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Showing posts from November, 2020

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

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Picture from The Wall Street Journal ( Aug. 9, 2020)        In the summer of 2017, my two sons and I were returning to the US together. We were confused during the New York JFK airport passport, and security transition noticed and decided to seek help from an employee. I asked my questions to the security guard, who African-American woman, and I added that I am still learning English and sometimes have difficulty understanding. The guards made a different facial gesture, then turned to me and said, "You don't know English, so why are you coming here?" said. It was a long question for me, and no needed to answer it. My children and I were able to look at each other and just said okay. Then, without changing her tone, she said something to me with some gestures and turned away without even looking back. When I asked what she said to us, my son said that I felt very distressed. We never talked about that issue again with my children, and frankly, we pretended not to hav...

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Culture:  The coexistence of relations and values ​​of a group of people who share the same language, religion, customs, traditions, or, in simpler terms, food, music, or general beliefs in life.  Diversity is  colors made up of the cultures displayed by people from different lifestyles. Like my neighbor in the neighborhood where I live, wearing an Indian outfit on the street, my Muslim neighbor wearing a veil, or my American neighbor walking to the mailbox barefoot. My friend's recipe, a teacher, is the same as the recipe for the culture taught to us in schools. When defining Culture and Diversity, it can be inferred that different groups have people from different social and ethnic backgrounds together. Culture is a broad definition of traditions, social behavior, and norms in a specific country. It is not static and changes for a long time based on the learnings and influences coming from different cultures. Human beings born in that culture grew up as a robot of that...

My Family Culture

     I witnessed close to the migration of refugees from Syria to Turkey, starting in 2015.  I know when those desperate people who escape the war crossed the border with a suitcase or with sacks on their backs, and the Turkish people opened their doors and hosted them. I can remember what those people passed through and the suffering of the refugee children in our school.      I can understand migration and the difficulties of migration as an immigrant. When I moved to the USA in 2016, I had the chance to carry all my home and personal belongings, and I could bring everything I valued here.       Therefore, I could only take three things with me made me think more and more about the importance of those things. If I had to move in this way, I would take my family's photo album with me because I would explain that my family is essential to me and that I want to keep them with me wherever I go.       The other thin...