Dimensions of culture, values, and communication: explore and examine experiences with being on the edges of the cultural norm. Address one or more of the following questions:
a. Explore a time when you felt at odds with a cultural norm or norms. Keep in mind that a norm is a set of culturally ingrained principles of correct and incorrect behaviors. Think about this in the broadest sense. Some examples would be your family background, your religion, your race/ethnicity, your size and appearance, your social class (either the one you were born into or the one you currently occupy), your age, your job, your choice of an intimate partner, your politics, where you live (now or in the past), your cultural background, etc.
b. Explore a time when you perceived someone or some group as being outside or excluded from a dominant culture.
c. Consider when you have experienced yourself as being part of a dominant culture. What conditions or rules allowed you to be part of the norm?
d. Can you conceive of a time or a situation in which there were ever any benefits of being placed in the cultural outsider category? Explain.