As I read the assignment for this week, I was immediately drawn to my workplace for ideas of whether or not I communicate with people of different cultures and groups because that is more than likely, the place where I have the most common interactions among people unlike me. However, in answering the specific question, I was drawn to situation that occurred a few weeks back and the results, which spoke to different generations, cultures and backgrounds and how we all work together.
A teacher who spent most of her childhood in Russia has been with my school for about three years. She is also one of the younger members of the staff. In previous conversations with other coworkers, she was unaware who the group Menudo was. She said it was because she grew up in Russia, but many attributed it to her age. A few weeks ago, she sent an email to all staff asking for suggestions on kid-friendly hip hop songs that do not contain cursing, references to sex, drugs, guns or violence and finally, songs that refrain from using *the n-word* (for the purposes of my blog, I WILL NOT spell the entire word out, however please be aware that she did do just that, in her email).
As Director and as Chair of the school’s Diversity committee, I gently sent her a cautionary email, advising her to be mindful of using that word in its full context as some still consider it offensive and despite how mainstream it may have appear to gone by younger generations, older generations and possibly people of other cultures may still feel the cultural, negative sting of the impact of that word. She feigned to have no idea what word I was referring to and when I specified what it was, she couldn’t understand why she would have offended someone. When I told her this would be a conversation better to have face to face instead of email, she became defensive and asked that an administrator be present (seemingly forgetting that I am the lead administator in charge). I just find it interesting that there was a clear generational and cultural gap of something of this magnitude that occurred in my workplace. However, I am pleased that I was the person in such a position that I had to be the one to clarify the miscommunication and level of appropriateness on all parts.
educatingourfuture 