One Hope, One Goal, & a Note of Thanks

One Hope: The children and families that I come into contact with will feel that I am accepting, understanding, and welcoming to their individuality and cultural diversity. I also want to assist others with their own personal understanding of diversity in hopes of helping the world become more understanding and tolerant of one another.

One Goal: To continue to emulate the change I wish to see in the world, as well as implementing more opportunities and aspects of diverse cultures within my school/classrooms.

Thank you for all of the words of wisdom, shared stories and experiences, and open thoughts throughout this course. I hope that you all have learned something from me and all that we have learned through our time together. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

In order to create a comfortable and accepting transition for the family from Mexico, I would ensure the following:

• Add accents to my home that would remind the family of their home culture such as books, music, popular food/snacks, etc.
• If possible, I would have a translator present just incase the family does not speak English and to provide them with a relatable person to ask questions and provide information.
• If there are small children that would attend my childcare center, I would prepare any documentation and registration information to go over with the family and translator once they arrive.
• I would learn simple Spanish phrases and words to help the family realize that I am open and willing to learn about their culture as well. 

I transition such as this is already difficult enough. My hope is to ease the minds and spirits of this family and these accommodations would demonstrate how hard I would try to embrace their culture within our shared home.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory of when I experienced prejudice personally came when I first started working in corporate America. I was always told that my name would make it hard for me to obtain jobs in a white-washed corporate setting, but I was determined to prove everyone wrong. I was on a panel of interviewers at a company job fair. Amongst the panel was the president of human resources. We'd never met nor conversed, so she was not aware of who I was nor my position within the company. She read over a list of what she thought was the list of interviewee's, but instead she was reading the list of interviewers. She went through the list out loud and when she got to my name she struggled to pronounce it (as most people do). After butchering it several times, she laughed and jokingly stated "wow I would never hire someone with a name like that". I looked down the table, pointed to my name tag, and stated "you already did".

She apologized over and over and said she did not mean to offend me, and I told her it was okay. I did feel a little embarrassed, as I knew that this was more than likely her thought process for most interview candidates. However, I am glad to have been sitting there when she made the comment and hopefully she will never make those types of judgements again.

The president of HR would have to change her mindset if she was going to learn anything from the incident. There is no telling at all just how many people have been denied jobs from that company based on something they themselves had no control over. I truthfully and whole-heartedly believed that she learned her lesson that day, one that will hopefully stick with her for the rest of her life.