Recently, my roommate's teaching assistant (TA) received quite a bit of attention. He sent an email to his supervisor explaining why he refused to attend further Diversity Training sessions required by the University of Wisconsin - Madison for TAs. I found his explanation quite frustrating. The reason why he gained some notoriety (and why I could even read said email) was due to the fact that he included some conservative news/blog outlets in the correspondence. I don't want to go into too much detail regarding this email because I did not attend these sessions so I do not want to assume. The only thing I would like to say before continuing on is that whether you approve of someone's characteristics you shouldn't cause significant damage. Calling a transgender student by the wrong pronouns harms said student. Perhaps without diversity training you might not realize the consequences of your actions because it wouldn't harm you. People come from different schema and it isn't unexpected for you to step on a few metaphorical toes if you aren't aware of your surroundings. For example, in some cultures showing the bottom of your shoe is offensive. In my culture that isn't offensive, so I could unintentionally offend someone. I've had moments in my life where someone unintentionally was rude or racist towards me. I understood that it wasn't their intention so I tried to brush it off, but it doesn't take away from how it made me feel. Most of these occurrences were in Japan. Japanese people don't typically deal with people from other cultures, so I expected as much. But that doesn't mean that Japanese people should just ignore the issue. It is one of the major reasons why I wouldn't want to live in Japan for over five years. Why would I want to live in a society that keeps on stepping on my metaphorical toes and doesn't bother to say they are sorry?
