In My Culture
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In My Culture
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Re: In My Culture
#2A person of color might be afraid to say something like this in case people take it as carte blanche to make their statement a generalization about a given ethnicity.
Re: In My Culture
#3A person of color might be afraid to say something like this in case people take it as carte blanche to make their statement a generalization about a given ethnicity.
Why the asymmetry? Surely people of color are just as capable of making generalizations about various white ethnicities.
Re: In My Culture
#4> In my culture we cut out the hearts of unbelievers like you to sacrifice to the gods for a good crop.
>> In my culture we discourage homicide, even for unbelievers, without their permission at least.
> May I have your permission?
>> No.
> I don't think you're getting with the program of negotiating between our cultural norms.
>> Well I would like to help. Would your gods be appeased by the heart of a chicken? They're $3/lb at the supermarket.
> That would insult the gods, the crops would fail and there would be great famine. You are being quite unreasonable. Can I have your liver?
>> This intercultural diplomacy stuff is hard.
Re: In My Culture
#5> "This is part of why the diplomatic approach gives me cautious hope. It seems like a hammer in a world full of nails - the sort of thing that might actually make a difference both in the moment and in the aggregate."
In my culture, where any hammer:nail::solution:problem scenario more often than not exemplifies confirmation bias with a negative connotation, this seems a strange choice of words for what I think the author means.
Re: In My Culture
#6I like it! :D. It reminds me of the time when the Simpsons visited Australia.
That said, I belong to at least two cultures. In one of them being offensive is often punishable. In another, being offended is seen as a sign of weakness and immaturity.
When I was younger, I'd often get offended easily - I'd be endlessly frustrated by the things that people whom I considered close had said to me. As I've grown older, I've come to appreciate the latter culture.
Re: In My Culture
#7One thing about this article that I find interesting is that it is not necessarily dealing with conflicts between different cultural values from cultures from different countries or ethnic groups. The point is even within groups of people that you'd think are similar, people interpret things in different ways. Some people will think that picking up a check for a group meal means you expect others to do the same next time. Others will think it means you are feeling financially secure and are informing others of this status. We all assume others understand our meaning but they often may not.
Re: In My Culture
#8A person of color might be afraid to say something like this in case people take it as carte blanche to make their statement a generalization about a given ethnicity.
Why the asymmetry? Surely people of color are just as capable of making generalizations about various white ethnicities.
I imagine faitswulff was considering a scenario where someone is a racial minority in a situation where they are perceived as outsiders. Then the asymmetry is clear.
Re: In My Culture
#9I like the point of self examination, and not assuming you know others intentions, but I really dislike this sort of phrase reassignment. The one that really bothers me, is when people say "I feel like..." followed by something that is not a feeling. Changing the wording only works when everyone is on board with the reason for doing so.
Re: In My Culture
#10> …and then they’ll go on to explain something that one might easily mistake for a rule, or a request, or the enforcement of a social norm, but which is actually (as far as I can tell) just a statement about the version of the world they carry around inside their head.
The way I understand it, not qualifying these sorts of statements with "in my culture..." is exactly how the cultures in question - as sets of common assumptions that are taken to be universal rules or as natural and invisible as breathable air - get forged to begin with. The moment someone says X is a rule and nobody is raises any eyebrows at the statement, it becomes functionally true (for the speaker and their listeners).
Relinquishing the claim to universality by framing them as personal hangups is probably good diplomacy and helps you to get along with coworkers and other relations from various backgrounds, but could it also amount to surrendering the possibility of ever building a shared culture with them?