Francisco Miraval
I recently came across some statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau which seem to indicate that with a high degree of frequency members of any minority group in the United States only or mostly talk with other members of the same group. In other words, we communicate with people like us, but we don’t go beyond that.
Then, we need to ask, why we speak only with people like us? Perhaps, we can argue, nobody wants to talk with us. Or perhaps we have lost the ability to talk with other. Or perhaps we forgot how to have an intelligent communication with other person and we have reduced the communication, regardless of the language used, only to “posts” and “text messages”.
Regardless, if the statistics of the census reflect what they seem to reflect, if we want to share what we think and what we dream, what affects us and what we long for, who we are and who we want to be, we will be able to talk only or mostly with people inside our own community and in our own language.
It seems, therefore, that nobody wants to talk with us. And it also seems that if they want to talk with us it is only to ask for something (our vote, for example), or to sell something to us, or they try to “educate” us about how to “solve our problems” with our culture, or our diet, or whatever the case they want us to “correct”.
In other words, it seems we have almost no chance of having an intelligent dialogue with those who are not with us because we don’t talk with them or they (mainly those in the dominant culture) control the communication to the point there is no dialogue at all, but only a carefully crafted exchange of information, including surveys, reports, and similar exchanges.
The paradox is that this increasing cultural and linguistic isolation affecting minorities in the United States happens precisely when the United States has become a global nation and when there are countless new ways of communicating with others.
Why, then, we have this communication problem? One of the reasons, I think, is our lack intercultural and intergenerational communications skills. This means we usually ignore the culture and the community of those who are not like us. At the end, we become isolated. Another reason is, unfortunately, racism and discrimination, as well as the forced acculturation many people experienced.
Having said all that, if they don’t talk with us, who are we listening to? Are we perhaps listening to our elders and their wisdom, generated by their experiences in life and their many years on this planet? Or are we listening to those creative souls in our community who open portals of new opportunities for us?
Regrettably, we are probably listening to those who only repeat again and again what was already said, even if the say it with the background of a nice sunset in their social media sites.