Awareness of Microaggression

Is it discrimination or perceived discrimination?

I left an administrative meeting with several other administrators.  As we walked through the playground there was one teacher running around playing with the kids and three teachers sitting under a covered pavilion. The head administrator of the organization specifically calls out one of the teachers sitting under the pavilion and tells that teacher to get up and go play with the kids.  After we walk inside, the administrator tells me that teacher is always sitting and has been told several times before to be actively engaged with the children while outdoors.  Then asked me to formally talk with the teacher to discuss the issue.  I went back, called the teacher inside, and formally addressed the concern.

The next day the teacher seeks me out to tell me that was an act of professionalism and discrimination.  Unprofessional because something was said in front of others and discriminatory because nothing was said to the other two teachers who were also doing the same thing.  The teacher who was addressed was Latino, the other two teachers were white, and the administrator was white.

Was this actually an act of discrimination or was it just perceived by the teacher as a discriminatory act?  Could the administrator have had invisible discriminatory feelings towards this one teacher or was it simply the fact that this teacher had been told several other times while the other teachers had not been talked to about the issue before?  If that is the case, why were the other teachers not addressed at the same time?  What are my responsibilities at this point to respond to the teacher who feels discriminated against and to the administrator, who is over the organization and my direct supervisor?

I believe there are times when we may say or do something that may be unequal or unfair based on a personal bias against an individual, a group, or because an individual belongs to a certain group.  I also believe that there are times people feel discriminated against because of an aspect they may have, yet it is not true.  For instance, someone may say I didn't hire them because they were too fat, the wrong religion, of a certain ethnic background, etc but the reality may be that there simply was someone else more qualified for the position.  How do we determine when something is an act of discrimination and when it is not?

Perspectives on Diversity & Culture

Most people I talked to thought of culture as relating to a group of people, a country, a civilization, or a specific group such as a religious group.  They indicate that they believe these are a set of norms, traditions, beliefs, values, or customs that have been accepted and are typically followed by those in the group.

I see culture as more encompassing than that, and more individualized than that.  It is everything that makes up who you are.  It is the traditions your family holds, the patterns of behavior, the ways you deal with certain things, and the morals and values you uphold.  Culture is also the roles you take on each day, between being a family member, a member of your community, and how you fit in and act in your work environment.  Culture is what makes you who you are.  It is not what is on the outward appearance, but what is felt deep down, what you come up with through your experiences and learning, it is what defines you as unique, special, and individual.  Part of my culture was rooted within me as a child, but other parts of my culture were created through my experiences, associations, and gained knowledge.  While I believe some things with culture can pertain to a certain group of people, I see it really coming down to the individual and the way they typically behave and feel that defines their culture.

As I asked about diversity, people referred to diversity looking only at ethnicity and race and seeing these being mixed in one geographical location.  One person I asked did go beyond ethnicity and included religions, interests, political beliefs, and things they enjoy doing in their free time.  I felt this last answer was getting closer to being diverse.

One of the things I took pride in when my center became NAEYC accredited, was the inspector told me we had the most diverse staff in our center that she had ever seen and she had been an inspector since NAEYC began.  At that time I thought about diversity.  I could tell what she could see from the outside.  We had people working for us of all ages, from the young twenties who were college students to the veteran who had been there almost thirty years and everything in between.  We have both male and female staff.  We have several different ethnic backgrounds and languages spoken by the staff.  I have teachers of various physical abilities.  This outward diversity was easy for others to see.  I also began to realize the large amount of diversity that was present through observations.  The ways the teachers are the same, and the ways they are very different.  Our curriculum allows the teacher's own style to come out through a framework that guides their teaching, but doesn't have everyone do things the same way.  The classrooms are all arranged differently, they study different themes, they focus on different areas, and run their classrooms and activities differently.  This is diversity, looking at all the ways we are the same as someone else as well as all the ways we are different.  It is taking those pieces of our culture and being able to see how much we are alike when we may seem very different.

As I talked with others, I was actually surprised at the vagueness that came from their responses.  I spoke with someone of the opposite gender as myself, someone much older than myself, someone of a different ethnic background and who came from another country than myself, and another person just slightly older than me but in a very different profession.  To me, this was a diverse group of people, but it seemed like their answers were very similar.  The person who was much older than myself had a much broader view of culture and diversity.  After talking with these four people I wondered, Do people see culture and diversity on the surface rather than really individualizing it to a person?  I grew up in a family of ten, but we still have a lot of diversity within our own family culture and the way we do things. I think this is to really recognize how different everyone is and understand that just because one person of a certain group does something one way, doesn't mean everyone in that group will act or feel the same way.

My Family Culture

There are not many things I can't live without.

If there were some type of emergency, something that caused me to have to evacuated indefinitely to another country with a culture very different than my own, there is only one main thing I would really want to take.  I would want to have my scriptures with me that have been written in my home language and marked up and studied.  I know that these bring me closer to  my God, who understands me and my needs wherever I am in the world.  This is enough to survive.

Should there be additional room for me to take more things, I would take my music and a way to play it.  Music brings me comfort and peace and there is music for all my different moods.  While I may be able to find music in another culture, I am attached to the music I am accustomed to and would turn to that to bring me additional comfort in times of trial.

The third thing I would bring with me is my computer with a way to access the internet.  I love to research, read, and increase my knowledge.  This is my source of growth.  While I know I can live without my computer, it is my way of reading and staying up to date.  I love the convenience and incredible amount of information that can be gleaned from my computer.