I knew it was my dark hair and my Latin complexion that made everyone ask, “Are you Mexican?” Of course, this question was followed by a now a familiar routine of – “Is your dad a landscaper? Do you live out on the homestead? Do you speak Mexican?”
After being asked so often, I wondered if I belonged. It seemed like I was an outsider. I didn’t share a common language or culture, but I still lived among the American population. It came to a point in my life where if someone asked where I was from, I would stay quiet or simply respond, “I don’t know.”
It’s not about adopting my customs, but respecting them. It’s reached a point where we’ve started to identify certain groups and associated dehumanizing characteristics and passed it to the youth. Unless we start emphasizing the importance of tolerance of all cultures, our efforts in the war will mean nothing. Tolerance doesn’t mean accepting different ideas, but learning how to listen and respect them. The need to tolerate different ideas will allow countries to maintain their distinctive characteristics and maintain a role in the global community.
The problem with America is that we assume that we’re right. That our policies and government have little to no flaws; that there is no room for other political ideologies to have a say in our global world. Who is to say that democracy is the best form of government? The argument is endless, but the best answer is: It works for the U.S. Every country has a unique social background with people of different cultures, economic statuses, and so forth.
If the manner we approach foreign countries and prospective actions doesn’t change now, when will it? Our ever-so-strong American pride inhibits our ability to distinguish different opportunity costs, and we tend to favor those that match our similar political concepts. My fear is that this behavior not only happens here in the U.S, but in other countries as well. Its due to a continuous cycle of competing for a better system, instead of mixing the stronger ends of both, and reaching a common point, we are fighting it off at the expense of society.
Nationalism isn’t always a unifying force. It can be destructive and hurt our international image, along with further divisions within a country as well. Learning how to intermix such a diverse domestic and international population will be a challenge, but if we start to learn about others and learn how to tolerate different ideas, we can focus on issues that help us protect the human race, rather than destroy ourselves off. It all begins with education.
As an 18 year old college student, I look back at the days when I was accustomed to being called spick, as much as I was used to Diana, and consider that it was not because my classmates had pretentious evil aims, but because there was no education in regards to cultural tolerance. There still isn’t today.
Diana, I completely agree with you. Tolerance, very astutely defined as "learning how to learn and respect" different ideas, is something that really needs to be worked on throughout the world, and especially in the US. I like that you contrasted that with the belief that tolerance is the ability to simply accept a different idea. Growing up as an American-Arab I also learned first hand the injustice of intolerance. I saw first hand the change in the way people treated me after 9/11.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the real enemy is not the ignorant groups of people who spew out vile remarks, but rather the groups of people that have the power to educate these people and for some reason do not. Cultural tolerance is something people need to work on around the world, and I think our best shot would be starting with the United States. Just a week ago, for Lisa Dodson's lecture about her book, a student argued with her about a couple points, and said something incredibly offensive about our crippling economy in relation to illegal immigrants, stating: "our market is affect by thousands of Mexicans coming over, you know, illegals". I find this to be extremely troubling. If an educated, young adult enrolled in a prestigious school that focuses on political correctness feels that "illegal immigrants" and "Mexicans" can be used synonymously, I can't imagine how many others feel the same way.
I feel the media is to blame for these ignorance. So often I flip channels to hear "Muslim terrorists plan to.." on news stations. This is the problem. In this example, the media blurs the line between a radical, Extremist Muslim, and a Muslim. These are two incredibly different entities, yet the media uses them synonymously, leading to intense cultural intolerance. Often times, some programs with target their anger at Hispanics living in the US, when they should carefully state illegal immigrants. As long as this continues, the ignorance will flourish.
I feel if there is any hope to solve intolerance with education, we must first start with having a news media that is actually politcally correct. From their, cultural tolerance should be more heavily covered in schools throughout the country, and throughout the world.