Friday, May 30, 2014
Microaggressions on a Daily Basis
When my children came from Arizona to a small mid-western town in Illinois, they experienced microassault or racial slurs for the first time. One day they came home from junior high and gave me one more reason they wanted to move back to Arizona. They told me they couldn't believe that the kids at school were using derogatory names for Hispanics and possibly Black people. They went on to name their friends in Arizona who were being called names. After this story, I was a little nervous about what would be passed on to my younger children. Now we live in Peoria, Illinois which is very different from the small town we used to live in.
At first I didn't think that I would have many incidents to reflect on this week, but as I read the assignments, I realized that there were many incidents involving microaggression that I could think of. I didn't have time to mention all of them in this week's reflection.
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My daughter experienced microassault related to her race. While taking classes for her social work degree, the teachers and others in my daughters class insisted that my daughter had to be at least unconsciously racist because she was white and the culture at large was at least unconsciously racist. My daughter probably was not racist. This is probably related to her parents not being racist and related to the fact that she grew up in California and Arizona. I received an assessment of no noticeable preference for Black or White people on the Implicit Attitudes Test. This is in contrast to my getting an assessment of having a slight preference for straight people and a moderate preference for an association between women and family. I am very family oriented. That's why I am doing early childhood studies. I wonder what assessment my daughter would get.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry! I meant microaggression.
ReplyDeleteLiz
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteThat is horrible that your children had to hear others talk negatively about individuals of Hispanic and African American culture. I taught and lived in a small farming community in Pa that was mostly populated by Caucasians. I noticed how often I heard racial stereotypes or judgments come out of there mouths. I often wondered what their children are going to wind up believing if most of their parents felt negatively of others who were different than them. What I thought was even worse was that most of their parents were teachers in the school district themselves. I hope these individuals that do live in small towns consumed of mainly Caucasian people will open up to and accept others of different races and cultures.
I guess it is like Sue said. It is the lack of exposure to others that makes people biased. Your PA town is just the sort of town I am talking about. Uh Oh. Maybe I am biased towards small towns;).
DeleteThanks for the reply.
Elizabeth, I am so sorry that you experienced that your children experienced that in Arizona. I have family in Peoria Illinois .I use to visit all every summer when I was a youth. My father, 2 sisters and a brother lives there now. Peoria is a good place to rear children.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThe incident was in New Lenox, Illinois. Arizona is very nice. Peoria is very multicultural and family oriented. It is a better place than New Lenox. Joliet is also better. I used to work at the Y there teaching swimming. I just wish my children never had to move. They hate moving. Hopefully, we are stuck here.
Oh sorry, you came from Arizona to Illinois. Thanks for informing me.
ReplyDelete