Becoming aware of
microaggressions is the effort I made this week. Listening in on several conversations you can
plainly see that there is plenty of microinsults happening all around us all
the time. Until this week I haven’t
really noticed how much we actually say.
Many times the conversations I listened in on were humorous and didn’t
seem to intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings.
As an outsider I can clearly see how things can be misinterpreted and
hurtful.
One of my favorite movies
growing up was Bambi. I will never
forget the line, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at
all”. What a great line to live by!
An example that will be
forever burned into my memory is one from my family. My mother, in recent years, has gained a lot
of weight. She has always been thin and
has struggled with her weight for several years now. During family gatherings we all sit together and
joke around. Many of the times it is at
peoples expenses. My grandfather, the head
honcho of the family, is very sweet, funny, and is great with
conversations. This particular day as we
all sat down to be served my grandfather calls out loud to my mother and says, “Here
she comes North America”. Instead of
Mrs. America he said North America. My
jaw dropped and you can only imagine the look on my mother’s face when he said that. She was very hurt and upset. My grandfather quickly realized how his words
hurt and apologized. On a positive note,
this microinsult was turned into motivation and I am happy to announce that my
mother has lost 70 pounds and counting.
She will always be Mrs. America to me.
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to your mom, what an accomplishment! I know how this feels first hand because I have experienced it with my own family. When I went off to college I was a tad bit smaller and so over some years I gained some weight, so what moment I remember vividly was when I had invited a friend over for Thanksgiving. My friend and I traveled 2 1/2 hours from school to visit and so I remember walking through the door and I went to speak to everyone and my grandmother & aunt shouted from the kitchen, "Dang that's you Keema, you sure have gotten big." Once I heard those words it hurt my feelings so bad, because I was not expecting that especially since I had invited company, I just knew for sure that they would tell me that alone but nope not the case here.So I understand how your mother felt, I'm just really exciting that she took control of her life and did what was best for her to live a lasting healthy life. Great post once again and tell mom to keep up the good work!!!