Dennis CP#3

Our cultural workshop #3 was great. We were starting to get more acquainted and comfortable with each other and I was looking forward to the workshops more and more. This one felt important because it was directly about stereotypes and generalizations; we knew how our cultures were stereotyped, but would we say them out loud? To each other? This was a great opportunity to break through biases and learn more about how we are seen and how we make presumptions. I wanted to understand the Saudi point of view of Americans, and talk openly and respectfully about how we are portrayed, even in the negative, embarrassing view much of the world may have about American culture. We learned that Rosana wanted people to know that Peru is more than just Machu Picchu, and that she had been stereotyped in airports and profiled for falsely being linked to possible South American drug trafficking. Ahmed allowed us to see that Saudi Arabia, for all of its solidarity and religious unification, had divided opinions on many social issues, including the stereotype that women are not allowed to drive. There is in fact legislation in support of women’s right to drive, and it has significant support and momentum.