Rachel Gillen's Blog

My experience with microaggressions was not a recent event. Although, I am certain there were examples in my daily life this past week, this example sticks out in my memory. My first few years teaching, one of my coworkers, was a teacher from Ghana who had come to the United States when she was 13. This coworker spoke perfect English and without asking, I would've never known that she was born outside of the states but, she shared this fact with pride and we regularly heard her speak on the phone in her native language. One day, while completing a questionnaire for our quality rating, this coworker was asked what she considered her first language. She looked at out the staff completing the survey and responded that her first language was english and she looked extremely offended. The staff member specified that she meant the language she spoke before english. My coworker answered that her first language has always been english but she also speak her native language.  Like a few e

When asking my three people their definitions of culture and diversity, the answers were quite similar and held aspects similar to definitions given in this course. Two of my coworkers had very similar definitions which included concepts like ethnicity, language, religion, values, beliefs, etc. My stepmom reminded me of one of the video clips we watched where they discussed how culture represent everything. It's connected to how we walk, talk, look at other people, etc. Diversity was included with culture in all the differences we have in our cultural items. What I thought was extremely interesting was my stepmom talked of culture in regards to the dominant culture, and discussed what her culture is. I found this interesting because she is the dominant culture and I have found in talking to other people that they don't really see themselves as having a culture if they come from the dominant culture, they see everyone else as having a culture. I think she omitted this because

The three items I would take with me that I hold dear and represent my family culture are a family picture, a quilt made by my Granny, a necklace my Dad gave me. My family picture would need to be a multi-picture frame as my parents are divorced and, at this point in life, the family is very separated into two separate families. The quilt made by my Granny is a quilt she made me when I was very little and I used all the time. All of the quilts my Granny made hold many memories and remind me of so much when I see the fabric or cover up with any of them. The necklace my Dad gave me, although materialistic, was given to me before his stroke. Now that my Dad can't say much due to his stroke, the necklace helps me remind me of the love and support he has always given me. I definitely think it would be extremely hard to pick one item to bring but, I think my Granny's quilt holds so much of my childhood memories that it would allow me to hold onto everything dear. I am not a mat