Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

—Dr. Maya Angelou, American author, poet, and civil rights activist (Figure 2.21)

Poet Maya Angelou sets the tone for this section. All of us have something to learn about diversity. None of us will do this work perfectly. And yet, as we learn more, we can be better. Let’s learn how.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPqVit6TJjw

These discussions of structural inequality, a condition where one category of people is attributed an unequal status in relation to another category of people (United Nations N.d.), begin to help us understand why we have social problems in the first place. They also help us understand why social problems are hard to solve. But how can we use these models to start making a difference in our communities today?

We can take action at the level of microaggressions. According to Tiffany Alvoid, JD, an attorney who graduated from the UCLA School of Law, microaggression is “a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group” (Alvoid 2019). In the video in Figure 2.22, Alvoid provides examples of several microaggressions. One common microaggression is asking, “Where are you from?” particularly when a White person is talking to a person of color who speaks with an accent.

In another example, a Latinx student said they were serving a customer in a local restaurant. The customer, who was White, said, “You are one of the good ones,” to compliment the quality of their work. This compliment implied that everyone who looked like them wasn’t “good.” Another microaggression is to say, “I’m so OCD,” when in fact, you are just stressed out. This minimizes the struggles of those who have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

All of us can commit microaggressions, particularly when we are acting in our privilege. All of us can experience microaggressions, but people with less privilege experience them more. Microaggressions are a form of discrimination and marginalization. Some people don’t use the term microaggression any more, because they assert that all discrimination matters.

Living Diversity Well

We have now explored models of inequality as concepts and seen how they work when applied to daily life. What norms of behavior do we choose to use when we interact in our classroom and in our wider community? When we focus only on differences, we polarize our community. It becomes a situation of “us” versus “them.” By bringing interdependence and relationship into our conversations with each other, we can bridge our differences. We use our collective diversity as a communal strength. The following is a list of suggestions to support you in managing your own reactions and any conflict that may arise as we tackle these challenging concepts together:

• Breathe. When you notice your breathing, you notice your own physical and emotional reaction to the information you are learning or the environment around you.
• Pause before reacting. In the microaggressions video referenced earlier in this section, Alvoid suggests the use of the pause. She says, “Before you ask someone a personal question in the [classroom], pause” (Alvoid 2019). The pause allows you to consider why you are speaking. It also allows you to consider the impact of what you might say. Will the words you are considering cause harm to someone else? Sometimes it is important to disagree with someone. Even then, you can disagree with respect.
• Speak authentically. When you tell the truth about who you are, you bring richness into our collective room. Please consider the dynamics of who is speaking, also. If you speak often, you may want to be quieter to allow the voices of others. If you are quiet, consider being brave and speaking more. The wholeness of the world requires your voice.
• Take care of yourself. This book and this class address issues and experiences that may challenge your worldview, beliefs, and ideas about yourself and others. Because we discuss difficult life experiences like houselessness, sexual violence, and death and dying, you may experience strong feelings. If this occurs, please take care of yourself. Your instructor or your college may have support resources available to you.
  It may also help to consider this concept of radical self-care, championed by the activist leader and scholar Angela Davis. She encourages all of us to look at self-care as a method for creating healthier ways of being, one caring step at a time. If you’d like to hear more about it from Angela Davis herself, she describes the concept in the video “Radical Self Care [YouTube].” She says eating right and caring for your mental and spiritual health are essential when doing activist work. Activist and therapist Resmaa Menakem also reminds us that we can access resources that may support our healing. This blog post, “Understanding and Cultivating Your Resources” is an optional read to help you figure out how to get support.
• Cultivate cultural humility. Cultural humility is the ability to remain open to learning about other cultures while acknowledging one’s lack of competence and recognizing power dynamics that impact the relationship. Within cultural humility, it is important to engage in continuous self-reflection, recognize the impact of power dynamics on individuals and communities, embrace not knowing, and commit to lifelong learning. This approach to diversity encourages a curious spirit and the ability to openly engage with others while learning about a different culture. As a result, it is important to address power imbalances and develop meaningful relationships with community members in order to create positive change. You can explore a guide to cultural humility offered by Culturally Connected, a group that works in health and health literacy in British Columbia, Canada.
• Demonstrate compassion. We all share a common experience of living and loving in this world. Our differences are often used as a way to divide us. However, we are also intricately interconnected. Consider how you could use empathy to foster both clarity and connection.

Licenses and Attributions for Creating Community by Honoring Diversity

Open Content, Original

“Creating Community by Honoring Diversity” by Kimberly Puttman is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Open Content, Shared Previously

“Cultural Humility” definition from Contemporary Families in the U.S.: An Equity Lens 2e [manuscript in press], Open Oregon Educational Resources, by Elizabeth B. Pearce is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Figure 2.21. “Maya Angelou reciting her poem ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993” by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Wikimedia Commons, is in the Public Domain.

Figure 2.22. “Eliminating Microaggressions” by Tiffany Alvoid, TEDxOakland is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.