When I took an Anthropology class at Minnesota State University Moorhead I learned a lot about different ethnic groups and races. In that Anthropology class we watched films about some of the current tribal societies in Africa that still live in a way that we would consider savage. The African tribes we saw on film and read about don't use any modern technologies nor do they have the modern day plumbing we take for granted. These African tribes pass messages along to other tribes by personal messenger. A tribal chief tells a messenger what he wants to trade with another tribe and that messenger must remember the message so he or she can tell the other tribe's chief.
When I went to visit my older sister in Beijing China (Spring 2005) I learned some about Chinese culture. My sister Betsy has lived and worked in China for ten years. When I talked with some of my sister's Chinese friends they told me some of their cultural secrets. A Chinese college student told me her parents have always used the shame method to punish her. She said that whenever she earned a bad grade in school her parents would tell her that they were very disappointed in her and that she had brought shame upon herself and the entire family. Some of the college students I met told me that their parents told them that they no longer consider them their children because they earned bad grades or chose a boyfriend or girlfriend that they disapproved of.
I also learned that most Chinese people act fairly shy and bashful. The Chinese people I met were also very polite and always insisted on helping out with chores such as, cooking, cleaning and setting up for gatherings. Chinese people are starting to catch up with the rest of the world as far as protecting the environment too. During my sister's first couple of years in China, she was constantly blowing her nose and discovering black stuff in her tissues. China quickly stopped using coal as their main energy source and now my sister's nose stays clean. However, there is still a lot of pollution in Beijing, but its a city of 14 million people.
China has been trying to slow down their population growth as well. The Chinese government has passed laws allowing families to reproduce only one child preferably boys. If Chinese families want more children they are supposed to pay the government a substantial amount of money for the rights. So far this population control might be working since China's population was close to 2 billion people ten years ago and is now around 1.3 billion. India's population is very close to 1 billion people though and its growing fast.
When I was in the U.S. Navy I worked with a few people from different races. The first non-Caucasian American I met was a Native American who's last name was Longie. I mostly only remember the last names of Naval personnel because that's what was written on our uniforms. Longie was a brilliant guy who was planning on studying as a Naval nuclear physicist after boot camp. I didn't notice if Longie acted any different than any other patriotic American, but I only knew him in boot camp and we were always under the supervision of our disciplinary officers. After I got out of the Navy I found out that Longie's father was the chief of a Nakota (Sioux) tribe.
Two Hispanic guys became close friends of mine while I was stationed in Naval Air Station Oceana Virginia. While we worked we sang songs that we all remembered from our high school choirs while washing F-14 jets. We also spoke Spanish to each other, but they were much more fluent than I was with my Junior high and High school Spanish class background. My Spanish buddies names were Hernandez and Sandovalmanzo. We sometimes hung out with a Hispanic guy named Andriamampianina too. We called him AK-47 because his last name was too long. My Hispanic friends didn't act any different than any other Navy sailors accept that they were bi-lingual and liked speaking Spanish once in a while.
The African Americans I worked with became great friends as well and they told me I was the funniest Caucasian they had ever met. My African American friends taught me how to play the card game called spades. We played spades whenever our work load was complete during our 12-14 hour shifts. While I was a support equipment operator for two years I was usually too busy to play cards, but my African American buddies still loved to volunteer to walk near the wings of the aircraft I had to tow. One of my African American pals even took me to what he called the secret cool black man's clothing store, which was a Burlington Coat Factory. He showed me all the discount prices on clothing African Americans like to wear, such as baggy jeans and sports jerseys.
No comments:
Post a Comment