Perspectives on Diversity and Equity (EDUC - 6164 - 6) Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

            Last year, around Christmas time, my niece got a baby doll as one of her Christmas gifts.  The baby doll was what she wanted, so you would think that she would have been excited.  However, all day she never touched the baby doll, never took it out of the box and did not even look at the doll.  By the end of the day she had played with all of her other toys, except the baby doll.  As her parents asked her to place of her new gifts in her room, she took everything but the baby doll.  When her father (my brother) handed her the baby doll she shook her shoulders and said, "no!"  "What's wrong," he asked her.  She implied that the baby doll was a black baby doll and she wanted the white baby doll.  This statement shocked everyone in the room.  He asked her, "why do you want the white baby doll so badly?"  She responded with the fact that she thought the white one was prettier.  One by one each family member asked her what made the white baby doll prettier, and each time she said the skin and her hair.  That Christmas we spent time telling all the children about how God made them all unique, different and special.  He made everyone just the way that they were supposed to be.  We explained you can't not like someone because of their skin color because she would be not liking a lot of her own family members.  It is very important to love everyone.  By the end of the day, I am pretty sure that she got the message and she still plays with the doll today.

            For me, this was an example of Dr. Sue's "Catch-22."  I wondered in my mind, did this really happen?  As an educator, I knew that I needed to spend time talking to my niece without asking her too many questions to discover where this behavior came from.  I explored the subject and found out that she goes to a school where there are not many kids that look like her.  Most of the little Caucasian children are very warm and welcoming to her and she wanted her doll baby to look like her friends.  I explained to her that it is ok to like people of all races, but we must remember where we come from.  Therefore, I reminded her parents it is important to schedule play dates with friends that look like her as well.  Maybe, friends in the neighborhood or the church but she needs to know and accept her culture.  I also asked my sister in law to visit the school and see if there are books, toys, puppets or anything that would represent our culture within the classroom.  If she did not see anything, I told her to ask the teacher.  This is important that each child's culture is represented within the classroom.  Today, she is coming into her own little identity and she has friends of all races.  Also, we now buy her dolls that explore all cultures.