Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I honestly can say in my life so far, I have not been the target of microaggressions, that has cause a verbal or physical response.There has been little to none microaggressions aim directly at me, however , I have witness microaggressions happen to other people. I remember in the beginning of this school year, all the preschool teachers, including myself had to do intake the week before the children started school. The teacher next to my class had just finished an intake on a young girl from Africa. She hurriedly walk into our room and said,” I must be the first white face, that girl has ever seen. She would not answer me at all, or look directly in my face. Maybe her parents have taught her this at home,” she said.
Just because, you have been in the early childhood profession for over 20 years, it does not give anyone the right to assume, that just because, a child will not respond to you has anything to do with the color of your skin.
I thought, here we have an early childhood professional supposedly to be a well-seasoned, well trained veteran, acting completely unprofessional around her colleagues, who were also African Americans also.
I did not know how to feel at first. I felt sorry for the little girl because, I knew if she was going to be in this teacher’s class, already the teacher had a myth about her and her family, just because, they were from another country. I felt at the time this teacher did not need to be teaching, if she had any biases and could not reach a deeper understanding of diverse cultures.
This microaggression, had only affirmed to me, what Dr. Sue said in his interview. Dr. Sue explained,” the most dangerous type of microaggressions, is microinvalidations when “well intentioned individuals who see themselves as having good intentions look at people of color as not being able to really get the job done. The people of color are denied the right to be hired, or given a chance. Microinvalidations is also when the person never has the ability to self-correct, because they are unaware of their biases towards people of color” (Sue, 2011). I felt because of the color of this girl’s skin the teacher had denied her the right to just be herself, and maybe did not have a chance of not being scrutinize.

Sue, D. D. (2011). "Microaggressions in Everyday Life". (L. E. Inc., Interviewer)


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2013 at 5:11 PM

    At least your colleague got one thing right: the child probably was taught the cultural norm for eye contact at home. Assumptions are dangerous things, especially when made regarding cultures different from one's own.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 29, 2013 at 6:47 PM

    I agree that assuming could be harmful to some young children's development. We have to be careful not to have biases when receiving children. It is important that we love and care for them all the same.

    ReplyDelete

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