Cultural Exploitation
This comment submitted by Jamal on 8/27/02.
I'm glad to see an active forum on student conflicts! I actually have been meaning to discuss a personal conflict with someone, so I guess this is a great opportunity.
My univerisity is quite diverse in its students' ethnic backgrounds, and as a Native American student, I feel pretty welcomed there. However, there exists a student group at the university which focuses primarily on academic achievements and what not, but I have observed some of their rituals to mimic those of the Native Americans. As a group that has nothing to do with that culture, I feel quite offended by their exploitation of my ethnicity. How can I approach this situation?
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Research Other Examples and Write Editor
This response submitted by Randy on 8/30/02.
- Hey Jamal. If I were in your spot, I think I'd do some background research on similar problems elsewhere, and then write a letter to the campus paper talking about the problem generally and asking folks at your school to consider how they compare to these problem spots. I spotted an article in the Conflict Management in Higher Ed Report that might help. It deals with cases that sound harsher than what you're up against, but maybe not. See http://www.Campus-adr.org/CMHER/Resources/Reviews1_4.html for the piece I was thinking about.
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