Professional Hopes and Goals

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love

“Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of minimum income, education, and healthcare, we cannot say that we have fair competition. When some people have to run a 100 meter race with sandbags on their legs, the fact that no one is allowed to have a head start does not make the race fair. Equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary but not sufficient in building a genuinely fair and efficient society.”

― Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

My hope when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to have a better future.

The goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is to be able to stand in gap for children and their families in order to be valued and respected.

It is my pleasure to have met with you all in this course. I say thank you to Dr. Parrish and all my colleagues for your great contribution to my learning and your impactful knowledge. I feel as if we should continue. It has been a very insightful course. You are all going to succeed by God’s grace. All the best as you continue with your studies and in your future endeavors.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

For week’s 7 blog assignment the name of the country of family’s country of origin I chose is Ireland. The following are some of the ways in which you would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

·      Research some basic things about people from Ireland may be their custom, food, traditions, dressing, greetings, address people, how to comfort a child, children upbringing, and so on.

·      If it’s possible I would call the parents to welcome them and introduce myself. Ask them if there is anything they have as per resources that could help their child settling down.

·      Ask the parents about their expectation of the child. I would probably ask some of the things they do with the child at home just to help me understand a little bit more about the child.

·      Prepare the mind of the children in the class before the arrival of the new child in the area of diversity.

·      Adjust my program to meet the needs of the child and his parents if possible and paste the picture about culture in Ireland with the other cultural picture.

·      Ask him to bring something about his culture in order to learn more about is culture.

·      Include group activities that do not emphasize competitiveness.

·      Watch for signs of discomfort while children are participating in activities.

·      Do not allow other children to tease newcomers because of the way they carry out routines, such as eating where they may use utensils differently or they may be fed at home and do not know how to eat on their own.

·      Having patient with the child as he’s struggling between the language of his origin and English and as he’s getting use to the new environment.

There is much one can do to help children feel more comfortable and acquire the skills that will prepare them for school. Adjusting the program to meet the needs of new child does not necessarily require additional resources but does involve knowing and understanding the child. Also adjustment the program would make accommodation for the child and his family in the class. The best source of information about the child would be the parents in order to know their expectation about the child and get the information that would help the child settle down. Having prepared the mind of the children about the new child by teaching them diversity would reduce the stereotype and discrimination issues the child may encounter. Patient would make the class and the environment more conducive for the child to learn and develop. Being able to speak some basic things in their language would show respect and the interest in the family and it would strengthen my relationship with the child and his family. It would really be helpful to the child if I could watch out for signs of discomfort probably before other children are aware of it and start making jest of him. When you greet the children in your child care setting on any given day, you likely welcome into your group children who speak different languages and are accustomed to different cultural and social practices. What all of these children do share are two things: The time they spend together with you, and their need to become ready for the school setting (Colbert,n.d.).

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

"Crash" is a movie that tells interlocking stories of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism. All are victims of it, and all are guilty of it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking?

For me, the strongest performance is by Matt Dillon, as the racist cop in anguish over his father. He makes an unnecessary traffic stop when he thinks he sees the black TV director and his light-skinned wife doing something they really shouldn't be doing at the same time they're driving. True enough, but he wouldn't have stopped a black couple or a white couple. He humiliates the woman with an invasive body search, while her husband is forced to stand by powerless, because the cops have the guns -- Dillon, and also an unseasoned rookie (Ryan Phillippe), who hates what he's seeing but has to back up his partner.

The obvious reoccurring theme in the movie is social inequality, specifically racism, and many racial stereotypes are brought up throughout the movie. For example, in one of the scenes the young Hispanic locksmith is changing the locks in the district attorney’s house. While he is doing this, the district attorney’s wife is in a frenzy in the other room about wanting to get the locks changed again the next day. The clear implication here is that she does not trust the locksmith because he is Hispanic, and she has the notion that he is going to sell a copy of the key to some criminals who will rob the house. This blatant social inequality that is shown is extremely powerful to the audience, especially because the audience learns that the locksmith is simply a hard-working man who is earning an honest living and supporting a wife and a young daughter. The district attorney’s wife had no reason to think otherwise, but because of the locksmith’s race she made an unfair assumption. This is only one of the many social inequalities that are present in this film. It is also very interesting to note that despite the extremely low percentage of Hispanic actors in films and prime time television today (around 6%), Crash is one of the few films that included a Hispanic actor in a major role.

Not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expect "Crash" to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves. The movie contains hurt, coldness and cruelty, but is it without hope? Not at all. Stand back and consider. All of these people, superficially so different, share the city and learn that they share similar fears and hopes. Until several hundred years ago, most people everywhere on earth never saw anybody who didn't look like them. They were not racist because, as far as they knew, there was only one race. You may have to look hard to see it, but "Crash" is a film about progress.

This is a movie that I would like to recommend for you to watch in order to have more understanding about racism and inequality.

Reference:

Billyhocking (2011) Social Inequality in“Crash”. Retrieved from http://billyhocking.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/social-inequality-in-crash/