Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

My example of microaggression occured this past week.  I was at a conference in Detroit.  I am a Northern Michigan girl with not much diversity and culture.  There are no minorities where I live.  I unfortunately do not get out of this town very much but was asked to attend the Michigan Collaborative Early Childhood Conference in Detroit.  I was overwhelmed when I went to the mall located by the conference.  There were many different cultures and had many thoughts as I went into a few stores.  There were many security guards and stores had several alarms to reduce the amount of shoplifting.  I began noticing how different the mall is were I live.  I actually did not feel comfortable walking around the mall and went back to my hotel.  I was ashamed and embarrassed about why I felt that way and actually surprised at how I felt.  I thought about this class several times.  An awareness of how sheltered my life is, is very sad.  I seek to find a way to get to know and deeply understand other cultures. 

I wondered at that point if I had ever made offensive comments without realizing it.  I discussed my realization with a co-worker and she said she felt the same way.  We need to be sure that kids have the opportunity to be exposed to other cultures.  Posting pictures on the walls and watching videos is not enough.  I am not proud of this awareness but it is all part of the process of overcoming our weaknesses.

I think prejudice, discrinimation and stereotypes are categorizing a group of people because of what others have done to negatively affect the group.  We need to give people the opportunity to do the right thing without judging them first on prior knoweldge.  Every person gets the right to be an individual and not make decisions without getting to know them.  I did this during my trip to Detroit.  I will work harder to make diversity and culture a part of my life and the life of the children in my classroom.