“The Stranger” by Alfred Scheutz
This piece breaks down a culture and community into cohesive parts. In this perspective, these usually radically different things can be looked at as the same, but with different details. Further, they can all be related to in the “stranger” situation. In my case, a significant time in which I experienced this was at the beginning of preschool. With Chinese as my language, I went in on the first day to everyone speaking words I couldn’t understand, English. I went home and spoke with my parents, concluding that I would learn English because it was the only way I could adapt and adopt the “customs” of preschool. Being a child, I caught on rather easily, and was quickly able to assimilate into the environment. Now when faced with basic problems, my Chinese culture has taught me to approach them with logic, but I do this with my own twist. I incorporate intuition and not just hard logic, but logic mixed with situational problem solving and feeling. Another example that is applicable to American culture is eating healthy. However, growing up with a predominately Chinese diet, I have naturally become accustomed to eating healthy, and I don’t find it tedious or stale, but rather normal.
“Travelling” by Grace Paley
Paley, growing up in New York, had never experienced segregation laws and racism to the caliber of African Americans in the South. This is especially evident when her only concern with traveling to the South for the first time, is that she won’t be able to recognize her lover, whom she has not seen for a total of two months. She also expresses her excitement to “travel in the wide world,” seemingly oblivious to the emotional taxes the situations of segregation in the South brought to her people. In a way, her “stranger” profile protects her from the cost from injustice of segregation. Her experience on the bus shows this. An African American woman, a resident of the South, when confronted by the presence of a white male, was frightened by the towering presence, whereas Paley was seemingly unphased. Despite her “stranger” profile, she is aware of segregation and is able to bond with the woman with her baby on the bus because they are of the same culture. Because of her mother’s experience, she is aware of this and is able to be empathetic towards the woman, therefore creating a bond and forming community.