After reading “FLEXing Cross-cultural Communication” by Carmelita Castañeda, I realized that an aspect of my childhood had a large impact on my stance on racism. I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, and attended the least diverse high school in the state, which meant that I had little exposure to other races and cultures. This is important to the development of multicultural competence, which is “a phrase that acknowledges the ability of a person to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries with sensitivity to the cultural differences and preferences involved on both sides of those boundaries” (Castañeda).
“The Possessive Investment in Whiteness” by George Lipsitz writes about how racism has affected our country for the past