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  • From: Marimike6@cs.com
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Cultural sensitivity
  • Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 08:57:52 EDT

Maybe this isn't Permaculture... but to me this is a very interesting
conversation, since I spent about 25 years of my life in a very multicultural
environment (Washington DC). If you can stand it, I have a couple more
thoughts.

In a city where there is no real majority, and well over half the people are
from somewhere else, you do think a lot about cultural sensitivity. Not in
theory, but as in "how do I get along comfortably with the people I'm with".

Asking where someone ewas from was a conversation opener. Whether they were
from Cameroon or from Thailand or from Iran, it gave them the chance to tell
you a little about themselves. I found people who were offended by the
question
to be rare indeed, and left them alone if they seemed uncomfortable.

Generally speaking, I found all the white Americans to be bending over
backward to be culturally sensitive, liberal, touchy-feely kinds of people.
Naturally, a lot of the locally grown black folks took shameless advantage of
them.
They had a trusting nature, were innocent of the guiles that were second
nature
to many people who grew up on the hard streets, and always blamed themselves
first before blaming others. They were suckers, and it always took them a
couple of years to toughen up and to wise up to the reality of life in the
big
world outside.

Just about the only unabashed racists I ever found, in fact, were black. This
slice of black society defined the issue in such a way as to only include
institutional racism... of which they were innocent. So they felt free to
form
their own opinions of the Chinese, the Koreans, the Jews, the Africans, the
West
Indians and every other minority they found in their community. All were very
bad people, as an unfortunate circumstance of their birth. None could be
trusted, and all they wanted was to take your money.

Coincidentally, these minorities were very nearly the only people who owned
stores in the ghetto. So most people only interacted with them when they were
in the act of handing over their money to them.

These experiences were what prompted me to respond to the notion that racism
was a condition that could only be found in white Anglos. I lived and worked
in a town that was upside down in that respect.

Sorry if I've wandered too far from the soil here. :)

Michael




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