The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In my master's course, we are talking about prejudice and inequity. We were asked to answer these questions:

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression?

I ended up going to high school in the middle of desegregation and was bussed to the “black” side of town. I was white and grown up in the same neighborhood, with the same friends, going to the neighborhood church and school. My world was very small. The tension was terrible. I remember a lot of fighting, yelling and screaming. A black girl beat me up on the bus one time. I was one of just a handful of whites getting on the all-black bus. I was the last one to get on and had jeers and stares. The black bus driver was no help. On my first day of school, a black teacher looked right and me and yelled “we don’t want you here anymore than you want to be here!” That set the tone for my entire high school career. To put it mildly, high school was “hell”! My brother ended up on drugs and alcohol and my sister ended up dropping out. This happened to other friends of ours. The only reason I completed school was that I knew I had to graduate to go to college and being an elementary teacher was all I ever wanted. I was mostly alone until my junior year, when I met two more white girls feeling the same way I did. I kept to myself and made sure that I didn’t go down the “black” hall or into the “black” bathrooms. On more than one occasion, I was pushed into a wall or locker and propositioned by black basketball players. I genuinely felt threatened every day of my high school life and began to hate black people in general as a result of the prejudice against whites.

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

As mentioned above, I was not able to go down certain halls or even certain bathrooms. I wasn’t helped in the library and had no sympathy from teachers or even the school counselors. I was not part of the dominant black culture and was hated. I felt attacked on a daily basis by my Black English teacher. When I would ask her questions, she would answer in demeaning ways and imply that I was stupid. My history teacher used several occasions to openly embarrass me. As a teacher, I now see that the entire culture was against desegregation and adults were taking it out on the students, as well as each other. I only remember two white teachers during my stay at high school.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

I was fearful for my life. There were knifings and riots at most football and basketball games. I feared being raped by black boys and was propositioned on many occasions. I felt threatened and was made to feel stupid.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

Desegregation would have had to end and allow me to go back to the white high school on the white side of town with all of the friends I grew up with. My best friend’s parents put her into private school to avoid this process. I guess they knew what was coming politically and socially. We met the first day of kindergarten. Our mothers got to know each other, and my mother took care of her for the rest of my school life, until high school. We were practically sisters and are still friends today. When we talk about this situation, she was able to enjoy her high school life in a private, white school and felt safe, secure and loved. For a long time, I blamed my parents for not being able to send me to another school or for not moving away. I also blamed my mother, who didn’t work, for not getting up and taking me to school so I could avoid being on the bus. So, not only did I have all the fears, nightmares and constant verbal attacks, I grew to resent my own parents. I never went through teenage rebellion and was a model child, according to them. This incident sent me into deep depression, which I have battled to this day. I turned completely inward and withdrew from society in general. I stopped eating and probably was anorexic for some years, even though I wasn’t diagnosed. This moment in time has scarred me and I made sure that my children didn’t attend public school at all. I look at most black people through the eyes of my high school experience, even though one of my best friends is black.

Microaggressions - Everyday Indignities

This week, we have been studying microaggression. I was asked to “Describe at least one example of a microaggression which you detected this week or remember from another time. In what context did the microaggression happen? What did you think and feel when you observed the microaggression or when you found yourself as the target of a microaggression? In what ways did your observation experiences this week affect your perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people.”

Dictionary.com defines the term aggression as “the action of one state violating in force the rights of another state; any offensive action, attack or procedure; an encroachment; the practice of making assaults or attacks; offensive actions in general” (2011). When I look at this definition, it doesn’t really fit with simply asking people questions or being genuinely interested in who they are – thus the prefix “micro”. I think asking people where they are from is simply a courtesy, a first step in getting to know someone, like asking them what the weather is like. I’m not sure where the severe psychological harm comes in. I think we can all allow people to “get under our skin” or “make us feel bad about ourselves”. It is a personal choice to move away from that and know these remarks or comments do not define us as individuals. Self-esteem and those assurances come from knowing who you are in Christ, as a child of God. My value comes from Him, and not from what others say about me, assume or even imply.

