Reflecting on Experience: Kibbutz Ketura

   As explored in my last post, the term American comes paired with a variety of stereotypes as well as inherent priviledge. One of the best examples of this happened during our orientation session. We played a game called "step into the middle if..." where you would step into the center if the sentence said applied to you. One of the sentences was "step into the middle if you speak more than one language". Well over half of my program stepped into the center of the circle. A student standing inside the circle looked out at the students outside the circle and said "Hi Americans!!".  Up until that point, I hadn't really thought of how language plays such a key role in the perception of priviledge, despite all my diversity trainings.

    Here, in the middle of Israel where Arabic and Hebrew are spoken almost interchangably, English is considered the educated language. All my classes here are in English, which already puts me at an advantage as I've spoken English my whole life. Additionally most international science communities use English as the standard language. This means I can already be seen as more articulate than my counterparts, even if I am not smarter than them, as I know how to phrase my ideas to be clear. I feel that as the semester continues I will only become more aware of this advantage as I help my fellow classmates out with writing papers and in their conversational skills.

   Another distinct advantage I have as an American student here is that I was supported in my decision to attend the Arava Institute for Environmental Science. Even those who did not outright support me (my grandparents made a fuss about how 'dangerous' Israel is) I wasn't excommunicated by my family for coming here. As I found out, not many in this program share that luxury. Many of my friends in this program were not supported by their families, and risk being kicked out of their family for being here. Some are currently lying to their families about where they are actually studying. Beyond that, many companies in this area would not hire a student who went to a peace building seminar. This has caused many students to have two resumes, one listing AIES and one that doesn't. This will not be my experience at all; American employers love seeing that candidates have international experience, and have been to trainings like those that AIES offers (peace, leadership, ect). I couldn't imagine going behind my family's back to be here, and hearing from those who have has given me a new perspective on how important both peace and environment is to my generation across the globe.

   To the point of "...are we learning at the cost of other cultures/people", I could not find this farther from the truth with my program. I am living in a nearly global community, with people from Latin America, the Middle East, North America, Russia, and beyond. I don't feel as though my learning, particularly about their culture, has cost any of the people I interact with anything but their time. Additionally I don't feel that AIES has been at a cost to Kibbutz Ketura. We help around the Kibbutz, participate with the community, but don't try to change anything. We mostly follow the flow and try our best to keep from disrupting anything.

Finally, if I were to sit down with Peggy McIntosh, I feel we would be in for a long conversation. I'd like to challenge her thinking of "white" privilege compared to "main culture" privilege. I say this, as now that I am out of the "American Bubble", most of her listed attributes no longer apply. Because I'm white I'm much more likely to be harrassed in shops (often to buy something at extremely high prices), and if I'm rude it's attributed to my being a white elitest. Here, I can not find greeting cards/magazines/media that feature white people, meanwhile if I were in the States or in western Europe I could. Same goes for bandaids. Now, do I have *no* white privilege in Israel? Of course not! Most of the Israeli protection tactics involve profiling, and as I'm a 5'1'' blonde haired, blue eyed woman, I have never been stopped or questioned. If anything, I get a smile and "have a nice day". But I do not have the same amount of privilege that the main culture (in this case medium skinned, dark haired, green/brown eyed individuals) share. I would be interested to see what  McIntosh would have to say about this, and if she meant this piece to reflect on American culture or anywhere in the world.