Left Hand Experiment: Chamberlain College Of Nursing

Left Hand Experiment
Tiffany Brown
Chamberlain College of Nursing

Left Hand Experiment Growing up a right handed person was never a second thought for me. It was just something I was born with and began training my daily actions with this natural born skill. I was taught like most children to eat with my right hand, how to hold my tooth brush and easily brush my teeth with my right hand. It was and is easy for me to write my name, sharpen my pencils in grade school, and to perform quick and easy day to day tasks with my well-practiced right-handedness. This week, on Thursday I tied this hand up and made it impossible to use my right hand for ANYTHING. Not having my skillful right hand made for one challenging day, which
led to think about many other mannerisms that I hold that are automatic for me. From the moment I was born I was trained, not just how to use a utensil, walk, or use the bathroom. I was trained to be the child my parents wanted me to be. I was given a set of mannerisms that my family wanted me to have that fit our culture. I was taught directly as well indirectly on how to approach people of different ethnic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, and social class. I was taught to respect those who had money in a higher standard than I would those who are below my economic stance. I was taught that I can commit sins and god will forgive me as long as I repent on Sunday. As I began to mature, (which this took many, many, many, years) I started to look at all of these mannerisms and see what was right for me and what was right for my parents who grow up in the 60’s and 70’s. I evaluated my father and his mindset, concluding that he is stuck in his childhood where white people stay with white people and white people Christians are superior to other races and cultures.
I believe that white Christians are his right hand and the rest of the world is his left hand. He grew up in a time where being white was everything and he was able to go about his day to day life with an advantage so to speak. I say this because like the right-handed person the United States was configured to favor the white man. Then all of a sudden cultural diversity became so major here in the States and people had to adapt to Indian Doctors, African American’s succeeding, Women Working, Muslim’s, