# Integration question



## Amber Leaf (Jun 16, 2012)

I wonder if anyone can help me.

My Mum's from a city where a lot of Indian and Pakistani immigrants came to live in the sixties (around the time of the India-Pakistani wars). Before the immigration, the city was nearly all white citizens. My Mum told me that when she first met an Indian man with really dark skin one day in the park, she was scared as she had never met anyone who wasn't white before. She got over this quickly and said it was mainly shock at how dark his skin was.

I'm writing a script about a South American tribe who meet white people for the first time and I want it to be realistic. I've grown up in a multi-cultural society and have never experienced meeting someone for the first time who is a different race than me and it being significant.

Can anyone recommend any auto-biographical writings of someone from a small isolated community meeting people of a different race for the first time or share any similar experiences that you may have from a personal point of view please? My Mum's experience has helped but I'm aware that a whole tribes worth of people wouldn't all react in the same way. Any help would be appreciated.


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## Randyjoe (Jul 6, 2012)

Just imagine what white people must look like to non-whites who have never had contact with them. They have pointy noses, thin lips, sickly pale skin and wicked blue eyes. A tribes person might think they were a spirit of some sort, or a bad omen.

Then you have the cultural differences. White people might talk into magic voice boxes called 'telephone' or sit on hard white tree stumps called 'toilet'. They might wear inappropriate clothing for life in the jungle making them look silly or scary.


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## vcnavega (Aug 1, 2012)

There is this amazing author Thirty Umrigar she is an Indian who lives in America, most of her books talk about the cultural shock about the eastern and western culture from both point of view, but there is this special book, The Weight of Heaven that tells how a couple of americans get to live in India, and they do live this experience of meeting different people. I hope this might help you.


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## dolphinlee (Sep 29, 2012)

I can't give you a reference but I can give you my experience. I was flying to Hawaii about 10 years ago.  As I went to go to the toilet a man stood up.  When I saw him I was rooted to the spot.  I was terrified. I mean terrified.  The man was a tall stock polynesian. His face was 'wrong.' The proportions were 'wrong.'  The 'alienness' of his appearance triggered an instinctive reaction in me.  By the time I saw him again I had understood my reaction and knew it wasn't necessary.  He wasn't alien or wrong.  I have lived in and visited many countries and I have never had that reaction before. 

A friend of mine has never had a television so her children were not exposed to people from other cultures until he went to play school.  When her son was 3 she took him to see the doctor.  In the waiting room was a dark skinned woman. The boy screamed and ran off down a corridor.  This was the first time he had seen a person of colour.  

These reactions aren't racism they are outdated anthropological protections.  I am safe in my tribe.  I am in danger from your tribe.


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## Gunslinger (Oct 17, 2012)

Tribe meets white man for the first time - Original Footage (1/5) - YouTube


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