in high school. I lived in New Mexico on the boarder of the Navajo reservation. The reservation schools would recruit student teachers from back east. They would stay in the dorms with the students and have meals with them. The student teachers statements when they came were that they were “going to save the Navajos”. I am not sure what they were going to save them from but this was their attitude. The unstated message was that the Navajos were unable to care for themselves and that they were uncivilized and educationally deprived. This was so far from the truth. The students were the ones that were hurt the most. They had to correct the perceptions about them that these teachers came with. The students were actually the teacher in this situation.
In taking this course, watching the videos and reading through the materials I have seen how hurtful these unintended comments are. Most of the perceptions that we have about people are completely wrong.
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteWe really have to stop, think and then talk. The assumptions we have can lead us, and I am including myself, to inserting our foot in our mouth. The problem is we have committed microaggressions for so long without being called on them, they have become second nature to us. We now know so we should grow.
Hi Leslie, the posting this week this week is a nice reminder why this class is so important. It has been a reminder for me to remember things I know, but somehow get forgotten. Realizing your error is the first step for all of us, oxoxo
ReplyDeleteHi Leslie I love your post because you have to be careful what you say to children eventhough you didn't mean it and the good thing like Lilliane stated you relized what you were doing and you corrected yourself. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing--it is so interesting how we all say things that can be offensive to other people. We have to be so mindful of our audience when speaking and trying to be thoughtful about our words. I too find myself in similar situations and I try to ask questions so I can learn new things, but I need to be more careful of who I am addressing the questions to.
ReplyDeleteLeslie,
ReplyDeleteWhat great awareness this course is bring about! I think our next step is to help others become more aware of these microaggressions.
Your second example reminds me of my last job in child welfare. Many times new social workers or foster parents had the attitude the only way to help children is to remove them from home and place them in foster care where they can be adopted by "good" families. This is not true at all. Many times families just need a little help while others need more help to become good enough parents. I attended a seminar by Marti Erikson PhD and her daughter Erin Erikson about "good enough moms". They are validating what I have believed all along about families: perfect is not necessary, just good enough! A lot of her work comes from working with families similar to those I worked with in child welfare. The microaggressions of the inexperienced social worker or foster parent can make a parent who is trying feel their efforts are worthless, when in fact every step is so vital to the family.
Meredith