Re: Labeling me as a racist Tamara, wasPutin

[Tanya Marquette]

But when you talk to an individual you are also using your internal data base to understand what they are discussing.

If you are dealing with someone from a different culture you can behave in an ethnocentric manner projecting your cultural experiences on them which most likely will make you wrong as well as biased or prejudiced. But if you are aware that your cultural socialization is not always true for others you might have the awareness to question them more deeply about their feelings and perceptions. And on a larger level, if you are listening to the news or watching a public event or hearing many people describing their problems you might have the understanding that their life experiences are equally valid, true but different than yours as the result of socially constructed institutions and learned attitudes that are based on racism/sexism/classism/etc. Your behavior and responses to news events and individuals will be very different if you understand the nature of the culture and its prejudices and social hierarchies and how they work.

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