Growing up as a southern California kid, living in a diverse community was normal. I knew from a very young age that the children in my classes came from very different backgrounds than me. I also figured out real quick how fortunate I was to have such a steady upbringing in comparison to some of my classmates. According to Brummett's "Rhetoric and Pop Culture," perception is socially grown. Perception is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
After I graduated high school, I went on to San Jose University where I completed my freshman year of college. I remember thinking funny is was that I thought I knew about diverse cultures before, when San Jose State opened my eyes to so much more. The people in my classes were from all over the world and Culture Night lined the plaza outside of my dorm with endless amounts of tables displaying who built up SJSU.
I ended up transferring to SUU the summer going into my sophomore year and boy was that a culture shock. I went from Silicon Valley to little Cedar City, Utah in a short amount of time and I was shook. I had never seen so many white people in my entire life. I also had never really been exposed to the LDS religion and was amazed by how many churches surrounded the community and how beautiful the temple was. I also had never seen or heard of Polygamy and assumed the individuals I saw in Walmart for the first time were Amish. After doing my own research, I had the opportunity to learn and educate myself on these two new concepts. This made me realize how different each spot truly is and that we only know what we are surrounded by.
For those who didn’t grow up in Utah, did you also mistake a Polygamist for Amish? Are culture misconceptions formed by what is/is not shown in the media?
Hi Madison,
ReplyDeleteI was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although Salt Lake is a little more diverse than Cedar City is I still have always been surrounded by white people and a LDS church around every corner. It is interesting living in Utah and not being mormon because there is this stigma that just because I am from Utah it means I am apart of the mormon religion. I can definitely see culture misconceptions forming by what is/ is not shown in the media. I think that often the stereotypes that are shown in the media is what forms those misconceptions as well.