The Great Culture Clash

    It was a negative experience, the first time I was made aware of the racial and cultural differences that exist in our world. I was in 6th grade. On the way home from a visit with my family in the bay area, I was talking to my mom about the new crush I had on a boy at school. Lemar was strong, athletic. He was constantly showing off, begging for attention. I loved the way his white teeth stood out against his dark skin when he smiled. He made my fair cheeks blush.

    My mom's response to this new crush was this, "That is fine with me Ali, I am all for the inter-racial thing. I think black men are great. But do not under any circumstance tell your grandparents. They would keel over and die if they thought you might marry someone who isn't white. They would just freak out. No need to worry them okay?"

    "Sure mom."

    I didn't understand then, the fear my grandparents had of someone whom they had never met. As an adult I can see this attitude all around me, in every corner of the world. Assumptions being made, judgments being placed, oppression, segregation, extermination. These acts, these situations all arise out of the same place. Fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the different, fear of the uncontrollable. These acts are heinous and avoidable, preventable with one simple act. I believe in this act because I have experienced it for myself. It is the act of education.

    There is nothing more dangerous than ignorance. It breeds confusion and misunderstanding. We see this happening in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel An Artist of the Floating World. The main character, Ono is a man burden by his past, and by his ignorance to that. As a young painter Ono chose to use his voice making propaganda art for Japan. Now with the war over, and the devastation of such so great, the decisions of his past have come to haunt him. The real tragedy however is Ono's ignorance of his past. He is having trouble marrying of one of his daughter because of his alliance to the country in the past, but because he doesn't know that is the problem, he can do little to fix it.

    "But these are the men who led the country astray, sir. Surely, it's only right they should acknowledge their responsibility. It's cowardice that these refuse to admit to their mistakes. And when those mistakes were made on behalf of th whole country, why then it must be the greatest cowardice of all."

    Ono is experiencing a culture clash in his own country, one of generations. Because he is uneducated about the change in the political climate in his country and the movement in the youth he can not understand the struggles facing him. Time and again he is confused by the resentment the youth feels toward the war. It is as if he is in the dark to the truth of the situation. No one in his life is willing to stand up to him and point out his mistakes, and those of the others who supported the war. Ono is lacking in understanding that can be gained from education.

    We see this example again in Salman Rushdie's East, West. In his short story Harmony of the Sphere's Rushdie gives the narrative of a man dealing with the death of a mental unstable friend. A story filled with commentary on all sorts of issues Rushdie is quick to remind us that knowledge can be a double edges sword if it is not balanced.

    "There were dozens of notebooks in which Eliot had dreamed up alternative personal futures of extra ordinary distinction and renown, or, alternatively, self pitying versions of a life of genius-in-obscurity ending in agonizing illness, or assassinations by jealous rivals; after which, inevitably, came recognition by a remorseful world of which the greatness it had ignored."

    Eliot is a man after knowledge, but knowledge of only one kind. You can't just educate yourself in one part of the world and call yourself knowledgeable. Eliot focused on the world of the magical and spiritual and ended up dead. He didn't reach out to hear the other side of the story, the other point of view.

    In today's globalized world we are bombarded with aliens, with people we don't understand. We are fed knowledge by our elders who themselves led sheltered lives. We see one side of the story and are often too laze and self centered to see the other. This way of life is not going to work in the new world. There is forced exposure to new cultures, thoughts and ideas. If we ignore this, if we don't take the time to learn about someone else, if we don't take the time to understand a different idea then we can only expect fighting. As a human race we are going to have to open our eyes to each other and except that they are different. By doing this, they can see us too and we can learn to share this planet.