Crossroads of Two Cultures

Part of the reasons I decided to take a job after college that paid well below what I made in high school, and to do it in a place where I knew absolutely no one, was because of what is termed by people I dislike "self-discovery." (I prefer the even more masturbatory term "ego-actualization.") I wanted to know how I handled life when all my support systems have been removed--financial, social, familial. Furthermore I wanted to gain first hand knowledge of cultures different than mine, whether that be socio-economic, or more in the ways of norms and mores.

It's fascinating to know that This night I was walking to Wal-Mart for cereal, laundry detergent, and wine (yeah wine at Wal-Mart. Did you know you can't buy it with foodstamps? Assholes!). On the way their I ran into a person from a culture I had only read about--the Gullah/Geechee. The Gullah (Geechee in Georgia) are a culture unique to America evolved from the Lowcountry area of South Carolina and Georgia. Because of many different factors, the population in these two areas of black people to white was wildly in favor of black. Due to this, their culture became the dominant one, even if socio-economically the people weren't. This was enhanced after the civil war when many of the areas in which the Gullah people lived saw an exodus of white civilians. Eventually a unique language formed. A pidgin of various creole, and African languages, and of course English. When you read the language (http://www.charlestonblackheritage.com/gullah.html) you think that perhaps its very similar to English, and that it would just be heavily accented.

You would be wrong, you silly silly girl.

When you hear it its very clear that this is not English, nor any language you have heard. Think of it as seeing a text of Portuguese, recognizing Spanish phrases, and thinking you could speak Portuguese if faced with it because of some slight familiarities with what you already know. As a person who has studied languages for some years now, the very idea that America as we know it can produce new languages is fascinating. Of course there are examples of the pidgin spoken in New Orleans, but this was a love-child of the amount of cultures mixing together. In the lowcountry, however, it wasn't so much cultures intersecting, but one culture being allowed to flourish. In other words it developed in the same way English, French, or Arabic developed--organically due to isolation. Fascinating.

Speaking of language, the slight amount of Arabic I knew came in handy today, making me want to learn much more. A student came into my office to find some service opportunities. She was obviously Muslim, or from a Muslim culture. After talking with her a little bit I found out she was originally from Syria, attended the University of Jordan, married, and then moved here. Now she was getting a degree in accounting (all of her pharmaceutical credits from Jordan didn't transfer). We became very chatty, very open. Though my amount of arabic is equivalent to a newborns', the interest I showed in her culture was enough I think. On a side-note she was strikingly beautiful, which now makes the tally of Girls From Charleston With Whom Neil Has Fallen In Love number 23.

Even more fascinating for me, is watching other people have their eyes opened by discovering the culture that is hidden from them. Our first big project of the year involved going to a local YWCA, and bringing CofC students to work with the after school program there. These girls--and I say this factually, without any sense of pejoration--rich, white girls surrounded by rich, white girls. They have never really seen the other cultures in America. They did, however, volunteer to knowingly go to a place that was outside of their culture zone, and interact with a type of person they probably never had before. They should be applauded. We had a debriefing afterwards, and many of the girls were absolutely shocked by what they had seen. Charleston is a rich city, but with no middle class. You are either rich, or in the ghetto. These women had never seen the ghetto. Small children were innocently asking "Where'd all you white people come from?" The college is only 4 blocks away from this place--4 blocks and little black children had never seen a white woman, and white women had never seen the poverty that surrounded them. That's how segmented this city is.

It's horrifying and fascinating at the same time to see. It's not that the rich men and women of Charleston by any means try to force this (at least not all of them), it's just that so much of the culture is still left over from the brutal history of the last 200 years, that even if the minds and hearts of the citizens feel no hatred towards each other, the separation still exists. This time no law or institution is keeping it this way, just cultures so different that they are like oil and water.**