The microaggression I witnessed was from a previous director at our program, she was originally from North Dakota and she would always say "is this how you all do things here in South Texas"? It was always disturbing to hear her say that, however, no one ever confronted her about how she was stating things. What made me think was how dare she stereotype the people from South Texas and ask if this was the way we do things here.
I think that this week has opened up my eyes a little more and has made me think more about how others see the people from South Texas. I felt discriminated by her remarks, but was not about to confront her because that might mean my job. It is sad to realize that this sort of thinking still goes on. Maybe if we were to move to another state we might see how the residents of that state do things and think the same way that my former director did. However, we must work very hard to try and stop any prejudice feelings we may have towards other races.
Rosalinda,
ReplyDeleteYour experience with microaggressions sound very familiar. I hear it with children that participate from our Head Start the program and how the School Board teachers refer to these kids. They say "Oh this child come from RCMA" in a tone where they really want to say is that children from our program are "trouble". You are so right to say that sometimes we do not say anything because of the consequences that may result. I think this is a job of everybody as you mentioned, we all need to work seriously hard in minimizing (or even eradicate) microaggresions.
First of all what things could you have been doing so different LOL. But, your statement about loosing your job is something I hear a lot as to why people do not speak up. It sometimes feels as though people are trapped
ReplyDeleteRosalinda,
ReplyDeleteI believe that ending racism starts with each of us. We have to examine our selves to make sure that we are not showing biases and if we are we need to, maybe find out more about the people we are showing biases to in order to help eliminate prejudices that we might have.