Popular Culture Conflict

Recently in class discussion we were given the information on the University of North Dakota and the controversy surrounding its choice of mascot, which is an Indian chief head. They are called the Fighting Sioux. The explanation from the university is that it is meant as a respect toward to the Sioux Indian nation and their heritage in North Dakota. There has been controversy over the use of native American logos and mascots in sports for a while. There have been people that have taken it too a negative tone and caused uncomfortable surroundings for those who are of Sioux heritage. Does this mean that the school should not be allowed to use this logo or team name? I don't personally think so. If the name and logo is truly meant in a positive light toward that group then it should stay that way. Those who choose to inappropriately use it or mock it should be disciplined and it should be very clear that negative approaches to this are strictly not allowed. As some people noted in discussion, there doesn't seem to be an issue when it comes to Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish. Sometimes I think assuring there is no discrimination to minorities can go too far. In fact it could be seen as discrimination to some that there is always so much effort made to make sure no one of another culture is offended when there may really not be a problem to begin with. I think the Fighting Sioux and any other team should be able to keep their logo and team name. If there are those that can't handle the true meaning behind the choice of a native American or other cultural team or logo than they are the ones who should be punished. The association probably doesn't want anyone like that to be associated with them anyway.

Non-verbal Communication

Tonight after finishing up dinner with my family I began my nightly homework rounds with the 3 of my 4 children that are in school. The first grader was pretty easy, read a short book and initial that he read it. My older son had no homework tonight so that was easy. All was going well until I hit my 12 year old, 7th grade daughter. She was whining and complaining about a science assignment. I sat down and tried to help her but she wasn't listening and was frustrated. When I finally gave up and said "you obviously don't want my help, you'll have to finish it on your own." She yells " I never said that!". This brought back the memory of our discussion in class over non verbal communication. Her eye rolling, grunting at everything I said and resistance to do what I asked to make it easier communicated to me her unwillingness to accept my help even though she never had to say it. I then found myself giving her a lecture on non verbal communication. I gave examples of how the same phrase coming out of a persons mouth can mean many, many different things depending on their body language. If a person were to say "I'm having a great time!" but their arms were crossed or their body was slumped the person they were talking to would obviously know that they really were not having a great time. I then continued on with how if a person says one thing with words but their body or facial expressions show something else that who ever is being spoken to will usually take the action over the words. I made her try it out in various scenarios. She reluctantly complied at first but then began to loosen up and actually was having fun by the end. This then led to us having a much better time completing her science assignment. Here is a good example of how what I am learning in school has impacted my family life as well.

Popular Culture influences

This week in class we discussed popular culture. Up until this point I don't think I really understood what pop culture was. I had heard the term many times but really never understood what it was. I now know that virtually everything we watch on television and read in magazines and newspapers is considered pop culture along with many other things. After realizing exactly what pop culture was I now also realize how influential it can be in determining how a person views another culture or social group. If you do not have any experience or exposure to a particular group virtually all the information and ideas you have about this group comes from what you may see or read. For example if I watched a program about Ethiopia and its people that portrayed the country as poor and its people famished and uneducated that is the view I will have toward Ethiopian people. I have never been to Ethiopia nor do I know any Ethiopian people. After watching this program however I may have a clouded perception as to what the country and people are like.

It also seems that American pop culture is most prevalent even in other countries. This can be bad as well. To those who are not from America or do not know much about this country what they may see on American television shows is what they perceive as "American". So therefore if a person were to watch an American sit com they may think that all Americans have affairs behind their spouses backs and that everyone finds it funny is some sense. If they listen to rap music they may think that there is rampant crime and drug use. The impact of popular culture is huge when it comes to how other cultures view another.

Reverse Stereotyping??

Since starting this class I have realized more than ever the stereotyping, bias and discrimination that is present all around us all the time. Over the past couple months I have noticed something that is a little different than the typical stereotyping one would see. As I have said before I work as a nurse in a medically fragile/multiple impairments program in a school. This year we have 4 students two are sisters with pretty significant cognitive disabilities that are African American and come from a home with 8 children. This family lives off of public assistance and neither the mom or her current live in boyfriend work outside the home. We have a severely handicapped student who comes from a very large family. Most of her 11 siblings have special needs and are adopted. The last child has is categorized on the autism spectrum, as well as cognitively impaired and is non verbal but does communicate some with sounds and gestures. He comes from a white middle class home. I have given this detailed background as it pertains to the story. The teacher in our class is white and was born and raised in the U.S. in a Catholic family. She traveled to Morocco in her early twenties and ended up marrying a Muslim Moroccan man while there. She has since converted to the Muslim religion, but does not dress in the traditional attire and still does celebrate some christian holidays with her family. She is probably one of the least discriminatory people I know when it comes to those of other backgrounds. It is very interesting in that she is most upset usually with the middle class white parents that we deal with. We have communication problems with all the parents in our class. Some don't even bother to go through their children's work or send in snacks or lunch money. Others talk big but do little. When it comes to the African American family or the one with the many adopted special needs kids she is very accommodating and usually comes up with a reason as to why they may not be responding to our notes or calls. However, when it comes to the middle class white family she is constantly complaining about their lack of communication and unresponsiveness. Why is this? Is it really just another way of stereotyping? I think it may be. She may have the stereotype in her head that says the African American family doesn't participate as much because they are lower class African Americans. The other family is very very busy with their many children with special needs. There is the assumption that the middle class white family should be taking care of things appropriately because of their so called status. This should not be the family that is considered difficult to deal with because of this.
The teacher I am speaking of acknowledges this and can't pinpoint why it is she feels this way. She even said, jokingly "Maybe if I imagined they were Mexican or Asian I wouldn't feel so negatively toward them." This could be a case of taking anti-discrimination and negative stereotyping of minorities to the extreme.

