Welcoming Families Around the World

The country I chose is Haiti for my family’s country of origin. Some ways I will prepare to be culturally responsive towards the family is to get to know them by asking questions about their country and child. One important thing is also make sure I know the proper pronunciation of the child’s name. I would incorporate things they tell me to include in the classroom setting so their child can feel welcomed in the class. Material about and from their home and things from their country would be placed throughout the class so not only I can learn things about Haiti but children in the classroom can also learn as well. Include pictures about diversity on walls in class will be helpful because the child will feel the sense of belonging. Always put something on my lesson plan that the child will be familiar with and that others can learn from. I would ask the family to bring some items from home that I could put in class and I would put books about Haiti and other countries around the class in different centers. These preparations would benefit not only me as the teacher but the child from Haiti and other students because we all can learn more diversity by seeing and talking about items included in class, lessons, and material.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I can recall a time I was online under a friends face book page. I was tagged in a post about all the killings happening where the police has killed black unarmed men. I was asked by this person to watch the video in which I told him, I couldn’t watch another video of a black man let alone any man being murdered by the police. So of course people started making comments not toward me just about how sad it was. I then told this person I’m praying for his family but watching those videos make me cry. Then this woman who I didn’t know at all said I was a  coward and need to be more black and stay woke. I never responded; she went on to say I’m a house “N-word”  because of my lighter complexion. I told her to have a blessed day, then she said people like me always look the other way in spite of things happening around me. Now this was another black woman making all these harsh comments, she was a darker complexion woman. For the life of me I always wondered why in the black community do some people compare skin complexions and think the lighter skinned people are better and darker complexion is less than. I read the last comment she wrote and I completely logged off. She said black sista you need to read slavery books right now because we’re headed that way because of black life people like you, people who look the other way when a injustice happen to yet another black man; it’s people like you that disgust me in every aspect of the black community, you will forever be on the side of the pig police who are killing our black men. I felt bad at first then I thought this lady is crazy for real, all this because I chose not to watch a video of someone being murdered. This same race prejudice brought up memories of when I was young and I had some cousins who were lighter skinned and some darker. I was in between which didn’t never make me a target of such harsh words. The cousins who were lighter always called the darker skinned cousins ugly and black when they got mad at one another.

I did inform that woman to have a blessed life and she need to pray to God she doesn’t continue to have that kind of attitude especially toward someone she doesn’t know at all, I told her I have the right to watch whatever I wanted to watch, it’s my choice if I want to watch a video of someone being killed. I told her there was no way I was going to watch someone lose their life and she could write that down in her black folks diary. I said you stay woke on more issues just not this particular issue.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

  

 

One evening our entire staff went to a local restaurant for dinner. I had already spoken to the Manager of the restaurant in advance so that we could reserve a table for 15 people. This manager was so nice, once we got there she was nice in person. It was a large group and we all had food and ordered drinks as well. A few of us ordered a desert to take with us. This restaurant was not a cheap place to eat either. No one in our group paid less than $25 plus gratuity was added since the group was over 8 people. We ate and enjoyed each others company for close to 2 hours it was an added bonus that the waitress was nice and sweet. We all noticed how every time we laughed and talked other people and waitress/waiters stared at us. I did notice along with others how cold it was and we asked several times for the heat to be turned on, the manger came and tried to fix it; they never tried to make us comfortable. It was in December and it was cold outside. The point of this whole story is that once  we left I received a phone call because I had given the manager my name and place where we worked when I called to make reservations. I was out shopping and was surprised she was calling me since we had just left. She told me that some people in the group hadn't paid their bills. I immediately was outraged because I had witnessed everyone pay for their food plus gratuity plus extra tips. I assured her that no one skipped out on a meal and she said yes, the waitress is missing a few of the tickets because they hadn't been paid. I told the manager to double/triple check  I would call to check and how stupid that would be since she had my number and place of employment for all of us. She said she understands but the tickets need to be paid. At this point I was furious, I told her to double check with the waitress and call me back as soon as possible. Then after speaking with her I called a co-worker to let her know what had just happened, she was upset too. My co-worker said that doesn't make any sense because they know where we work and have your name and number. It was taking so long for the manager to call me back so I called her back and she said "I'm sorry, we found the tickets they were stuck to other tickets." I then said so were you going to call me back to tell me this because I'm vey offended. The manager finally apologized and said she would mail me some coupons for 15 people, she asked for my address; needless to say I never received those coupons. Some months passed I went back with a co-worker and I asked for the manager and told her who I was and what happened; she said she had mailed those coupons already. While I was there she ended up giving me some coupons for free appetizers and of course when I went back to use them months later the restaurant was closed for good. This was a bad situation and I felt horrible to know someone thought me and some of my co-workers would skip out on a bill. The way this manager spoke to me I knew what it was all about, we were the wrong color. It happens every single day and it's sad.