Not Culturally Sensitive To Our Multicultural Age

(In grade 11, I take a class called “Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology.” We are watching an educational video about cultural differences, sensitivity, and communication. We’re finding it quite amusing how thoroughly clueless the characters are about whatever culture is being featured in the skit. Our school is fairly multicultural, with a pretty sizeable minority of students being of West Asian or South Asian descent. In one of the skits, a male white student is confused about something his female Muslim classmate did, and she explains that it was because of a Muslim religious restriction.)

Boy in Video: “Oh, you’re Muslim? I didn’t know that.”

(We all start roaring with laughter, since the girl is wearing a hijab and it’s blindingly obvious to us that she’s Muslim. We’re still laughing when one of my male classmates pipes up.)

Classmate: *speaking as the boy* “I didn’t know you were Muslim!” *speaking as the girl* “I didn’t know you were an a**-hole!”