Re:Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills
by erosenbe0 on Sunday January 29, 2023 @12:41PM
(#34570499)
Correct. It's mostly social and not based on 'looks,' per se. Let's give an example. I'm white as a ghost. But from pre-school age I went over to my Indian neighbor's house to play. I'm fond of the cooking and the accent of Indian-born English speakers is totally normal for me, probably more normal than a Southern accent.
Now if I go to India to do some work I will seek out some other Americans to befriend while there, perhaps naturally looking for people like me. But by this I mean other Americans whether Indian-American or otherwise -- I don't mean whites who literally look like me. Get it?
I think implicit in your comment is the assumption that people with different backgrounds are somehow defacto strangers. But what makes it all work on a university campus, imo, is that everyone has a purpose; there are no scary strangers because everyone's motivations are well-understood, since everyone on campus has a job to do. No one is really a stranger.
It doesn't matter if you are of a different color or gender, or that you come from a place I've never been to, or that you speak a language I've never heard, or that you eat food I've never tasted. My lizard brain doesn't kick in when I interact with you because you are just here to study and learn, or to help in that process.
As an example, I am a professor and I have a new colleague. He is from the other side of the world, he was born a decade before me, he eats food different from mine, he worships a different God than I do. But we get along just fine, and that's because despite all those differences, we still have more in common than not. And even if we didn't, we still have to rely on one another and work as a team to achieve a common goal.