Awareness of Microaggressions
This
week assignment was about observing microaggressions. One example of microaggression
I observed this week was in insult regarding African American taste of foods.
Some of you might not be familiar with the stereotype that black people love
chicken and watermelon. Don’t ask me how it got started because I do not know. My
workplace is predominated African American workers. Recently a Caucasian woman
joined the team. To make a long story short, the staff was planning a dinner
where each staff member were asked to bring a dish. Later the Caucasian woman
got with a group of us and asked what she could bring. We responded anything
you want. She then told a story about a friend who was a Caucasian male that
worked at a predominate black fire department. The fire department had a luncheon,
and the Caucasian male brought watermelons and was fired for racial stereotyping.
I don’t think she meant any harm, but as a group we looked at each other like
where this story come from, and what did it have to do with her bringing a dish.
She noticed the look on our faces, and said I’m not trying to be racist, I just
don’t want to bring the wrong thing. I took it as an insult and walked away. Although
the statement might not have been intentional, it let me no her mindset. I felt
that she was being discriminative and disrespectful.
This
week observation experiences have helped me to become more aware of the things
people say and do. As an early childhood educator, I notices that I’m guilty of
microaggressions statements also such as telling a Caucasian parent “I know yall
don’t get cold but put the baby on a hat because her hair is wet every morning.
We laughed it off, but that was disrespectful of me.
