Cultural Misconceptions
Everyone has that one childhood memory they cannot forget. Throughout my eventful childhood, I have a few; but the most puzzling of all happened about ten years ago not too far from my house. Where I grew up, seldom did a person walk by our house without me knowing who it was. The neighborhood was so small that everybody knew each other. The environment made for the best place to spend your juvenile years. The place was peaceful and quiet where everyone seemed to trust each other. It was almost like an extended family of sorts except every family has its issues. Reality started to shift as soon as a moving truck pulled over with a Persian family onboard. I was a bit young to notice it then. Nevertheless, looking back a lot changed then because of what I think now was cultural misconceptions.
Everyone had been to their neighbor’s house at one point or another. The visits were either through random invites or the occasional parties held all over the area. However, when the Persians moved in, few people went over to their house. Besides the residents rarely invited them to their parties. The family got along just fine with my parents. I was allowed to play with their kids and even go to their house when other kids were cautious of interacting with the Persians. All I could make of the situation at the time was I had new friends. Except for the intense amount of tension in the air, nothing else was that distinctive for me to notice. I knew some people got along more than others, but I could not see why anyone would have trouble doing so with this family. The man, Amir, was an architect and mostly spent his time in his studio. When not working, he was the most welcoming person around. He had a wife named Yasmin, and they had two kids, a boy and a girl. Except for the fact that they lived a very conservative Persian life, they appeared to be very normal to me.
A few months down the line, something took a turn for the worst. One of the neighborhood’s kids failed to show up after school. The mother, worried sick, went from door to door looking for her daughter. The little girl’s friends claimed that they had not seen her on the way home, but they all saw her in school. Usually, she would go to play hide and seek with her best friend, but then that day she did not. After looking all over for her, the mother concluded that her daughter had been abducted. Soon after, she called the police station to report her missing child. It had been barely12 hours since she was last seen, so the officer did not file a formal missing person’s report in response. Instead, the police officer asked the present members of the community to volunteer for a search party. The adults were to be put in groups to help divide the work efficiently. To my surprise, some people were against being grouped with the Persian couple. Some went as far as to claim that the family may have been involved in the kid’s abduction. The volunteering adults searched everywhere but could not find the child. After hours of searching, people eventually got tired little did they know that she would be later found unharmed with her estranged father. He had not communicated to the mother who was the legal guardian that he had taken her. The whole situation was a misunderstanding that led to unnecessary panic
Everybody went back home after they found the kid but everything was clearly not okay. There was a clear division among the residents in the neighborhood. Finally, the situation brought all unspoken sentiments to the surface. From that day things took a turn for the worst concerning the family. Whenever something went wrong, some people always found a way to link it to the couple. Eventually, they moved out to another place to avoid the awkwardness. The entire ordeal was saddening; you could tell that people felt stupid for being so culturally ignorant.
The events of that day left me puzzled as I tried to understand why people would openly fear other people they barely took the time to know. Persians are not all the same. They have different customs and follow different faiths. The ones that are Muslims are not necessarily terrorists. In fact, all Arabic traditions insist on respecting the people around you. The main misconception about Persians is that they live in tents, ride camels and are terrorists. These are all absurd however as none of it is true. Centuries ago they used to ride camels and live in tents but that way of life profoundly outdated. Though they are a conservative folk, they are very civilized and have embraced modernity in various aspects of their lives including their housing and means of commuting.
According to psychologists, stereotypes formed towards a certain culture contribute to cultural misconceptions about the people affected. Studies show that unconsciously we take images and information that we are exposed to then make a split second judgment whether to accept them or reject them. This conclusion is especially true in the case of the media almost always portraying people from the Middle East as terrorists. We may not share that opinion but, when this same information is borne in mass quantities that it grows into part of the environment, we are left with no choice. Prolonged exposure to such information as people grow up makes it part of the know “truth.” Over time the image forms in our mind and it becomes hard to dissociate it from the person next to us of Middle Eastern decent. This misguided inclination can explain why people were afraid of the Persian family. Thus, cultural misconceptions are as a result of a psychological bias.
I have come to understand that it was not the residents’ fault. The entire situation was as a consequence of a biased societal environment. Therefore, for the sake of future generations we need to change the narrative about various stereotypes we expose to children. Five-year-old children have been reported to have stereotypes formed already. Peer pressure perpetuates these stereotypes at such an age. Therefore, if children are raised together without stereotypes, there is nothing they are going to be culturally biased about. As for adults, I think the best solution would be a public awareness campaign to educate people on what is factual and what is not. Then, people will stop creating enemies out of the kindest people around.
To sum up, I had not been exposed to cultural misconception until I met that Persian family. They were the most humble people I had ever met until they had to move because of unnecessary misunderstanding. I have come to learn about the beauty of the Islamic and Persian culture as a result of the curiosity sparked by the incident. Despite the various misconceptions about their culture, it is in fact very welcoming and respectful to everyone too. Such cultural misunderstanding arises from simple stereotypes conditioned to the population through mass media over time. Although it is tough to escape it as a society, we can shape the future generations differently by teaching them what is right. For the old folk, a mass sensitization campaign would be helpful in forming the various misguided opinions. Thus, cultural misconceptions are real and helpless individuals fall, victims, every day.
