Article # 6

Getting to know You and Me
By Chana Schoenberger

 In the book writers response pg 95 -97

   I read the short story “Getting to Know You and Me” by Chana Schoenberger in the book writers response . In this story the author talks about an experience she had while in high school. Chana was approached by the diversity committee, which sponsors the assemblies to increase religious awareness, to help with the presentation about the Jewish holiday of Passover. When she was 16 she was one of the 20 students who spent 5 weeks with the National Science Foundation Young Scholars Program. The 20 students quickly became close friends. There were 8 different religious backgrounds that were represented within this group, including Jewish, Roman Catholic, Hindu, Methodist, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Lutheran and Muslim. Although they were some of the smartest students in school, they were very unaware of other cultures around them. One girl asked another girl if she was Mormon because she had 9 brothers and sisters. The girl replied “no, I dress normal”. Her friends were curious about Judaism and asked her all sorts of questions about it. Her roommate asked her “how come if Jesus was a Jew, Jews aren’t Christian”. This is just one of the problems that came from growing up in a small town where most people were the same religion without much diversity. She was asked if they still practiced animal sacrifices by a girl from a small town in Minnesota. She laughed and said “no, this is the 20th century”. Although no one was being purposely rude she got the feeling she was representing the whole Jewish community. She realized that a lot of the people would go back thinking that all Jewish people were just like her. Although the students were very ignorant of the cultures, the worst was their biology professor who took them on a field trip to the EPA field site. As he was telling them about the project he was working on, he said he wouldn’t want them to get “jewed”. She couldn’t believe what she heard, the most educated man had made an anti-Semitic remark. She decided she was going to say something, but changed her mind and didn’t go through with it. What scared her the most was that she never met a vicious anti-Semite who was purposely trying to be prejudiced. A lot of people don’t understand what it means to be different and they approach it as if it is a bad thing. After she returned from her trip she planned on applying for the diversity committee to tell the whole school about her culture and her tradition. The experience has made her see how important it is to celebrate her heritage.
   When I read this story it made me think of myself and how I used to see different cultures. I feel I can relate to some of the other students who were ignorant of the other religions. One day I realized I was being prejudiced towards other cultures and wanted to change. So from then on I have taken many steps to change my views. The first step is I am in International Club with many different culture and ethnic backgrounds. I am also taking a class on multi-cultural awareness. Both of them have really pushed me out of my comfort zone and has made me more accepting of people’s differences.Recently I went to a presentation and realized I was not the only one that was ignorant of other cultures. I got a lot of my questions answered about culture.Although i don't have any special religion or culture like Chana in the story. I still want to continue to learn about different cultures around the world I liked the quote"If there weren't so much ignorance about each other people's backgrounds,would people still hate each other as badly as they do now"I belive this is an interesting thing to think about. A lot of wars are started because people are not tolerant and don't understand the differences of other cultures.I think that if you want to hate another culture its your choice but know all the facts before you decide to hate a whole group of people.