While listening to the podcast, I started to think about the specific cultures that affect me. Culture is not something that I ever put an extreme amount of thought into because it is something that I was always surrounded by. I grew up in a multi-cultural household speaking multiple languages. I traveled abroad when I was extremely young and was constantly exposed to different cultures. Biases on different religions, ethnicities, or races are not something I thought about in-depth till I got to Richmond. Until last year, diversity is something I took for granted. I went to the “white” public high school in my area, which was only 50% white. Even then, street culture dominates in Fairfax County, and everyone’s mannerism and slang are extremely similar regardless of ethnic background. Almost everyone I knew went to a public school and the few that went to private went so because they were extremely religious. When comparing that experience to here, it’s a different world. I remember times in my freshmen year where I honestly felt like a foreigner on this campus. It’s ridiculous.

The part that stood out for me the most in the podcast was when Dr. Bezio mentioned the importance of cultural exposure and the impact it plays in deterring bias. I can’t speak on the impact of deterring other’s biases because it is not something that I believe I can speak for. However, the importance of culture exposure is. Exposure to other cultures is not only important for detering bias but for diversification of thought. From LDST 102, we learned that diversification of thought brings forth the best solutions. Interacting with other cultures is vital in seeing different perspectives which leads to new ideas. Another approach of diversification, is something I learned in my current Political Science class where we are discussing Democracy in America by Toqueville. In this book, Toqueville writes that Americans dismiss ideas that do not allign with their own beliefs, and will only to listen foriegners or those with hightened levels of experience. This correlates with diversification because it points out the inherit biases that we dont typically see in ourselves. It takes a point of view from someone completely different to ourselves to see these qualities. In order to see these qualities, we must broaden our own exposure to different cultures and then look at ourselves realisitcally in a differently light. Diversification is not only important for societal outlook, but also for personal growth.