Wednesday, February 15, 2006

A February Resolution

Going to school with students from across the world is an interesting experience, for many reasons. I’ve never considered myself to be racist or anything, but this year I’ve come to realize that I truly have very little understanding of the world outside of “white America” (for lack of a better phrase). Yesterday, I had an in-depth conversation with Johannes, whom is a student from Norway, about his experience in the army, World War II, and the European Union. It was very interesting to hear his perspective on parts of WWII and America’s role in particular situations. The international students are always careful to word these discussions so that it doesn’t sound like they’re criticizing America, but just trying to give us a different perspective. I’d really like to hear what they have to say about our current situation. But as of yet, no one has been willing to discuss the issue with me, which leads me to believe they’re thoughts don’t coincide with our current actions. Anyways, I think the saddest part is that I really only hang out with one international student, and I’ve made very little effort to get to know most of them. Truthfully, I might never have talked to Johannes if we hadn’t been paired together for an assignment. Also, it’s pathetic how little I know about global issues. From now on, I’m going to make more of an effort to keep up-to-date on issues and to get to know more international students.

2 comments:

The Becca Machine said...

just got done reading a book for class on israel and pakistan. i guess i always had thought creating israel for the jews to have their own place always seemed like a good thing to me b/c i dont know enough about the situation and america has always supported it. but the book compared the jews taking the land to us taking the u.s. from native americans. and apparently the jews now are violent over there(which my global stereotype has always been that they were peaceful and the ones getting picked on) and our country supports this. not that there's a magical answer for all this but again i had no idea of the other perspective.

Hillabean said...

so how's this resolution going?