Microaggression Awareness

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Chinese New Year was celebrated this week.  We have one family, that happens to celebrate it.  We have a family that is originally from Thailand in our classroom.  As the mom was talking to me during pick up time about their preparations another parent was listening to the conversation.  After the Thai family left, another parent asked me why they celebrated The Chinese New Year if they are from Thailand, making a comment "Aren't they Thai, only Chinese celebrate that."  While at first I looked at this as an opportunity to educate this parent on the celebration, now I can understand how this could have been construed as a microaggression.

While upholding our confidentiality for our other family involved, I solely said that "a large population of Chinese live in neighboring countries of China like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and others.  I'm not sure exactly their origin, but any reason to celebrate is a good reason to me." 

I wasn't upset towards this parent that spoke the words, and as a professional you don't judge where or why this person made a comment as they did.  Each day we are blessed with the opportunity to interact with others.  Our tone of voice, choice of words, and context of conversation could be the cause of microagression without even knowing it.  

A constant struggle, and I can't be the only one on this, is understanding the person's tone, facial expressions/body language, and purpose behind a statement.  Sometimes a microaggression is blatantly obvious as racial slurs or derogatory language is used.  In this circumstance, understanding the facial language, body language, and facial expressions made it clear they were critical on the purpose of this family celebrating a holiday.  I thought this week, would it have been an offensive comment if this parent's body language and tone of voice were different?

As an educator, we're in the position to also assist a parent in some education.  This though, educating a parent on positive social interactions is not something I'm ready to tackle.  I'll keep to doing that with 4 year olds!

Photo Credit:

Nigatu, Heben (2013) 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis. Retrieved 29        January 2014.  Website:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis