One reason I think everyone should go to college is to gain exposure to cultures completely different from theirs and lose their sheltered and ethnocentric mind

One reason I think everyone should go to college is to gain exposure to cultures completely different from theirs and lose their sheltered and ethnocentric mindset. (the best place to start is on the Nacirema [0]) It's no surprise that the most homogenous and least educated populations are more prevalently racist. (I'm not saying the educated elite are above it though and it was often the most educated who thought they knew best with beliefs like eugenics) One interesting culture [1] we studied in one of my classes practiced ritual cannibalism of their dead. It was highly formalized regarding which relatives eat and had rules for the method of eating. (the meat is cooked so disease isn't much of an issue) After the Brazilian government's FUNAI [2] stopped the practice, one woman described feeling haunted by her deceased kin and not knowing whether their spirit was put to rest. The ritual held huge spiritual significance to the people and provided catharsis after death, yet the government stopped it because it was against their own moral code. This has parallels in how Christian Americans impose their own views on women and others (Manifest Destiny anyone?) who should have autonomy. Another group we studied was male sex workers in (I think) the Dominican Republic. Western men would go there to receive sex from them. The interesting thing is that the workers did not view themselves as homosexual, despite living in such a macho culture, as long as they were the ones not being penetrated. This is contrary to the Western view where any sexual attraction with men means you are gay, while in reality sexuality isn't so binary and clear-cut. Lastly we learned about a Bedouin [3] tribe in which speech is highly restrictive, yet women were afforded more free expression through the medium of poetry. Their culture of modesty actually empowered their women and the narrative is in contrast to that of Western nations which view Middle Eastern women as oppressed and in need of rescuing. (the author, Lila Abu-Lughod, actually has another book titled "Do Muslim Women Need Saving?") The point I'm trying to make with these three groups isn't that their perspectives are the right ones or that we should completely ignore what other groups do in order to let them preserve their culture (many immigrants still believe in beating their children and spouses for example), but rather that we should question our assumptions and preconceived notions and we cannot do that if we stay safely in our own bubbles and hold stubbornly to our believes because "that's the way it always was" or that "it's our heritage". [0]: http://www.ohio.edu/people/thompsoc/Body.html http://www.ohio.edu/people/thompsoc/Body.html [1]: https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/wari/865 https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/wari/865 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funda%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Nacional_do_%C3%8Dndio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funda%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Nacional_do... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin