Culture Awareness Essays - 9, Run, , Term Papers

Culture Awareness I was planning to take a leisurely trip this summer, but now I think I'll have to change my plans. Instead I'll probably have to take a crash course in Sensitivity for the Culturally Unaware. Maybe it's because I grew up in Chicago, perhaps the most culturally diverse city in the country. Maybe it's because I have a mulatto niece and nephew. Maybe it's because my cousin's last name is now Hernandez. Maybe it's because my wife's cousin is a Native American. Or maybe it's because we Poles have borne the brunt of more jokes than any other ethnic group, but all this time I thought I was aware of other cultures and the feelings of members of other ethnic groups and minorities. Now I guess I'm not. At least my union newsletter, the BEA_Messenger, says I'm not in an article on multicultural awareness. I for one take pride in our nation's history in regard to minorities. Minority groups founded this nation. The religious groups who felt the pressure of persecution in their homelands came here to begin new lives, and eventually a new nation. The ethnic groups that came in a great flood of immigrants came to escape the economic oppression of their homelands. Those groups, too, found a way to become part of the American experience. They didn't need, nor did they demand, any laws requiring acceptance into society. Kindness, tolerance and respect are things that can only be earned, not handed down by legislative decree. Those things mandated by law never reach into the fiber of our country. They never take root in our psyches. In fact, as we have too often seen, legislative decrees that mandate how we should act or feel lead to only more dissension and divisiveness. Great strides have been taken on the road to equality. Despite claims to the contrary, women have more opportunity now to succeed than ever before. Today, fifty percent of law school graduates are female. Where twenty years ago perhaps 5000 women were industrial engineers, today that profession consists of 175000 females. Blacks, too, have made great strides. They are now mayors, governors, and judges. They hold positions of authority in almost every segment of our country. We as a nation by and large have indeed accepted minorities into the fold of this culture, particularly when those minorities have done much to earn our respect. The February 21, 1992, issue of the Messenger, however, suggests that I am not multiculturally aware enough. It suggests that things I say or feel may be taken as derogatory. It smacks of a political correctness and Big Brotherhood, which, if we honestly appraise it, does more to hinder our First Amendment rights than any oppressive behavior of the past. I am multiculturally aware enough already without having my union trying to convince me that I am not. I am particularly upset by the implication that remarks I may or may not make are derogatory and multiculturally unaware. I think, and believe, that people should be treated equally. I also believe that much of what is deemed to be "multiculturally aware" is just plain silly. And some of the things in the Messenger article point to this. It is true that "few of us...think that women are the weaker sex." It is equally true that most of realize that, unless her name is Bertha or Beulah, few women can bench press the same weight as men, or hit a golf ball as far as Jack Nicklaus. Admittedly, many attractive women have the physical capabilities of the ancient Amazons, but they usually go by the name of "Blaze" or "Dementia" and appear regularly on American_Gladiators or Roller_Derby. Yes, I do become "impatient with elderly people who drive more slowly" than I do. But, it's not because they are elderly. It's because I don't want to wreck the front end of my car by running into back end of a car that is going 35 mph on an interstate highway. After drunk driving, the majority of auto accidents are caused by drivers going under the posted speed limits. I do not, however, become impatient with elderly people who "stow their change before moving from the check-out counter." They're not stowing their change. The experience of their years has taught them that half the cashiers in the country don't know how to make change, and they're just making sure they don't get gypped. I now have to suspect the wisdom of saying certain things, according to the Messenger. Saying of my son, "He's all boy,"