My main takeaway from podcast #3 is that we often are confused about what we know and what we assume to be true. In reality, these are two separate entities that have two separate meanings. A lot of what we think we know is because of what we assume to be true. This ties into our conversation about the culture in which we live. Many people are so caught up in their own perception of reality that they use this against other cultures when they quote on quote “don’t fit the norm.” This is extremely harmful and detrimental to other races and cultures. Our skin color, beliefs, creed, sexual orientation, and even religion do not give people the right to judge others without an understanding of how another person’s culture differs from our own.
I think this concept ties directly into Hidalgo’s piece about immigration law. Hildalgo provides us with six concrete laws that give people the power to limit immigration. However, these six laws, as Hildalgo states, are what he calls “interaction restrictions that, “are morally problematic in part because they infringe on the liberties of citizens” (Hidalgo Pg.6) A culture and perception about immigration exists, especially in the United States. These assumptions fall underneath the same umbrella of getting what we know and assume to be true confused. We fail to understand the why and immigrant’s point of view.
I agree with everything you said, especially your entire first paragraph. It is vital to recognize that our implicit biases and opinions on what is normal can be super harmful to other people and their normals or their cultures. We have to understand other’s point of views in order to lessen our snap judgements and implicit biases as much as possible.
I 100% believe the conclusion of your blog post. I definitely agree that there is stigma about immigration in the united states. It is somewhat ironic too because being proud of immigration is something that the United States claims to pride itself on. I really liked the point you made about how we need to better understand and see the immigrant’s point of view. Hidalgo really did a great job of showing us the other side of the immigration coin. It is so easy to revert back to an in group- out group bias, but we need to consider the effects of how this impacts our day to day lives, not only the huge decisions that are more obvious.
I agree that so many people are quick to make assumptions. When people don’t know about something or it is unfamiliar to them, it scares them. Before even getting the chance to learn about another religion, race, ethnicity, gender, etc, they have already decided that it is different which means that it’s bad, and they begin to make assumptions and generalizations based off biases in society and stereotypes. This is really sad, and I wish that more people took the time to educate themselves and get to know others before judging.