Welcoming Families From Around the World

In preparation for this assignment, I thought about how I would feel if I moved to country that I knew nothing about and feelings that may occur.

The name of the country that the family is from is Japan.

The five ways in which I have prepared myself to be culturally responsive towards this family include:

Ø  Establishing personalized contact with the individuals of this family

Ø  Developing and using vocabulary of greetings and key phrases in the family's primary language

Ø  Becoming educated in cultural beliefs of this family and families from their country

Ø  Because I am not proficient in this family's native language, I will use a translator to ensure that communication is solid and the family feels comfortable.

Ø  reflecting upon my own cultural background because understanding one’s own culture is important because of the tendency to regard one’s own cultural group as the center of everything and the standard to which all others are compared

There are many benefits in being culturally responsive. Among the benefits is the ability to:

ü  foster more understanding of the person and how the person operates, feels, and

the ways in which they live their life,

ü  let people know they are thought of as individuals, as human beings,

ü  effectively communicate culturally sensitive choices and their consequences and

ü  be aware of many possibilities and respond appropriately

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A time when I witnessed prejudice occurred when my husband was working for a small moving company. He was on a team of five and the only Caucasian.  The team worked well together, however when he went to the owner of the company to ask for overtime pay, he was fired on the spot. My husband was then told that no employee receives overtime. The owner then went on to explain that all the employees understood that they do not receive overtime. They get paid for time worked and that is it. Later we found out that certain employees did receive overtime pay. The employees who receive overtime pay were family members and African-American.

Equity was diminished in the situation because the employees were treated differently where their pay is concerned. Certain employees were paid overtime but others were not. In my husband's case, he was fired for insisting that he gets paid for the overtime he worked. Furthermore, the owner asked the employees to work the overtime hours, so he was aware that the employees were working ten and eleven hours in a day. 

I was extremely upset by this incident. It brought up feeling of unfairness and negative feelings towards this individual and his character. 

I feel as though the owner needs to change his work ethics. He needs to research labor laws. In addition, I think the owner must pay his employees fairly or have written policies and procedures in place. I do not feel my husband needs to change any of his behaviors where this incident is concerned.