User:Moogle/divgroup

In hopes of becoming allies with Non-Christians, we chose to offer service to the Church of Scientology, the Zen Center, and the Jewish Community Center. Not only did we hope to become allies but also, we were interested in learning more about these organizations and changing any aspects of our knowledge that may be incorrect. The aspects that we concentrated on most were stereotypes, lookism, and cultural privilege, which are easily placed on people who belong to Non-Christian religions. Stereotyping is a phenomenon that occurs all the time at all different levels. Webster’s Dictionary defines stereotyping as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Stereotyping occurs frequently when it comes to religious groups. It is extremely easy to classify a Muslim or a Jew or a Christian and place ideas or characteristics of what one thinks of these religious groups and place them on all people of that organization. Of course, this is not fair because everyone is an individual and even in religion, people put their own twist on doctrines and their interpretation. Stereotypes can create walls between people and the only way to tear them down is to go to the source. It was apparent that we had certain stereotypes of each religious group we worked with before beginning our service. For instance, the Scientology Church, being outsiders to their beliefs we based our knowledge off a popular figure, Tom Cruise, because this is the most well known figure of Scientology, or at least the one we all had heard about. Many words like “crazy” “psychotic” and “false religion” came to our minds when we decided to provide service for this organization. Before we began our service for the Zen Center, we had the stereotype that they would be people of Asian decent. Lauren also did service at the Jewish Center and she thought she would see men with beards and hats or yarmulke. Therefore, it is apparent that people have stereotypes of religions. Thankfully, we had the opportunity to discover the truth of these stereotypes through giving service and working along side people of Non-Christian faiths. How we thought Scientologists would be was changed immediately when Leonard greeted us. He was a friendly man and was willing to answer any questions we had. Right off the bat, we discovered how Scientology is a religion and their major beliefs. Again, our assumption of people of the Buddhist religion was contradicted right away when we worked along side people from New Zealand and Austria. They were not of Asian decent at all. We helped them clean their work areas and raked leaves. We found that, just as Marci said, “Even Buddhists rake leaves,” they are just like every other person and must do everyday tasks. Lauren was able to be a part of dancing, eating, and craft making within the Jewish community. Although they had authentic food, they enjoy and are involved in activities that are part of all religions. Our eyes were opened to many religions and we were able to create more accurate ideas of what it means to be a Non-Christian. Overall, after we had completed our service with these groups and after gaining first hand experiences with people of these groups we learned that stereotypes could not be placed on an entire group of people, especially religious groups. Within groups are individuals and just as the word individual states, they are a separate person from everybody else. To say that all Buddhists are Asian or that all scientologists are crazy people is preposterous. Together individuals create a whole and bring in all sorts of characteristics. People of a certain religion may all be working towards one goal but they are all getting there in their own ways. Stereotyping is harmful. We should all focus on getting to know people and not just assuming one already knows how the person will be by only knowing stereotypes. Being an ally to these groups will take us one step further in the ultimate goal of equality. Lookism is a type of prejudice where people make assumptions about a person or religion based on looks. For example, we assume a well-kept man with a nice car is rich, whereas a poorly dressed, sloppy man is poor and could be homeless. The reality is something that still shocks many people yet we face a cold world where lookism is one of the most pervasive but denied prejudices still. The well-kept man with a nice car could be a drug dealer. The poorly kept man could have just lost his wife or, common today, lost his job. The same thing is to be said about our religions that we focused on. Lookism plays a large part in our prejudices going in but like many people, we were surprised. The first religion that we helped was the Church of Scientology. This did not seem to give us much pause before going in. The only thing that we knew about Scientology was what we read in the tabloids concerning Tom Cruise, Will Smith and other public figures involved in the religion. None of us really had any preconceived notions of what a scientologist “looked” like and we were not disappointed. We met Leonard at the door and he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Each time we met with Leonard after this he was always comfortably dressed. His hair was combed nicely and he was a very average looking twenty-something man. Everything about him, the other Scientologists in the building, and even the people in the movie were average in looks. We seemed to decide as a group that the only prejudice we had against this religion was mainly stereotypical. At the Zen Center, a Buddhist organization, they had us remove our shoes inside the door. Carrie was expecting longhaired men in red robes and a main fat man in very little clothing. Lauren assumed that Buddhists might have an earthy look to them. She had heard that there was a large focus on “becoming one with nature” so she assumed they would all