I haven’t witnessed any signs of this happening this week that I was consciously aware of. I guess Dr. Sue would say that’s because I’m white! However, according to Dr. Sue, I was guilty of it. I work in a school with almost 700 students, 95% of which are Hispanic. Teachers have full-time, bilingual teaching assistants in each classroom. I was invited to a party by one of the assistants invited me to a party and I attended. There were approximately 100 Hispanics and two whites in the room. While sitting at the table, enjoying the meal, I had been talking to a woman for about five minutes. I asked a woman where she was born. I thought this might be nicer than saying “where are you from?” She laughed and said “Old Mexico. What did you think?” About six months ago, I asked another Hispanic in our building where she was born; she seemed insulted and replied “America. What did you think?” So, when I compare these conversations, it seems that Dr. Sue would say that I was in the wrong both times, when I thought I was simply engaging in conversation – wanting to get to know another person.

I do believe that these kinds of offenses are going to simply alienate people like me and prevent us from attempting to get to know others who are different from us. I was born in Oklahoma and was once asked where I was born. When I replied “Oklahoma” the person gasped and said I didn’t sound like an okie. I wasn’t offended at all! I found it humorous. Would this have been considered microaggression? Can a white American be the recipient of microaggression?

Finally, I like people! I am a people person. I like getting to know other people. I think this is why I am engaging in microaggression and don’t even realize it. I thought it was just a natural curiosity. A few years ago, damali ayo wrote a book entitled How to Rent a Negro. I watched her for an hour on public television explaining what I now understand are these microaggressions. At the time, I remember thinking how absurd she was when someone asked if she washed her dreadlocks like “regular” hair. I just saw it as a cultural curiosity. She was extremely insulted. According to Dr. Sue, I was trivializing her culture and engaging in racial bias, stereotyping, microinsults and microinvalidation just having these thoughts.  I have ordered her book and am going to read it with this new awareness that I have discovered this week.

As a child, I was verbally abused. For many years, I didn’t want to acknowledge that. My family was my family and I didn’t know any other way. Since becoming an adult and mother myself, I see that a member of our family was making a conscious choice to constantly berate and demean me. It was very hurtful and took counseling in adulthood to even identify what had happened and how it made me feel. So, if a person is constantly being asked where they are from, when they were born in America, I can see how that might get under their skin or aggravate them. However, we do live in a pluralistic, melting pot. As humans, we all make assumptions about where people are from based on their skin type, language, accent and dress. I don’t think this is the fault of only “white” Americans. When I travel, people assume that I am American. Is it because I’m white and speak English? I think the assumption that Americans are white, English speakers comes from our origin: pilgrims coming from England to America and establishing a colony. This is not to say that they "discovered" America. This does not imply that Native Americans weren't already here. It's just the way people have thought for the past 200 years about Americans. As white Americans, we must begin to realize that people from all over the world have been coming here to make a new and better life. So, naturalized citizens do all look different and have heritages from all over the world.

This microaggression realization is disturbing on some levels and is causing me to look within and re-evaluate who I am in Christ, as a woman, mother, wife, teacher and friend. I do not want to change the way I think on human rights, moral issues or equality, but do not want to absentmindedly offend others. I also wonder if much of this so-called “microaggression” (I don’t even like the word) is really people taking interest in other cultures and people becoming too easily offended. Dr. Sue would say that is microinvalidation or microinsulting. As a woman of God, I know that we are to deem others greater than ourselves. John McArthur (a Christian religious teacher and pastor) speaks on the radio daily. He believes that when we are taking these kinds of “insults” personally, we believe that we have some kind of rights over another that actually none of us has. That is the right to demand our way, to think that we should never be insulted or offended, to believe that it’s all about us. These teachings, again, have caused me to reflect on this microaggression. I’m sure Dr. Sue would say I think this way because I am white.

