cultural stereotypes

[Alina Israeli]

>I agree with the majority that bigotry is to be avoided in life
>generally and on SEELANGS in particular, where most of our members'
>missions involve bridging gaps between different cultures.


>If anyone would like to offer appropriately worded advice, sans bigotry,
>regarding travel to St. Pete or Moscow, I would welcome a private
>message.

Being linguistically minded, I looked up "bigotry" since in my practice
they were only used to designate racist,  anti-semites, anti-Arabs etc.,
both my Webster and Cambridge dictionaries agreed:

"Bigotry - extreme intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that
differs from one's own." (Webster)

So indeed, the meaning is much wider than I thought, which only means that
ganging up on someone who happened to dislike the object of your love also
fits the definition of bigotry.

BTW, St.Petersburg (Russia) is nicknamed by the Russian media "the criminal
capital" just as the city I work in was for many years known as the "murder
capital" of the US. Does it mean that I am in any danger on my way to work?
No, it doesn't. By the same token, one can have peaceful trip to
St.Petersburg. Although I recall a few years back this very list discussed
the train rides between Moscow and St.Petersburg and numerous incidents of
foreigners being doped and then stripped of cash. So one can be thankful
for credit cards and debit cards.

AI

_____________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:  (202) 885-2387
fax:    (202) 885-1076

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