Civil War or Violent Conflict

Current-day standards of communication and the acceptance of different people and cultures have gotten better (for the most part). However, this isn’t to say that people are perfect or that people know or care about how to respectfully treat people from different cultures or lifestyles. With an increasing amount of diversity in the people of America, it is sad to say that stereotyping and prejudice are still present today. Luckily, people still continue to fight for equality and respect for themselves and their fellow countrymen.

In-Class Activity

Something that I learned from the in-class discussion is the perspectives of other people in their experiences with discrimination. I thought I had an idea of how their experiences were but hearing them from them directly impacted me more. It showed me that stereotyping, the discrimination of a person based on generalized, incorrect, and usually offensive characteristics assigned to people of their ethnic or racial background, can be directed at just about anyone, regardless of their race, ethnicity, creed, sexual orientation, gender, etc.

My Positionality

I am privileged for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is because of the fact that I am able bodied. This makes me privileged because I am able to do most physical actions in the world without needing any accommodations. I am also privileged because I am a male. Because of this privilege, I don’t have to worry as much about walking around campus alone at night as my female friends. Another privilege I have is being American. Being American allows me to go to school in peace and not have to worry about whether or not I will live another day because of a civil war or other violent conflict. Though in many ways I am privileged, I am also marginalized in many ways. One of the traits that makes me marginalized is being Latino. I have faced discrimination and prejudice, hateful and discriminatory acts performed based on race, ethnicity, or another identity, multiple times in my life because of my ethnicity and have been hurt before by it. I am marginalized because of the fact that I am from Generation Z. People from my generation have higher suicide and depression rates than most if not all previous generations thanks to many obstacles that we currently face. Another way in which I am marginalized is by being in the lower middle class. Because of this it makes it more difficult for me to pay for school than some people. Although many of us are privileged, many of us are also marginalized by many of our traits, and it is because of this that we should work towards other-orientation, the act of focusing our attention on our communication partners instead of ourselves, to understand each other and create a more peaceful world.

Similarities and Differences with my Classmates’ Experiences

There were multiple similarities and differences between my experiences and those of my classmates. One of the similarities was that many of them faced problems and conflicts involving stereotypes. One of my classmates mentioned an experience in which people assumed that he spoke Spanish because he was Latino. A similar thing happened to me except that someone also assumed that I didn’t speak English because of my being Latino (not only did this person assume I spoke Spanish but they also assumed that I didn’t speak English). One of the main differences between 

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