be greenies and wear REI clothing and such. This was certainly not the case. Most wore jeans and t-shirts and a part of the group sat outside and smoked. They were exactly the type of people you would pass on the street or in a coffee shop. Nothing about these people gave away their religion. They were some of the nicest people we came across in our service. Lastly, Carrie asked her Jewish neighbor if she could go to a Jewish Service with her. She did not really know what to expect, kind of figuring it would be the same as Mormon sacrament or Catholic mass. She was expecting a few men with black suits on and long white beards. She admits to not having much interaction with the Jewish faith but not out of preference but lack of opportunity. When she got to the Jewish Temple the Rabbi was so welcoming and told her if she has any questions he would be happy to answer anything he could. He was wearing a nice suit and a Kippa (Jewish hat) and a handful of other people as well. Everyone else was either in a dress or in nice clothing. Carrie was almost disappointed but then thought how foolish was that. Just because they were not Christian did not mean that they stood out in any other way. They may have worn different hats or worn ceremony robes but otherwise dressed and acted just like her. This service taught us the importance of the old saying don’t judge a book by its cover. Because our intent, as members of the dominant, was to observe and strive to work as allies to subordinate groups, we had to seek to take an objective point of view to see the whole picture of the culture we live in while retaining our dominant status to view the oppression, intended and not, that results from our own dominance. Within this framework we chose to look at the cultural privilege of these subordinate groups within the community, while consciously aware of the privilege we hold in the community. Aside from an address, not knowing beforehand where we were going, we met at restaurant next to the Scientology Mission. The situation speaks greatly to the privilege of the group we were helping. Though the group itself is fairly well known, its location was invisible to us as dominants. A nearby restaurant, rather than the address was the meeting place. None of us knew where it was located beforehand, and when we arrived, Chris still had no idea that he was standing next to the building, which held this religious group. Regardless of the stereotype of religious buildings having a different look (and the nature of our experiences of what religious buildings are), when it became clear that the building we were to meet in was possibly a remodeled apartment building, it was a small indication of the cultural privilege of this group. The same held true for the Buddhist center, which we struggled to find - having no former knowledge of its location - itself consisting of two former homes, blending in amongst the surrounding homes. Within a community, visibility is one of the largest of cultural privileges. The religious groups in this community with the greatest cultural privilege have quite a bit of visibility, not the least of which begins with the buildings and the awareness within a community of their location. In addition to the visibility provided by location, the influence a group has in a community depends on its ability to be known in a community regardless of its location - visibility that brings people to a location. The dominant religion in Utah is immensely visible, and almost ubiquitous. This became quite clear on meeting at the Scientology mission when, having to ask Leonard several questions to understand the religion, he asked us to help him find ways to become more visible in the community - ways for people to know about what they were doing at the mission. The dominant’s visibility is quite clear when there are television channels devoted to them, religious buildings at schools, religious schools, and community events that receive media attention unattainable to these small Non-Christian religions. Certainly, within the community many large events give attention to the dominant Christian religions, with those of the subordinate group largely unknown, even likely unheeded when they seek attention. The thing he wanted most was a small window for people to see that he was there - a testament to the lack of cultural privilege he felt. Cultural privilege within a community is a very big deal, even more so to religious groups whose adherents come to them through visibility, who stay with them based on credibility. Lack of cultural privilege can often lead to unmerited devaluation by communities, in turn decreasing the culturally perceived credibility of the groups through stereotypes, which in turn result in decreased cultural privilege, a downward spiral. This negative trend can be reversed only through diversity education. Visibility is one of the greatest levelers for disadvantaged groups and dominant allies are the best educators. Culturally privileged individuals are able to portray group peerage and value, far above those without that same privilege. Changing stereotypes and increasing awareness are the key ways we need to increase equity among Non-Christian groups. Overall, we realized that we had previous notions of Non-Christian religions but through our service with three different organizations, we concluded that while prejudice has various reasons, by striving to become allies with the people we served, we not only learned about the religions but also overcame some of our prejudice. Therefore, we believe that we became allies to the people of Non-Christian religions thus accomplishing the goal of this service project. Furthermore, we wish to continue to reach out to those subordinate groups in hopes to create better relationships within our community, but more importantly between dominant and subordinate groups.