Finally, my observation experiences this week have not affected my perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people. The research and story from Dr. Sue have made me aware that it does exist. Until this week, I'd never heard of it. So, when I meet a person whom I want to get to know and want to ask where they are from, I might begin the conversation by simply asking generic questions about their family and sharing about my family. I might ask about work, hobbies or other interests instead of starting a conversation with “where are you from?” Maybe in the course of this conversation, my natural curiosity will be abated. Maybe not. Either way, I’m still going to attempt to get to know people because I think that’s the best way to end this cycle of microaggression.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). “Microaggressions in Everyday Life” with Dr. Sue.

Dictionary.com (2011). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aggression

Culture & Diversity

This week, I was supposed to ask people the definition of culture and diversity. Things that people said were:

“culture is the way people live”

“culture is all the ways we live – the differences in say the American way vs. Chinese, Indians, etc.”

“diversity is the differences between people of different cultures including different beliefs, values, traditions that one group of people practice. It includes language, dress, foods we eat, holidays we celebrate and our religion”

“diversity is how we are different”

Aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied included in these answers are that culture is many different things. It is the way we do things, our language, traditions, dress, foods, celebrations, etc.

Before this course, I thought of culture as just the differences in our dress, language, foods and traditions. I’m finding out that it’s much more. Comments that were omitted from all the comments were that culture touches every part of our lives.

Thinking about the way other people define culture and diversity has made me realize that we really don’t give culture and diversity much thought. We just all seem to take it for granted.

My Family Culture

For my master’s degree, I am currently enrolled in a course “Perspectives on Diversity and Equity”. For this assignment I am to imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture. Give a description of the three items you would choose. Explain to others what these three items mean to you. Describe your feeling, if upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you.

I had to think long and hard about this assignment. Having only 3 items to take with me, and give up everything I own, was a devastating thought. I immediately thought of my wedding ring. I assume this does not have to be one of the three items, since it is on my finger. I think I would take some kind of textbook or teaching materials if my children were still in school. They are grown and in college, so I don’t think I’d need that. I thought about my recipe card file, because it has recipes from my mother and grandmother that I really don’t want to lose. However, if I were dropped in the middle of the jungle, living off the land, a recipe card file would really serve any useful purpose. I decided that I can live without my make-up, curlers and even my toothbrush and toothpaste. Yuk!

After much thought, and consulting with friends and family, the 3 items that I would choose to take with me are: my Bible, a memory album and my recipe card file. I would choose to take:

1.      the Bible

2.      a family scrapbook album and

3.      a bag of medicine

I would take the Bible because I am a practicing, committed Christian. The Bible holds the truths that I try live by: do not steal, do not kill, do not lie, love one another, forgive others, and be kind to one another. These words are very important to me and I would need the emotional support that these words offer me in times of stress.

I scrapbook my family’s memories, and have many pictures and mementos in scrapbooks from as far back as my great, great grandparents. I would choose to take a book that holds some of our family’s history, photos and mementos. I would hope that taking this item with me would keep our family history alive for many generations to come.

I would take the bag of medicine since I don’t know where we are going or what is going to happen. I would want to be able to keep my family healthy as long as possible. I would want to be able to put Band-aids on cuts and give an aspiring for a fever.

If, upon arrival, I find that I can only have one of these items, I would choose the memory album of my family’s history. I have memorized many of the Bible’s passages and so has my family. We would be able to keep our faith alive by talking about the verses we know by heart and the historical accounts of the Bible. The medicine would be sacrificed in the hopes that there would be medicine to be found, or even indigenous plants and herbs for the support of our health.

The insights I have gained about myself, my family culture, diversity and cultural differences in general as a result of this exercise are that our faith in God is very important to me and my family.  I also see that family history is very, very important to me because I spend countless hours putting our family’s history, pictures and mementos into albums. I talk to my children and share stories of our faith heritage and our family history. I put these things in scrapbook albums so that they will be preserved for future generations. I want my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to know who we are and who we come from and hopefully pass on the faith and good aspects of our family and our heritage.

Doing Early Childhood Research

I am in my final week of Doing Early Childhood Research. My course is about to come to a close and I have a newfound respect for early childhood research and researchers. I have gained many insights into early childhood research as a result of taking this course.

