Practicing Awareness of Microagression

There is a popular African proverb that says “If one finger brought oil, it soiled the others”, that is the case of Nigerians in Malaysia. It is a known fact in Malaysia and most Asian countries that Nigerians are mostly involved in drugs smuggling and fraudulent deals via the internet, so as such we are all treated as people that are “no good”.

I think going through the readings this week has made me so sensitive that I can easily detect microaggression in every discussion that I am involved in. Unlike most countries, Nigerians need visas to visit other countries except our fellow West African countries, so this week I travelled all the way from Brunei to Malaysia with my family to get a sheng hen visa that will enable us get to some European countries.

I was not expecting a special treatment, but I was hoping that we will be treated like every other human being coming to the office of a consulate; it was difficult for the Malaysian police at the reception to give us a listening ear because to him we are “no good people”.  He kept asking irrelevant questions even though we told him we had a prior appointment, we had to wait there for more than one hour and kept making calls fortunately we got through to the officer in charge of the visa section and we were granted entry into the office of the consulate.

I felt rubbed of my right as a human being, the right of speaking without being labeled as a person from a particular race or country that is tagged a “no good people”, because I believe that there are criminals in every country and one bad apple shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch, and because My country men are involved in such crimes does not make everybody a part of it.

My observation and experiences this week gave me a new perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes on people, that in as much as a particular group of people are labeled/ stereotype, it will be difficult to erase that notion from peoples mind, the only medicine we need as individuals to cure prejudices, discrimination and stereotype on people is making out time to understand one another and accepting each other as equals.

 

 

 

                                             Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I was asked to write to, or talk to at least three friends’ three friends, family members, acquaintances or a colleague, and I am expected to include at least one person who I believe is culturally different from me. I was fortunate enough to ask a Canadian friend of mine, an Indian friend of mine and a fellow Nigerian to give their various definitions of what they think culture is and diversity too.

My Canadian friend who is called Jamie defined culture as a collection of customs, how they celebrate, and their ideas as a group, their religious beliefs and how they behave in general as a group.

According to Jamie, diversity brings another dimension to a single culture; it adds another perspective and richness to society, many different cultures as opposed to a single one.  An example of this society is her home country Canada, which is a multicultural country that allows people to celebrate their diversity.

Another friend of mine Dhanushki an Indian, gave her own definition of culture as a collection of values, beliefs and ethics that a person is exposed to.

Dhanushki defined diversity as the differences of individuals, related to age, sex, culture, religion or even personality.

Emeka a third friend of mine defined culture as the way a group of people of people express their beliefs, dressing, talk or entertain, it is the things that makes them unique and identifiable to others. He defines diversity as the broadening of ideas and knowledge.

Going through the various definitions given by these three different individuals from different race, background and beliefs I can see how related their definitions are examples of this is how they all defined culture.

Thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity has influenced my own thinking about these topics because I feel everyone is aware of these topics, and our understanding of these topics will either make us or break us depending on how we use it to the benefit of us and other individuals around us.

                              My Family Culture

If I am caught up in a catastrophic event that will take me away from my home country to a country that share a different culture from mine and probably will not return, the three major items I will carry will be, a photo of my family and I dressed in our traditional/ cultural attire, I will like to come along with a bible and also a piece of a musical instruments that represent my culture.

When giving an explanation on the three items, I probably will start with the picture of I and my family, because on special occasions we go into a photographic studio so as to keep the memories of that particular event and retell the story. Pictures are very important and huge part of my family and they can tell stories without individuals telling the stories. The second item is a big part of my spirituality, my bible gives me direction in live, comforts me and gives me hope and re-assurance in life, it preaches love to me and how to dwell among people and not being judgmental. My last but not the least item is the African gong to play music with, for entertaining my family and maybe our new neighbors. The African gong is a unique instrument in my culture, so it will be good to introduce to our new neighbors playing and singing African melodies and I believe they will enjoy it because music is the food of love, soul and spirit. Music uplifts the spirit and relaxes us and gives joy to the heart.

If upon arrival I am told to drop two items out of my three major items I will be devastated because all three items are really important to me, but at the same time glad that my family is still with me. Aside from the three tangible items, there is one that will always be part of me, the invisible one that can never be taken away, that one remains with me until death and this is my memory. I can always improvise to get the two items I dropped replaced.

The insights I gained about myself is that I will always be strong with my family around me no matter the situation because the greatest support I can get as an individual is from my family. About my family culture, to me I feel culture changes with the emergence of new generation; culture is something that you can modify to suit your taste, and the insight I got from cultural differences as a result of this exercise is that cultural differences in general shows the way different cultures live, what they eat, their believes and their religious belives.