Oh What You Can Learn In Three Weeks!

Richard Van Dyke

Regina Lewis

COMM SS3 SP14

2-9-2014

Oh What You Can Learn In Three Weeks!

I’ve always known that I have had some difficulty in communicating effectively with certain ethnic groups and subgroups.  This has been detrimental to the effectiveness of teams I have been tasked to lead.  Misunderstandings can quickly escalate to hard feelings among team members.  If I had had experience with the concepts that I will be summarizing in this paper before this class I may have been able to avert some of those misunderstandings.

The “Ethical Considerations” subsection of chapter one really held my attention (19).  As a student, my goal is to earn my undergraduate degree in Social Justice.  How intercultural communication relates to the broader subject of ethics in culture is something I was hoping would be part of the overall discussion in this class.  Each culture has its own truths in regards to ethics.  These differences are what can lead to misunderstandings and conflict.  The text highlights how some of these issues have plagued our own country and how effective communication is the bridge that can span these differences (21).

Another topic that was new to me was the “Four layers of Intercultural Communication” (35).  The manner in which these layers overlap exert powerful control over our daily actions. Exploring these concepts had the effect of making me reevaluate how I perceive the word around me.  I have always thought of myself as something of a free thinker but this information sheds new light on how I make decisions and ultimately take action on those decisions.  “Why did I decide to go back to school?”  In light of these new (to me) concepts, I think my answer to this question will be very different from the one I started the semester with.

Attribution bias is a concept that I was familiar with before this class (97).  As a White man married to a Latino woman I have experienced attribution bias in my own life.  Mostly as a result of others making judgments based on my wife’s ethnicity.  I could recount many examples of how people’s negative bias (mostly other White males) toward my wife magically changes when they realize that we are together.  Without the experience of being married to a person of color I would, at best, be oblivious to these issues, and at worst, buy into the stereotypes.  

Finally, the lecture by Tim Wise was excellent.  I had not heard of him before we watched the video, but after listening to his views on race relations in the United States I have a new hero.  His skilled critique of the history of White privilege opened my eyes to aspects of the struggle that that had not occurred to me before.  I especially enjoyed his ability to use personal experiences and humor to drive home his points.  Needless to say I have ordered his latest book and will attempt to work my way through his other published works over the course of the year.