Hints and Tips for Culturally Intelligent

Interaction

Lissa Schwander & Elisha Marr

Department of Sociology & Social Work

Breakout Groups•Why are you here?

•Have you found yourself in (or witnessed) situations with students or co-workers where you feel that you have said something culturally insensitive OR have been the recipient of a culturally insensitive comment?

Make a list

Microaggressions

Subtle, stunning, and often automatic exchanges in which the receiver is overlooked, under-respected, or devalued because of one’s group membership (e.g. race, gender, sexuality).

Paraphrased from Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D.

Teachers College, Columbia University

Microaggressions

•We have been socialized into dominant cultural beliefs.

•Consequently we ALL have biases.

•Often invisible and unintentional.

• Implicit is as harmful as explicit.

Microaggression ExamplesStereotypes: over-simplified generalizations made without acknowledgement of individual differences

Microaggression ExamplesAlien in Own Land: Assumption that Asian and Latino Americans are foreign born.

Microaggression ExamplesColorblindness: Minimization or avoidance of acknowledging racial differences.

Microaggression ExamplesPathologizing Cultural Values/Communication Styles: The notion that values and communication styles of the dominant culture are the ideal.

Microaggression ExamplesAscription of Intelligence or Talent: Assumption that a person has a certain level of intelligence or talent based on their perceived race.

Tips

Speaker•Be open to being wrong.

•Know yourself

•Know others

Receiver• Speak up

• Pick your battles

•Assume the best in people

Return to Breakout Groups &Apply Tips

Speaker•Be open to being wrong.

•Know yourself

•Know others

Receiver•Speak up

•Pick your battles

•Assume the best in people

Applications

Possible Microaggressions• Are you an

international student?

• Do your people live in teepees?

• I just love how your people do your hair.

Alternatives• What city do you

call home?

• Tell me about yourself.

• Your hair is beautiful.

Applications/Advice

• Leave assumptions and broad generalizations out of questions/statements.

• If you are unsure if it is a microagression, question whether this is something you would say to a person in the dominant group. If not, it might be a microagression.

• If accused of a microagression, avoid being defensive but use it as a teachable moment. Even if we did not intend to offend someone, the interpretation is more important than the intention.

Resources

• D. Livermore. Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World.

• L. Delpit. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.

• Multicultural Affairs Office & Multicultural Student Development Office

Works Referenced

• SooJin Pate, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor Macalester College, “More than Words: Microagressions”. Macalester Department of Student Life. • Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., Teachers

College, Columbia University. “Racial Aggessions and Pychological Dilemmas”. Presented March 8, 2010 at the AACDR Speaker Series.• We are Calvin [Too].

http://wearecalvintoo.tumblr.com/