Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that everyone is treated equally. I hope to build a lasting relationship this the families that I work with. One goal that I have for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that we continue to help make a differences in the lives  of the families that we serve.

This past eight weeks I have learned a great deal about diversity from my perspective and the perspective of my colleagues. I want to thank each and every one of you all for post and discussing. I’ve gained really good insight from you guys and I am thankful for the knowledge bestowed upon me. I wish you all the best and good luck on your future endeavors.  

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I work for a social service agency and my boss comes to me and tell me that she has added a family from Berlin, Germany to case load. I know nothing about Germany and never traveled there before.  So the first thing I do is go to the internet and start to do research.  The first thing I would research is the language. A teacher that I looked up to once told me, it is good to learn little wrongs in the families native tongue so that you can use them with the family. It is little things like that, that makes the families feel important.  Then I research traditions, getting to know the things that they do and celebrate would help the family know that you care. I would research religion because it is not important to everyone but to so people it is. I will not know if they are religious until at get to meet them, but i can have a little knowledge on the religion in Germany. I would research education systems because I can know how the teachers teach and some of the methods that they used. I get to know what kind of learning style they are used to. The last thing I would research is food just because it is interesting to know what kinds of food they eat. Everyone loves food. I believe that all these things are important when to know when getting to know a family. Having more knowledge on the all these thing would prepare me a little about the family. But who’s to say that the information I researcher is accurate about this family. When I first meet the family I make them feel comfortable with me so that I could get to know more about them from them.  This is the best way to get to know them in my opinion.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

While I was in college one night after coming from the bars it was a few police cars outside. As we walking out of the bar we seen the police stopping people and id’ing them. We did not think nothing of it, we thought maybe they were doing  a random sweep. But then we realized after they stopped my friend, that they were only targeting the black students. We tried to ask the police why was they stopping our friend and he just told us to go home. We refused to go home without knowing what was going to happen to our friend. When I realized the police’s targeted audience I became very furious. There were people of all racial backgrounds in the bar but for the only ones to be searched and id’ed were the black people was crazy to me and I did not understand why this was going on. I probably would not have been as mad or upset if I have seen other races getting searched as well.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

While watching a popular television show(T.M.Z) during the week, there was a segment on there about a popular rapper’s concert getting shot up. Even though the rapper had nothing to do with it he still got fined. But the host of the television show went on to say that there is always violence at a hip hop/rap concert than any other concert. The host was a white male, and I felt like he was stereotyping black people, because black people are the major of rap artist. I feel like that is what a lot of people think about rap music, because a lot of venues are not allowing rappers to perform at their establishments anymore. No I do not listen to rap music because I do not like it, but I do feel like rappers are looked at like gangsters and killers. When in reality most of them are not what they rap about, it is all for entertainment. When it comes to discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes, I feel that we do not have to right to pass judgement, but that’s is just the world we live in. Everyone is stereotyped not matter what your skin color is.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I have interview three different people about their definition of diversity and culture. One person was Jamaican, one was and African American, and the other was Mexican.  When I asked the question what is your definition of culture and diversity, the people that I interviewed said that they really never thought about it before.

Jamaican

What is you definition of culture? 

Your family history

What is your definition of diversity?

Different groups of people in one place.

African American

What is you definition of culture? 

The history of your heritage.

What is your definition of diversity?

Being able to relate to people of different nationalities

Mexican 

 What is you definition of culture? 

Different family practices.

 What is your definition of diversity?

Diversity is when different cultures come together.

Before taking this course I never really thought about diversity and culture. But after reading articles and the book for this course, I have learned more about diversity and culture. According to the answers that was given, I believe that I would  have given the same answers if I was asked prior to this course. Neither one of the people that I interviewed said anything about the small social groups that we are apart of. They just spoke of the basic things that we all think of when it comes to culture and diversity. After doing this interview I am glad that I am taking this course because I am much more educated on the subject of diversity and culture.