Trista expanding horizons and challenging taken for granted beliefs

This past weekend we attended the Africa Unite Human Rights training session.  Although I can't say that the experience was what I was expecting, it certainly challenged my current beliefs, something that I've learned to be necessary to affect a fundamental change in perspective.  For instance, prior to this weekend, I had considered myself to have more than sufficient cultural competence.  However, I realized throughout this experience that perhaps the reason I held this assumption is that I've never truly been exposed to individuals, or groups of individuals, who hold steadfastly to the opposing side of certain issues.  For instance, during a small group discussion, one of the participants brought up the topic of female circumcision and compared it to male circumcision, which in the U.S., at least for the most part, does not carry with it the same level of opposition as that of female circumcision.  At first, my cultural norms and what I consider what is and isn't inhumane caused me to have an immediate reaction that rejected the idea that these two things were at all on the same level of violation.  However, because social propriety and my desire to minimize any argumentation prevented me from verbalizing my immediate response, I was forced to listen, think, and reflect.  Why is male circumcision more or less okay than female circumcision? What reasons did I have to back up what had always been a concrete opinion that I had never had to challenge? At first, I couldn't think of an ethical argument that would differentiate what I deemed okay and what I had always viewed as a hideous violation of human rights.  The only reason I had, at first at least, was that it was simply not MY cultural norm.  I still don't necessarily agree with this notion of comparison between female and male circumcision and have since formulated my thoughts to back this belief.  However, being forced to at least try to understand why this practice is viewed as culturally valued in some societies caused me to approach the remainder of human rights issues that we have since discussed in a completely different manner.  Why is a practice wrong? What rights does it actually violate and is it actually different from practices that I myself have never questioned or given a second thought?  These are the types of questions that I now ask myself as we discuss various types of social injustices.  Not only has this new approach caused me to apply respect rather than reproach when it comes to foreign cultural practices, but it has also caused me to look at how my own community commits various violations.  Are the practices I am so used to really that different from those I have been made to believe are so barbaric?  Perhaps this training did not necessarily change my views, but it certainly has taught me that having true respect for other cultures can lead to a number of realizations that will inevitably  allow us to contribute more effectively to social cohesion efforts, and how human rights is a human issue and not the responsibility of any one culture, but rather the world as a whole. 

Trista far left