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There oughta be a law!

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Carl-E:
For many in the "melting pot" of the US, especially the privileged, the belief exists that they shouldn't have any reason to feel uncomfortable anywhere.  The assignment is to push them into a position of discomfort. 


It can backfire miserably on those of us who are quite familiar with social discomfort, thank you. 

Lines:

--- Quote from: Jace on 14 Nov 2012, 03:54 ---Wait, do people actually not have this sort of anxiety? Because I know that when I go to a place where I feel that I don't fit in (most recently it was going to the bar down the street, it just didn't feel right to be in a bar having a shot) I just feel weird and want to leave and go back to my room where everything is familiar.

--- End quote ---

I am guessing when you're a big extrovert, no. I do know a few people that are pretty much comfortable wherever and love big crowds, including two of my best friends. I, however, do not like big crowds and never have. Even when it's a big party and I know over half the people there, I still get nervous. I wring my hands a lot and it ranges from cracking my knuckles to pretty much trying to pull my fingers off of my hands.

ackblom12:
To be fair, I'm fairly sure I have clinical levels of anxiety, but fucking hell extroverts needs to realize they are not the one and only type of mingler.

Papersatan:
Perhaps the assignment was conceived not so that you would attend a group meeting which has explicit membership requirements which you do not meet ("Jewish professionals, Black Scholars") but to some event or location where there are implicit memberships.  There are many event and location which have a different dominant group, but where the cause of the event is not for this group of people specifically to assemble. The problem is it is difficult to find and identify events not targeted at a population you belong to unless they are specifically labeled.

The best examples I can thing of off the top of my head are things like a discussion panel on community activism hosted by a local Black Baptist Church, would likely be attended primarily by members of that church, but would be open to anyone, and church membership would not be assumed.  Or a public market in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, where most people would be Hispanic, and speaking Spanish, but being Hispanic would not be a requirement of shopping there. 

I think being inserted into a group you are not a part of is stressful for anyone.  I have great social skills, and I am pretty good at interacting with new people and I am not at all shy.  I would still feel awkward as the sole out-group person in a group gathering.  Realizing you are surrounded by people who are members of a group you are not a member of makes you hyper aware of where you sit within that particular social division.  If you are a member of the socially dominant group it makes you suddenly aware of the comfort you might generally have in other spaces which get to be "yours" by default. If you are a member of a group which is not socially dominant, then your awareness about your lack of power increases.  Because these situations are uncomfortable, many people avoid them altogether and that is a shame, since there are things to be gained by interacting outside of your comfort zone as it were. 

I don't necessarily think the idea of the assignment was bad, but perhaps the specific instructions about how to go about finding a place to carry it out. 

Lines:
The problem is we were supposed to find a community that we have had little to no interactions with previously. And it has to be a group we can interact with at least 5 times. Your two examples would have been great...except I've pretty much done those already at some point in my life. And the examples that the prompt gave were, "I'm going to such and such place because my students go there." I have no students. Most of the people in this class do. And almost none of them are artists/art teachers, who pretty much seek this kind of thing out all the time. And most of the things I wanted to do conflicted with classes.

Anywho, back to TOBAL.

TOBAL against companies calling you just because they found out you're getting married from another company they are kind-of-sort-of affiliated with. STOP. CALLING. ME. Just because I visited someone else's website does not mean I want to visit yours nor do I want your stuff. Leave me alone!

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