Alexandria Gurule

Process Paper

April 15, 2018

When this class began in January, I had a lot of high expectations and assumptions for

what this class would be like. I believed that this class would talk more about the cultures of

each race and ethnicity instead of the history. There were many different expectations

including a more open discussion as well as more than just the historical background for only

a few races and ethnic backgrounds. This was disappointing to find out that this was not what

the class was based on especially since previously, this class was about cultures and not

about history. This book also felt like another history book that didn’t go into many details

and current issues, but rather issues in the past that may not always be relatable today.

I feel as though I’ve always been very open to races and ethnicities different than my

own due to the way my parents raised me. Although I grew up in New Mexico where the

majority of people are Hispanic or White, but there were many different cultures and

perspectives. My parents have always taught me to be open to every culture and religion.

This is also who I am as a person, I feel as though no one should be judged based on their

religion, race, or ethnicity. I believe that if one is not violating the human rights of another

being, then who they are or what they believe in should not be decided by another person. As

a Christian, we are called to be like Jesus and we are called to love those around us. I do not

believe this means that we have to get along with everyone, but this means that we should try

to have an open mind and be more understanding to the people around us.
 Going into a field that is here to help people, there needs to be an understanding that

everyone has a different background and it is our job to adjust to their needs in order to help

them. Understanding and adjusting is important because everyone has their own individual

views and perspectives. It is important to be willing to help someone even if they do not

believe the same way you do, otherwise, there is no reason to be in the field of helping and

healing others. Understanding a background of someone is very important when trying to

connect to them. This helps bridge a gap especially if you and your client come from

different backgrounds.

The Seventh-Day Adventist church has a lot of issues when it comes to acceptance of

others and people who do not fit into the “typical” church member. A lot of members see a

certain person for who they look like on the inside and refuse to look at the person in the

perspective of love and acceptance. The SDA church also has an issue with women being

leaders of the church, which is an outdated view. Women today can be leaders of anything,

and yet, there is a controversy over women as ordained pastors. This comes off as biased and

prevents a lot of great leaders from being able to follow their calling from God. This is a

reason that the Seventh-Day Adventist church should not be the reason we follow God and

call ourselves Christians. Many Seventh-Day Adventists focus more on going to church and

presenting an image of a good Christian than to go out show others the love that God has for

us.

“This class did not really change any of my perspectives in what I view or see.

However, it did show what textbooks want to teach students. This is a clear problem

especially if this was supposed to be a “multicultural perspectives” class, but there was not a
lot of perspectives actually given. Although history of cultures and races are important, that

should be a different class, or this class should be renamed to a history class instead of a

Psychology/Education class. This book was tough to follow because it categorized people

into a chapter and the history that is presented was vague and only showed certain aspects of

a culture.

The problem with only teaching the history is that it lacks the cultural side of race or

ethnicity. The class discussions talked about culture at times, but the book did not go into

detail about what the culture is actually like. There was a lot of missed opportunities to have

open lively discussions due to the way this book was structures and what its main focus was

on. Hearing fellow students perspectives about their cultures was very interesting and at

times useful to have a different perspective. Only teaching history eliminates who a person is

or what their culture is like and only deals with how history for them has changed.

For myself, I have my own views that may not match up with the Seventh-day

Adventist church because I do not believe that we should base our actions and personal

beliefs on a man-made religion. Instead I believe that we should base our perspectives on the

beliefs that all are created equal and we owe it to ourselves and others to learn more about

the people around us. This does not mean that we have to all believe the same things, but we

should be open to different views and perspectives instead of solely our own. People are

quick to judge things that they have a problem with instead of realizing it is no their place to

do so. Many people have a problem with others’ cultures and beliefs and do not understand

that everyone is different in their own way and that it’s okay that people believe different

things.
 The one thing that this class did help me to see is that books can only teach you so

much. Textbooks limit a student’s opportunity for real life growth especially in this type of

class. Open discussions are a way to have a diverse and useful class that engages everyone

and their beliefs and ideals. There were many discussions in this class that were not based on

the book, but rather what we experienced as a certain race, age or religion. Open discussions

are a great way to hear other’s perspectives on life and what they believe in. This also helps

show the difference between cultures and how people were raised based of their ethnicity and

race. Even though this class was made up of all women, there was still a lot of different

backgrounds that were all engaged in discussions.

There was a lot of good information in this book that were informational to the actual

historical background of a race, ethnicity, or religion. This book focused on background, and

although it is hard to capture the emotional background of a race, there should have been

more of how people felt rather than the history of that group in America. The information

from the book was not the focus of the discussions in class which was more of how we felt

about the topic for the week.