The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 When I think of working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, my hope is that they feel welcomed and included. I hope I am able to respect their culture and include it in my class. My goal for the early childhood field regarding diversity, equity, and social justice is to have early education available in all languages. It would be great for children to get the education they need, no matter what language they speak. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The origin-country that I chose is Columbia; the first thing I would do is research this country's native language and learn a few words of it. The second thing I would do to prepare myself is to find images from Columbia, maybe even the flag, and add them to my classroom. The third thing I would do is research what types of food are native to Columbia and try to add those foods to my dramatic play center. The fourth thing I would do is research their culture and explore all things that would give me insight into this family. The final thing I would do is to prepare a lesson on Columbia to share with the class. I hope that these preparations would benefit the family and help them feel welcome and included. I hope that I would benefit from this by learning more about another culture and how to be culturally responsive toward it. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 Thinking back about a prejudice that I witnessed years ago comes from a when I was up for a job promotion. The promotion was between me and another girl name Tara, well the Tara and the assistant were best friends and hung out all the time. Before the assistant started, the director was personally working with me to be promoted next. I usually follow all rules and regulations, and this annoyed the assistant because it often made more work for her. When it came time for the promotion, the director asked for the assistant's opinion, well the assistant was biased and said her friend was better. Tara ended up getting promoted and was no longer with the company within a few months. The decision to promote Tara was based on a bias opinion. This incident didn't have any equity as it was not a fair choice; the choice should have been made on experience, professional, and other things. Thinking about this incident brings back the pain the I felt when I was not picked, I was disappointed because I was highly qualified for the position. I knew immediately that it was because the assistant didn't like me and it was upsetting. The things that would have to change for equity to happen in this situation is the person or the process. The assistant and director should have looked at nameless resumes and picked the most appropriate one for the job. The other thing that could change is the assistant; she needed to make an unbias choice and give her opinion based on facts, not feelings. 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 One microaggression that I remember from another time is when I was hanging out with my friend and their mom was driving. Whenever a Hispanic person would walk by my friend's mother would hastily lock the car doors. The type of microaggression that was happening was that my friends mom was stereotyping all Hispanics. When I first observed this microaggression I didn't think twice about it, to me this was normal. Looking back I see that this was not a normal response, it was a microaggression towards them. My observations experiences affected my perception of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes on people because I realize something. I realized that a lot of the microaggressions we have been talking about are things that I use to not even think about. I realized that a lot of microaggressions are unintentional because some people simply are not aware of microaggressions and the negative effects they can have on people.