What leads to the problems that arise between people of different groups or backgrounds? Is it all the other persons fault for having a different view, or can our disagreement have something to do with my choices and viewpoints? When an argument or problem arises within an intercultural campus, both sides of the disagreement must be looked at: the side of the person I am having the fight with and the side of what I am personally doing to affect the situation, positively or negatively. By looking at the roots of the problem, I must also look at myself and how I am contributing to these challenges (#1 Challenge to consider a reflexive/complicit lens). Throughout my life, the way I was brought up and my sheltered childhood, along with my sometimes closed-minded
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My early childhood lead to my role in some of the problems I have with other groups on campus. I have always been a “homebody” and enjoy doing things with my family or my friends that I have already been close to for years. My core group of friends consisted of mainly white, athletic males that I met through sports and kickball games on the playground. I grew up in a middle class mainly white town, so that did not really surprise me (#2 Challenge to consider privilege/penalty). I think some of my childhood made it hard for me to be accepting of other groups right away because I was never really exposed to them. Until I was eleven or twelve, I was very sheltered and had not really met any African-Americans, Asians, or anyone else who did not look almost exactly the same as I did. I had seen these other groups before, but I had never been exposed to them in more than a passing glance. A lot of the challenges I face with other cultural groups on campus are that I am simply unexposed to them and therefore I do not understand them. I grew up all my life thinking that white people were the majority, they were the only people who I identified with and the only people I could
My early childhood lead to my role in some of the problems I have with other groups on campus. I have always been a “homebody” and enjoy doing things with my family or my friends that I have already been close to for years. My core group of friends consisted of mainly white, athletic males that I met through sports and kickball games on the playground. I grew up in a middle class mainly white town, so that did not really surprise me (#2 Challenge to consider privilege/penalty). I think some of my childhood made it hard for me to be accepting of other groups right away because I was never really exposed to them. Until I was eleven or twelve, I was very sheltered and had not really met any African-Americans, Asians, or anyone else who did not look almost exactly the same as I did. I had seen these other groups before, but I had never been exposed to them in more than a passing glance. A lot of the challenges I face with other cultural groups on campus are that I am simply unexposed to them and therefore I do not understand them. I grew up all my life thinking that white people were the majority, they were the only people who I identified with and the only people I could