Ugly American

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Soooo...I'm nearly done with my MBA, and this is where it gets interesting. With all my foundation classes completed, it's time to apply the theories I've learned into a real application. Since I'm in a joint-pathed International Business - Information Systems major, the application will require me to briefly study abroad, and spend a lot of time studying/discussing other cultures. Hence most of my remaining classes are related to International Business, and this current one is the primer.

Weee-he-he-he-ell, I've had a rude awakening. I'm culturally illiterate. Ok, so you're thinking, "the hell you say - not with your open-door, open-mind, open-to-all-things-new policy"? Mm-hm, think again. I got slapped early on, Day 1 in class, with my Professor's seemingly simple question:

Professor: "why did India wait so many years to make the necessary changes to grow their economy?"
Class response: * crickets *

Let me frame this for you: this class is pretty diverse, with a few foreign students, from every continent across the globe (excluding Australia). We even have a few students from India, who moved here as children. And since this is a flexible MBA program, most of the students have established careers, work for companies of varying size, including quite a few local Fortune 500's.

Professor: "ok, can you typify the political-economic climate in India prior to this recent growth spurt?"
economy?"
Class response: * more crickets *

Now granted, most students know these questions are leading, and don't have an easy "right" answer. Frankly, we could all shout out a dozen semi-right answers, and they wouldn't necessarily match the answer this professor had in mind. But, no one answered? No one tried? Amazing, since most of us are probably nearing graduation. Ok, let me ask you a few of these questions, and correct me if these seem like things the average American *should* know:

1. Which country was economically predominant in the 19th century, and how does this affect globalization today?


2. Why does the US think Communism is bad? How's about Islamic fundamentalism?


3. What's the difference between a Caucus and a Primary?


4. What's the capital of Montana?

Aside: Question Number 3 really bugged the living shyt outta me, particularly because I'm a voter, and if this was on a voting test (remember, I'm in a voter-id state - so that idea isn't that far-fetched) I would've failed miserably.

I mean, I know my strengths and/or weaknesses. History, in general, has never been my strong suit. However, I thought I had enough working knowledge of the world, to maintain. To consider myself, about average. That, my friends, is laughable. I barely have enough working knowledge of my own country to be able to read the NY Times or WSJ. Let's not even talk about trying to have a go at The Economist, The BBC Online, or any other non-US news source, for that matter.

And you might be thinking, like I was at one point in my life: who the f*ck cares? I got bills to pay, and babies to feed! Well, the problem is that I know better now. I know that we Americans don't live in a vacuum, we as a country have our hands in pots we definitely shouldn't have, and are ignoring other pots that we definitely should be stirring. I'm trying not to overly beat myself up about it, but I have to call myself to task, and be about my business. I'm not just an employee of XXXXXX company that happens to have a diverse staff, a student at XXXXX University, studying topics of International import. I'm a human being, and I live in a world that I know very little about.

So, if my posts become sparse, just know I'm spending my free time with my new best friends: Wikipedia, Google, and Bloglines (thank goodness for EJ hippin' me to RSS news feeds!).

And I promise to tell y'all my thoughts about being a Black man. And my father. And Alfred E. Neuman. It ends with a horror story. And it's definitely not what you think...