Culture Clash

In class we have just finished reading the book titled "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman. After reading this book it has opened my eyes to the major crisis in health care in regards to dealing with those from different cultural backgrounds. In this case it was that of a Hmong family and their child who had severe epilepsy. I have worked in the health care field for over 5 years and have realized during that time there was an issue at times when dealing with those who may have a different culture or language. There were those in the clinic that you assumed understood the directions and just kind of shrugged when they left and hoped they did. There was the time when one of our female doctors had left for an emergency and a male doctor took her patients for the afternoon. There was a Somali woman that was scheduled and we had to wait for 45 minutes for her husband to arrive since in their culture a male doctor is not allowed to examine a female patient without a male family member present. At the time it just seemed like another strange thing that some patients from different cultures did. After reading this book I have a whole new outlook.

The parents of this young girl in the book had no clue how anything in the United States worked. They knew their own beliefs and cultural practices and when these clashed with the modern American medical system tragedy struck in many ways. The family did not understand what was going on when the invasive tests were being performed on her. They did not follow the orders for medications and treatments at home. They did not understand. To them epilepsy had occurred to their daughter when her soul was scared away. They had their own traditional Hmong ways of treating this, which were not going to cure her medically at all however not one medical staff ever asked or tried to understand where they were coming from. If this had happened there could have possibly been a compromise made. If there was some effort taken out to ensure a translator was available there may not have been so many misunderstandings. I could go on and on about what went wrong. The point being is that having people in our country of many different cultures and backgrounds is not going to change. There needs to be some sort of collaboration between the biomedical culture and that of the patient so that a desirable outcome is achieved by all. It may not be the ideal situation but at least everyone will be satisfied. Now I am a full advocate for the education of immigrants of the English language and the practices of our country, but we cannot expect people who are living here to completely do away with their own history and culture just because they now live in America.

Class Differences

In this course we have talked on a couple occasions about socioeconomic class and how it relates to communication. We have determined that most in American society don't really like to talk about class or like to acknowledge that there are drastic differences in how people are treated based on class status. Class usually refers to the amount of money a person makes or has access to and people tend to not discuss their financial status publically. This is fine, but when the differences in class begin to cause discrimination and stereotyping a problem begins to occur.

As I have said before, I work in a suburban school district as a classroom nurse in the medical impairments program. This year we got two new students that had previously been in a more inner city school district. This is a family that I guess would be considered "low class" compared to most others in the school. Their clothes are not as nice, they receive free lunches and they talk with some slang and "city"talk as I have heard others say. They are two of maybe a handful of African American kids in this school. As the year has progressed I have noticed the different ways both students and staff have acted around these kids. At first I thought it may have been curiosity and getting adjusted to someone new, but now I am beginning to realize that it is also "class" stereotyping as well. The parents of these kids don't have a car all the time, are unable to pay for them to participate in school activities and field trips, and are not involved in the school as most other parents are. I have heard other staff members say "how can they live?", and kids ask them why they are never at any extracurricular activities. The kids are honest and say "We don't have a car" or " My mom ain't got not money." The other kids are shocked and then shy away and snicker back and forth. I get quite frustrated that instead of coming up with ways to help these kids out people tend to just step away and talk about them and their parents behind their backs. I do understand to some point that the parents could be a little more active with their children, try and find a job to get extra money, and so on but the kids should not have to suffer from this either. I think if people were just more open-minded and stepped outside their own safety zone to try and help others they may realize there is a whole lot more going on that they could help with. If the other parents would follow their kids would then realize that not everyone is quite as fortunate as they may be.

Communication in Clothing

In the latest chapter we have read for class we discovered the importance of non verbal communication in our daily lives. I discovered how clothing can be a persons way of non-verbally communicating themselves. I had of course realized that people dressed in different ways but had never really thought of it as a form of non verbal communication. If you walk into a busy mall on any given day you can see many, many different kinds of dress that people are wearing. A person also can get some information about a person simply based on their dress. The most obvious that many in my group talked about were Somalian and Muslim women. They wear the long dresses and head coverings. This can be both a way of communicating their religion and cultural background. If you see an Indian woman in her traditional Indian dress with the shawl and bright colors you know they are expressing their Indian heritage in their clothing. There are many other choices in clothing that "speak"a persons culture and/or religion such as Jewish, African or Native American.

There are also many variations that the American culture has come up with. You see the teenage girls who are trying to show off as much of their bodies as possible without being naked. There is the grunge look and the goth look. Dark clothing, makeup and lots of piercings and maybe tattoos. There are the people that dress up fancy all the time trying to show their "class'. You will see the conservative people dressed in long skirts, pants and shirt sleeves. The list could go on and on. The point being that people can communicate a lot about themselves, their likes, and their way of life just by the clothing they choose to put on each day. I never really thought about how much a person can reveal about themselves through their dress.