Re: Bradley Manning, convicted of WikiLeaks disclosures, announces desire for gender reassignment
Well, gee wiz, when I read your post I was happy that you've at least stopped caricaturizing what I actually said. That's a step in the right direction. But I was also sadden by you putting words in my mouth.
I wasn't legitimizing how people in different areas of the world perceive white people at all.
Again, I ask that you have the decency to forget what you thought I said and try to read the following words objectively.
You simply can't compare a culturally insensitive idiots in a first world country to someone from the backwatered area of a 3rd world country. In America, you can't take 3 steps outside without encountering someone from a different ethnic group. You can't go through the day without hearing someone speaking in a different language with their family. You can't watch tv without seeing a person of different race.
The same cannot be said of where my family came from. I remember when I was little I saw a few western movies. They were not translated, of course. The one thing that stuck out for me was that all the characters in those movies ate beef steaks and hamburgers. Everyone I knew and myself just assumed that that's what westerners ate, since we all only ate rice and vegetable, we just assumed that you guys only ate beef steak and hamburgers.
When I was in high school here in the US, one time on a field trip a teacher sitting next to me told me about her experience visiting my region of the world some 10 years before. She told me that the one thing that stuck out for her and her husband was that the places they stayed at gave them choices of beef steak, hamburgers, and a couple other very typical American foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. They were not allowed to leave the compound for their safety. And everyday at breakfast, lunch, and dinner they were given the same choices of steak, hamburgers, etc.
Now, think about it for a moment. You were born (I'm assuming) in a privileged country and you were raised in an environment that is very educational. You can't watch tv without learning a few things about the world. You may think your life sucks, but compared to many regions of the world you actually live like princes.
So, I actually take offense at you comparing a first world culturally insensitive idiot to my background.
This is why I cringe every time I see news of another American soldier misbehaving in the middle east. Over here, we have the benefit of understanding cultural diversity and individual character. But for many people in the world, the one American that misbehaves is probably the only American they will ever meet in their lives. How do you think they'll think about the rest of us Americans?
I'm not legitimizing the way people judge a whole race or population based on the few. I am trying to make you understand that none of what you've learned about cultural diversity and individual character of each individual within a group of people matter when we are talking about people from certain backgrounds.
What can you do? Well, try to educate your fellow neighbors. Tell them that we don't, in fact, name our kids by dropping a can down the stairs. Tell them to be more understanding to the people of certain places in the world that haven't had the privileges of education, ps3, xbox, etc. And for godssake, tell them don't just join the army and start shooting at random huts in random villages. Because every time that happens, the rest of us get a bad rep. The villagers in Afghanistan aren't going to sit down and have a philosophical debate of whether Americans are typically heartless like that. As far as they are concern, the only Americans they ever ran into laid waste to their whole village.
Added by edit.
The last time I visited my country, I found out that our favorite fruit the durian had been banned in most public places. Western tourists have been demanding that the fruit be banned from those places because they couldn't stand the smell. Talking about going to another country and demand they conform to our own likes and dislikes...
Well, gee wiz, when I read your post I was happy that you've at least stopped caricaturizing what I actually said. That's a step in the right direction. But I was also sadden by you putting words in my mouth.
I wasn't legitimizing how people in different areas of the world perceive white people at all.
Again, I ask that you have the decency to forget what you thought I said and try to read the following words objectively.
You simply can't compare a culturally insensitive idiots in a first world country to someone from the backwatered area of a 3rd world country. In America, you can't take 3 steps outside without encountering someone from a different ethnic group. You can't go through the day without hearing someone speaking in a different language with their family. You can't watch tv without seeing a person of different race.
The same cannot be said of where my family came from. I remember when I was little I saw a few western movies. They were not translated, of course. The one thing that stuck out for me was that all the characters in those movies ate beef steaks and hamburgers. Everyone I knew and myself just assumed that that's what westerners ate, since we all only ate rice and vegetable, we just assumed that you guys only ate beef steak and hamburgers.
When I was in high school here in the US, one time on a field trip a teacher sitting next to me told me about her experience visiting my region of the world some 10 years before. She told me that the one thing that stuck out for her and her husband was that the places they stayed at gave them choices of beef steak, hamburgers, and a couple other very typical American foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. They were not allowed to leave the compound for their safety. And everyday at breakfast, lunch, and dinner they were given the same choices of steak, hamburgers, etc.
Now, think about it for a moment. You were born (I'm assuming) in a privileged country and you were raised in an environment that is very educational. You can't watch tv without learning a few things about the world. You may think your life sucks, but compared to many regions of the world you actually live like princes.
So, I actually take offense at you comparing a first world culturally insensitive idiot to my background.
This is why I cringe every time I see news of another American soldier misbehaving in the middle east. Over here, we have the benefit of understanding cultural diversity and individual character. But for many people in the world, the one American that misbehaves is probably the only American they will ever meet in their lives. How do you think they'll think about the rest of us Americans?
I'm not legitimizing the way people judge a whole race or population based on the few. I am trying to make you understand that none of what you've learned about cultural diversity and individual character of each individual within a group of people matter when we are talking about people from certain backgrounds.
What can you do? Well, try to educate your fellow neighbors. Tell them that we don't, in fact, name our kids by dropping a can down the stairs. Tell them to be more understanding to the people of certain places in the world that haven't had the privileges of education, ps3, xbox, etc. And for godssake, tell them don't just join the army and start shooting at random huts in random villages. Because every time that happens, the rest of us get a bad rep. The villagers in Afghanistan aren't going to sit down and have a philosophical debate of whether Americans are typically heartless like that. As far as they are concern, the only Americans they ever ran into laid waste to their whole village.
Added by edit.
The last time I visited my country, I found out that our favorite fruit the durian had been banned in most public places. Western tourists have been demanding that the fruit be banned from those places because they couldn't stand the smell. Talking about going to another country and demand they conform to our own likes and dislikes...