Ways in which my ideas about the nature of doing research have changed are that I realize research is a very involved, complicated process. In the past, I was naïve enough to believe that it was as simple as asking a question, making some observations and coming to some personal conclusions. I learned that there are generally two types of research: deductive research and inductive research. Deductive research is when the researcher develops a hypotheses, tests it and the results are based in data (Mac Naughton, Rolfe & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010 pp. 364-365) whereas inductive research is when researchers do not go in with any preconceived ideas and simply make observations and try to explain human behaviors or why we do the things we do, how we relate to one another, etc.

I discovered that research should be: ethical, purposeful, well designed, transparent, contextualized, credible, careful, imaginative and equitable (Mac Naughton, Rolfe & Siraj-Blatchford, p. 10).

The lessons I have learned about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood are again, that the process takes a lot of planning and forethought. Personal biases can influence research and results and there are many considerations to take into account. I also learned that my personal interests should guide my research and that most researchers are simply asking questions that they want answers to.

The one thing that made an impression on me was treating children with respect with regard to research. In the past, asking the parent’s permission seemed enough with respect to researching children. This perspective has changed. I feel that I have always shown respect to little children and that is part of the quality teaching of a good early childhood educator. However, asking their permission and thoughts on whether or not they want to participate in the research was a new idea for me.

Some of the challenges I encountered in this course was simply understanding the jargon with regard to research during my course reading. I had to read and re-read material. I had to look up words in the Glossary, Dictionary and Google terms and ideas. I also read additional research that might have related to what I was reading so that I could get a better handle on the text.

Some of the ways my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course are that early childhood professionals are not simply babysitters or even just teachers. I also realize that hundreds of early childhood professionals, teachers and researchers have gone before me to help put into place the many ways in which we understand children, relate to them, teach them and learn from them.

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood

research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY:McGraw-Hill.

International Early Childhood Research

This week I am investigating international early childhood websites. I chose the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan, Africa website located at http://www.ecdvu.org/index.php

“The ECDVU is committed to promoting ECD in The Majority World through innovative education, networking, publishing and other forms of scholarly activity. For example, the ECDVU has played a key role, with other regional and international partners, in the development of a triennial series of African International ECD Conferences (1999, 2002, 2005, 2009).” http://www.ecdvu.org/welcome.php

“The ECDVU program was founded and is directed by Dr. Alan Pence, UNESCO Chair for Early Childhood Education, Care and Development; Professor, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada”. http://www.ecdvu.org/welcome.php

Three questions were raised:

1.     What are some of the current international research topics? Some research topics the ECDVU addresses are Understanding Children, Families and Communities Over Time and Across Cultures. They have in-depth research and reports from these countries: Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda and Zambia. This extensive research addresses such topics as: poverty, nutrition, health, child survival, water and sanitation, education indicators, parents’ responsibilities, community’s responsibilities, government’s responsibilities, child abuse, wage earning, religion, demographics, child labor, and enrollment of children in school.

2.     What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website? I was surprised to find that even in the poorest countries around the world, parents and community leaders are concerned about children’s education. It seems to be common knowledge that education affords one a better life and that the earlier children begin their education, the better. These war-torn, ravaged countries still take their parental, community and governmental responsibilities very seriously with regard to children and early childhood education.

3.     What other noteworthy information did you find on this website? Other noteworthy information I found a plethora of statistics related to poverty and the situation of children and families in Africa. According to http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/documents/Nigeria_Country_Report.pdf “malaria, diarrhea, acute respiratory tract infections (ARI), and the vaccine preventable diseases are the main causes of child morbidity and mortality. Fifty percent (50%) of infant deaths are prenatal deaths caused by neonatal tetanus, low birth weight, and complications during labour and deliver. An emergency threat to young child is HIV/AIDS, which can be transmitted from an infected mother to her child in the womb, at the time of delivery, or through breast milk. The morbidity and mortality patterns already mentioned are determined not only by factors intrinsic to the individual but above all by external factors, including the extent to which adequate health care services are available and accessible. Other external factors, such a poverty, the environment, water supply and sanitation, malnutrition, educational levels, cultural attitudes, and gender relations also have important ramifications for health and survival” (Situation of Women and Early Childhood Development in Nigeria, p. 10). It’s very difficult to acknowledge that children in other parts of the world are dying in large numbers from things like preventable diseases, for which there are vaccines.

