The Lost Voice (or I Think This Essay Belongs in This Book) :: Essays Papers

The Lost Voice (or I Think This Essay Belongs in This Book) Youve heard about the dumb farmer who won a million dollars in a sweepstakes, havent you? When he was asked what he was going to do with the m championy, he said hed farm until it was all gone. And did you hear about that farm kid who went to the U of M? Her first reaction on her first day of check was, Wow This place could hold a lotta hay Years ago, no one could have told me that all of those dumb farmer jokes would seriously affect my self-assertion in my intelligence, abilities, and goals. I never knew what to think about those dumb farmer jokes at first because growing up around a whole practice bundling of farmers, I never met a dumb one. I just thought they must be somewhere else. When I transferred to St. Cloud State after one year at a small community college, however, I found out those dumb farmers were in my hometown . . . or at least thats what other batch thought. And, on the other side of the coin, no one c ould have ever made me believe that growing up hearing dumb city cheating jokes would instill in me a fear of becoming one . . . and make me reject those who already are . . . and hate myself for wanting to be one anyways . . . . The difference between small farming communities and institutions of higher education probably wouldnt be considered a cultural difference. But as we slowly succeed in our attempt to put a clamp on racist, sexist, ethnocentric, and other such jokes, who is fighting the dumb farmer jokes and the city slicker jokes? Isnt there a portion fighting for a respect between these two groups as well? And if both groups think the other group is stupid, who is defining intelligence, anyway? And what happens when someone exchangeable me crosses the border and goes to the other side? Do you think about people from remote rural areas when you think about cultural diversity on a college campus? Honestly, I never used to, either, so its OK if you dont . . . because even though I was raised in a rural community, I never motto myself as culturally diverse. After all, cultural diversity, in its most frequently used definition, implies diversity among races, ethnic groups, nationalities, or language backgrounds.