I briefly considered adding a new category to this blog, something like 'small town, small mind', but decided against it since it would itself perpetuate stereotypes. Small-mindedness and intercultural ignorance, not to mention xenophobia, homophobia, sexism and racism, though more frequently encountered in smaller towns, obviously persist in larger cities as well. The benefit of larger cities is that they contain so much diversity that people must learn to deal with difference. Certainly some people learn simply to work around difference, adopting politically correct speech and behaviours to simulate tolerance and open-mindedness. Others, however, manage to learn from and embrace diversity and consequently expand their worldview.
My parter and I, used to life in larger cities, have certainly encountered much more intercultural ignorance in small towns. Some encounters have been very negative, while the one I am about to recount is merely awkward, and in a frustrating kind of way, funny.
We had just come back from a walk though town and were almost back home when we stopped to say hello to a neighbour. We've greeted her before, since we frequently walk past her house, and have commented on the beautiful flowers in her front yard. This time she was in a mood to chat a little.
After our hellos and talk of the weather, she turned to my partner and said, "You look like you must be from Iran." My partner replied that she was Canadian born and raised, a response obviously lacking in sufficient detail, given her 'darker' features. "But what is your background?" she insisted.
"My parents were from Lebanon, but I was raised entirely here. I'm Canadian."
"I guess these days no one wants to say they're from Iran," she replied, as if she had already decided that my partner was Iranian, and that no other answer would do.
At this point her husband was standing next to us, looking rather uncomfortable. She quickly introduced him to us, then returned to the topic of my partner's background, remarking how nice it must be in Lebanon with the nice tropical environment, and so on. My partner smiled and said that yes, some places are nice, sometimes.
"And where are you from?" she said, turning to me. I wasn't sure what to say, my background takes a little while to tell sometimes. "He's Canadian," her husband said quickly. "Grew up in Mexico, German heritage," I replied. "I'm Italian," the husband said, "born in Italy, then came here." His wife, on the other hand, though Italian as well, was born and raised here.
Still feeling awkward, we ended the conversation there and turned to go home. Once home, however, we sought release from the awkwardness in a little laughter and discussion. "Here's some material for your next post," my partner said.
Finding a category for this post proved a little difficult. We detected no hatred or malice, so xenophobia and racism both felt too harsh. She was just a simple older woman with very little awareness or exposure to diversity. She simply lacked intercultural awareness, something less easily acquired in a smaller, more homogeneous environment.