*On a personal note, I have sponsored a child through World Vision in Lesotho, Africa for almost 15 years. I was excited to read the report on Lesotho from this website. I felt a very personal connection with the region.

Resources:

Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan, Africa. (August 13, 2007). Retrieved from: http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/creports.php

Situation of women and early childhood development in Nigeria. (2001). Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan, Africa. Retrieved from: http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/documents/Nigeria_Country_Report.pdf

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

For my course in research this week, I was asked to share a personal story of how research has benefited someone I know. My husband and I were married in 1978 and had great difficulty getting pregnant. We were truly surprised and blessed by our first child - a beautiful baby girl in September of 1987. When our daughter was 3-years-old, she began having health problems. By age 7, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  She was given two years to live. You can’t imagine the emotional distress and pain we felt knowing that our little girl, that we prayed for for so long, was going to die so young; not only die, but suffer a horrifying, painful experience as well. We were told that as few as ten years prior to this time, an MRI would not have even been able to detect this tumor since it was so deep in her brain. We were amazed and glad that we lived in a time when the medical profession seemed to be so advanced. The leading oncologist on the case said that “even though we know a lot about the human body, we just don’t know that much about the brain.” That surprised me. Knowing that doctors could remove a heart and give someone a new one, how could they not “know that much about the brain”? My daughter underwent chemotherapy once-a-week for a year (enough for a 300-lb. man), months of radiation, four brain surgeries and monthly hormone shots for three years. If it were not for the relentless work of countless researchers and people subjecting themselves to this research, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy would probably not have been in existence or available to my child.

According to Wikipedia, “As is obvious from their origins, the above cancer chemotherapies are essentially poisons. Patients receiving these agents experienced severe side-effects that limited the doses which could be administered, and hence limited the beneficial effects. Clinical investigators realized that the ability to manage these toxicities was crucial to the success of cancer chemotherapy.

“Several examples are noteworthy. Many chemotherapeutic agents cause profound suppression of the bone marrow. This is reversible, but takes time to recover. Support with platelet and red-cell transfusions as well as broad-spectrum antibiotics in case of infection during this period is crucial to allow the patient to recover.

“Several practical factors are also worth mentioning. Most of these agents caused very severe nausea (termed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in the literature) which, while not directly causing patient deaths, was unbearable at higher doses. The development of new drugs to prevent nausea (the prototype of which was ondansetron) was of great practical use, as was the design of indwelling intravenous catheters (e.g. Hickman lines and PICC lines) which allowed safe administration of chemotherapy as well as supportive therapy” (May, 2011).

While someone could say that knowing you were dying of cancer might make it easier to subject yourself to clinical trials for medicines, I can’t imagine being in that position. The shock of being told you or a loved one has cancer is unlike any other diagnosis. I greatly admire any person who was willing to undergo clinical trials to further medical research. You might think that participating in any research to save your own life might be selfish, but I see it as completely unselfish. The diagnosis and treatment of cancer has only come about because of researchers who were passionate about curing cancer and people who were willing to suffer so that my child might live.

Candace is now 23-year-olds. She has a little sister who is also in college. She attends college, lives at home and works full-time. Even though she is legally blind, she can drive within a few miles of home and has a level of independence that we were sure she would never attain. Candace is a tenderherated, compassionate, caring person. Everyone who meets her is amazed by what she has suffered through. She rarely talks about it and doesn't want people to know. She wants to be "normal". Every birthday is a celebration – a blessing. Not only do I thank God, but I am truly grateful for the knowledge, research and sacrifice of all those who have come before – who made her treatment possible – who gave us options other than just the inevitable diagnosis of a painful, premature death.

Wikipedia (May 3, 2011). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cancer_chemotherapy