Initial Interracial Communication Discussion

Yes, I am here for class aside from all the amazing adventures we get to go on. So I wanted to use this post to talk about the eye opening discussion we had for our first interracial communication discussion. My group is exactly half white and half black. They said this is the most diverse group they have ever seen come through this program. I was a little nervous about our first interracial communication talk because I did not want anyone to feel uncomfortable or step on anyone’s toes but it actually went really well. It got to be pretty in-depth and being able to hear everyone’s viewpoints was quite intriguing. We talked about the difference between race and culture, how we separate ourselves and equality verse equitability. A lot of the things we talked about were centered on the idea of white prominence. We also talked about service learning and how we should not think of it as volunteering for people who are less fortunate than us, instead we should appreciate that they are allowing us into their culture in order to learn from their ways of life and get to know them one on one.  The perspectives about doing service to others seemed to be different depending on our race. I used my example of volunteering at the Athens Boys and Girls Club as an example of how I had not thought of thanking them for allowing me into their community and culture. Some of the African American girls in our group talked about how young black girls see white people coming through buying the kids things because they feel bad which just gives off a vibe that the Caucasian culture resides around materialism. This is something that we need to be aware of because that may not be the way we want to come off but it is taken as that when miscommunication occurs. One of the girls in my group talked about how many young black girls have a desire to be white because of the materialistic or physical features.  They want our hair or our skin but really it goes down to the root of always wanting what you can’t have. Interracial couples are another aspect we discussed. I had never thought of mixed couples being as big of an issue as it seemed to be to some people in my group. It was really cool to take in their input on the topic. My group talked about how some black women will see a white girl with a black male on a date and get worked up over the fact that a single, black male is being taken by a white women when she does not look like his mom necessarily may.  They found this as disrespectful to their culture where white males and females may not think anything of it. This discussion proved that there are so many perspectives and points of views in this world that we will never see or know unless we put ourselves in the position to learn and comprehend life through different eyes.