For my inter cultural communications class I am in the process of writing a paper on the cultural dynamics between immigrant youth and how they communicate to their peers in high school. I have been observing and interviewing four female Somalians. Because of privacy I have changed their names, and will not be disclosing their ages.
April 2nd 2008
The main person that I am following around is Jezebel. She is an immigrant from Somalia who moved here when she was around four or five. Sense then she has become a US citizen, and has lived in Utah. She has many cousins and friends that have also come here from Somalia, and which she converses with daily.
This description also applies to the majority of her Somalian friends. Although there are other immigrants from Somalia who have moved here recently which she has limited.
Location one: Lunch Room
Demographics: There are three Muslim girls sitting at the table, and they are all from Somalia. There are also four Caucasian girls. Two Caucasian boys came to talk t to them during the lunch break, but did not sit down.
Location two: Foyer of the school during lunch
Demographics: A high percentage of minority races, but also a few Caucasians.
Topics of interest: Relationship with boys, and food preferences.
Lunch Room Eating Habits
When I first got there Jezebel did not show up. So I found her friends and sat down while they ate. After a while though I decided to go and look for her. I found her in the lunch line with another one of her Muslim friends named Annie. I noticed that they were both wearing their hijabs ( A Muslim head scarf) more elaborately and controlled today. They had a piece of fabric that extended from the hijab to cover their usually exposed hair, while the rest of the scarf was pulled taut. This in contrast to the other days when I see Jezebels hair constantly exposed, and her Hijab slipping down the side of her head. After they got their lunch we headed to the table. There were not enough chairs to seat me so I took a seat at another table.
Once they sat down I noticed that Annie immediately opened her sandwich, and took out the majority of meat from it except for a few pieces. I also found her constantly picking at the lettuce. I wasn’t able to figure out if this was to avoid eating something, or just because she didn’t like that much meat on in it. Another Muslim girl, Mary, ate all that was on her lunch tray except for the meat. Jezebel had a cheese pizza, and ate it all.
From my short observation I found that the Muslim girls at the table ate proportionally less then their Caucasian friends. I asked the girls if they felt the cafeteria gave them an adequate selection of food to meet the requirements of their religion. They misinterpreted me though, and thought that I was referring to the quality of the food (which they hurriedly told me was disgusting). I re explained myself, and they didn’t give a clear answer, but told me that they do try to avoid a lot of the food and meat products given to them, because they don’t know if pork will be in it. After they were done eating we went upstairs toward the foyer.
Jezebel and Boys
It is a stereotype that Muslim women dare not even breathe around boys. Well if that is the case then Jezebel is a bad girl! :) I found the day I went to observe her a very intriguing day. This was because of the interactions between jezebel and her male friends. At the begging of the lunch period there were two Caucasian males that came to the table to converse with the girls. The two other Muslim girls were shy around them, but not extremely shy. They behaved how you would expect a girl that is shy around boys to behave. Jezebel though seemed extremely comfortable talking to boys, and would often times joke around with them. After lunch we both went up stairs to the main foyer.
Here jezebel ran into her other male friends. She gave each of them hugs, and joked around with them. During this time she was giving stamps that said "vote for...", to help out a friend who was running for student government. One of the boys stole the stamp from her, and she chased him around laughing trying to get it back. This lasted for about 15 minutes, and resulted in close contact with him.
I found it interesting though that the majority of the males she conversed with were white, and not of her religion. I wonder if she would feel more comfortable talking to them as opposed to someone of her own nationality and faith. I also wondered if she was at ease talking to them because of her personality, or because she knows she would never have a relationship with them due to her religious obligations to marry someone of her own faith.
0 comments:
Post a Comment