Contact Zone Stereotypes

The term of “contact zone” seems pretty simple to understand at the first look but what does it truly means? Mary Louise defines this term as “… social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical power” (Pratt 575). In a “contact zone” a person meets with two different cultures, going through a struggle to maintain a certain identity. As for me, I have faced this contact zone when I left my country to study abroad in United States. I have struggled to conform to two different cultures while trying to figure out my own true identity. I have only been here for half a year but I am still not comfortable with this new culture which differs a lot with the culture I grew up in.

Stereotypes, they are all around us, but it’s up to yourself to decide to conform or fight against how society treats you. Russian people are given a certain label when entered into not only an American society, but also almost every society as really tough, never smiling, rude people with a bottle of vodka in their bag. I cannot say that it offends me in any way but it is still really annoying to hear something like that in the 21st century. Moreover, sometimes I even like these stereotypes because I am not an open person
So I think that most of Russian people act differently in other culture and see themselves differently, than if they were in their common society. They probably think that if the others claim that Russians are tough and rude, they have to act similar to this and no one will be surprised. I guess some people think that if everyone thinks that they are rude, for example, they have no other choice to act differently while others claim that they can prove that when people are rude it is not because they are from Russia, it is because this person was raised