Blog 1: Competent Communication

When I think about those in my life who demonstrate competent communication, a few people come to mind. But the person who sticks out the most is my mother. Let me tell you that this woman knows how to get her point across to someone, and I'm her child so...I have taken on some of her characteristics of course. I believe that her communication is effective because once she is done expressing herself, everything is clear and there is no confusion or unanswered questions. However, as her child, I have not always "appreciated" how she would communicate to my sisters and I. But now that I am older, I understand why she did what she did and how she did what she did. She was looking out for us because she had our best interest at heart. Sometimes, she would hold things in before saying telling us what is going on but when she did, all the cards were laid on the table. I am the same way at times and I believe that is something that we both need to work on. However, we tend to not say things because we feel that no one else but God would understand us. So we would keep it to ourselves. With that being said, I do model communication behaviors from her because..she's my mom! And she has taught me what she knows. I may not always agree with how she communicates but at the end of the day, as long as we know what it going on and our questions are answered, we really cannot complain! I have made some improvements in my communication over the years but there is still room for improvement. And I am mature enough to admit that....

Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I hope that it turns out to be an "easy challenge". Somewhat of an oximoron, I know. But on the surface, I work very well with people. That is easy for me. However, for the most part, I have been around people who have a similiar background as I do. But the "challenge" comes in when I start dealing with people with different backgrounds who have different points-of-views. Although I have quite a bit of experience with working/learning/interacting in diverse settings, there is still that "slight feeling of being uncomfortable" that causes me to doubt that I am able to do it in my own business. My facility will be available to "everyone". My concern is when they walk into the facility and see that it is ran mostly by my family and friends (not because I'm being prejudice or anything, they are just very supportive). Or when they hear that it is "black owned", I hope that I am not judged for that. I understand that I cannot control anyone else's actions or thoughts. But I want a fair chance just as the children do. Let me prove to you that me "having brown skin" has nothing to do how I run my business and how I care for these children. I was born with this passion. Therefore, the passion was in me before I even developed a "color".

"Mandatory Diverse Outreach", would be one goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice. What that would consist of is reaching out to different people from different backgrounds in different ways.For example, with a child care facility, we could have a "street team" who goes out to different communities, especially diverse communities and tell them about the facility and what services we offer. But the "underlying main purpose" would be to search for people from different backgrounds who we don't service in the center, or who haven't had a chance to get into my facility for whatever reason (didn't know about it, no transportation, not confident in English, etc.). We should make it our business to try to service every ethnic background possible, ON A CONSISTENT BASIS. Not just when we feel like it or when we're feeling all "diverse" and everything. It should be an on-going basis.

With that being said, I would like to thank my colleagues for embracing me as a classmate. I believe we displayed a wonderful example of diversity, We all had similarities and differences and that made the course very interesting. We got along just fine and that shows that people from different backgrounds can get interact with each other and learn together. I wish you all the best as we continue our EC journey. It keeps getting better and better!

Special thanks to Dr. Darragh for instructing the class and participating in our discussions. Best wishes to you as well. :-)




God bless you all!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of my family's country of origin is "Timbuktu". 

Five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1. Do some research on the country; look on the internet and find out certain things about the country.

2. Since I would be the owner/director of a child care center, I would inform my staff about the information I found so that they can be more knowledgeable as well.

3. Then I would inform them to let the children know that we're getting a new student who is new to the country; Be nice!

4. Along with that, I would meet with the staff and come up with a "welcoming party" or something like that to make the child and the family feel more comfortable. I would have them to have the country's flag displayed in the classroom and I would attempt to have some food from their country or have them wear some clothing from that country. I would want them to feel at home away from home, especially on the first day of school. First impressions last...

5. Thereafter, I would personally meet with the parents and let them know that we are happy to have their child in our facility and that we are happy that they decided to give us a try. I would also inform the family that we will do our best to make sure that their child, as well as every other child, is treated fairly with love while receiving a quality education.

I believe that these preparations will be good for myself and the family because they would allow me to learn more about the country, which I knew nothing about, and ensure the family that my facility welcomes diversity, instead of rejects it. I say this all the time; we all need each other and we can all learn from each other as well. No man knows everything. So we should be open to learn something new everyday!

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

There is small city outside of Detroit, MI called Warren and it was known to be very prejudice against minorities, especially "black" people. However, by me attending Michigan State University, I figured I conquered the "racial barrier" that exist between some black and white people. I had been learning and interacting with white people and people from all over the world so how can anyone be prejudice towards me now? I'm too well rounded! So I thought...

My friend, her boyfriend at the time and I decided to get something to eat out there one day. I can't remember what took us out there exactly but all I know is, we were hungry and wanted food fast. So we found a diner that looked faily decent. But when we walked in, there were nothing but white people in there, both eating and working. And I mean that. No black people or "people of color" anywhere, not even a few of them. My friend's boyfriend and I instantly started feeling uncomfortable however my friend didn't see anything wrong at the time. She just wanted to eat lol.

We're standing in line, behind some white people and the hostess is treating them with the upmost respect. However, when it came our turn to be seated, she instantly says, "there's going to be a 20 minute wait", with a rude tone and then she walked away from us. And when my friend's boyfriend tried to ask her a question, she walked away while he was talking. Needless to say, we did not continue our stay there...

This event diminished equity because the hostess implied that black people were not as worthy to eat in a timely fashion, or at the same time as white people I believe. That event still boils my blook because we were really hungry and we did not have a car. So we were on foot/catching the bus and taxis and stuff. That works up an appetite in itself! I believe this event took place in 2002. I would have thought the segregated eating places would have been played out by now. I felt like I was in a time warp, because I couldn't believe that we were dealing with something like this in the 2000s!

That event showed me that we still have a long way to go. Granted, it is better than what it was. But if that level of segregation usually only exist in the south, yet, right outside of Detroit, we experienced the same thing, then that means that segregation and prejudices exists EVERYWHERE!

The hostess and the practice of restaurant would have had to change in order for this incident to be changed into an opportunity for greater equity. People of all colors should be able to eat wherever they want to eat. I must admit that Warren has improved a lot over the years. My cousin (who's black) lives out there now and she loves it. So there is hope for society to change as well. It may happen taking baby steps but as long as steps are being taken, we should be ok. A change is coming!

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I was watching the Dave Chappelle's show on DVD and one of the cast started a conversation about Asian people. He said something to the effect of when he may ask an Asian where he/she is from, and his/her reply is "the united states", then his response would be "you know what I mean". Although he was joking, he expressed a racial micoaggression because he was implying that all Asian people are born in Asia somewhere and those who are in the United States came over after they were born. We all know that is not true. However, that reminded me of Dr. Sue (who is Asian) when he told the story about the woman asking him where he was from and where he was born. At first he said that he was from Portland, Oregon then later told her that he was born in the United States. My observations from this week has increased my awareness of how there are so many stereotypes for different ethnic groups. I believe comedians such as Dave Chappelle bring stereotypes to the light but in a joking way in order to keep us from getting upset about them. It makes me sit back and ask myself "who came of with all of these anyway?" Words are powerful and so is unity. You get enough people involved, you can create a mighty force, whether it be good or bad. But I am a firm believer that good things last forever and bad things pass away eventually. I am praying that these stereotypes will disappear one day soon, or at least be identifiable to the point where people will know what they are and not give in to them. 

"Microaggressions in Everyday Life" (approximate length: 27 minutes)

In this program, Dr. Derald Wing Sue presents a lecture about the concept of microaggression in everyday life.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I interviewed aunt (age 64), my best friend (age 31) and my cousin (age 16). I asked them all what their definitions of culture and diversity were and their responses are as follows:

Aunt:

Culture is how we live, think, how we dress, what music we listen to etc.

Diversity is the breakdown of the differences in all of us.

Best Friend:

Culture is our way of life, what we believe and customs we follow.

Diversity is what makes us all different however it also allows us to dwell together in unity.

Cousin:

Culture depends on the person and how they were raised.

Diversity consists of different people of races and who have different beliefs.

I believe all of these answers include what I have learned in this course thus far, as well as what I knew about culture/diversity beforehand. None of them mentioned anything about language but I can see how that was overlooked because we speak English. Their thoughts on culture/diversity has influenced me to want to dig deeper in this topic. This class has allowed me to do that a great deal thus far and I am looking forward to learning more.

My Family Culture

If a catastrophe took place in my country and we had to evacuate, three things I would take would be a Bible, a radio and a cell phone. I was raised Christian and I still practice Christianity as an adult. My grandmother (Bigma) taught us many values and lessons from the Bible and they have helped us all during rough times. I would consider a catastrophe to be a rough time...

I'm a musician, my mom is a musician, and my entire family loves music. So I would have to have radio around so that we can listen to some good tunes. It's only right...

I know that cell phones have not always been around but we looooooooooooove our phones...can't live without them lol. This is how we keep in touch with each other though. My family is scattered across the city of Detroit and the United States. So we need them...

I would be sad if I could only keep one thing but if I had to choose, it would definitely be the Bible. Everything else I can live without, but only for a short while. However, I cannot live without the Word of God.

My insights have been strengthened about my culture and my family culture as a results of this exercise because I did not realize just how strong these items effected our culture until now. I realize that they are important but I do not think I really made the connection to these things and my culture until now.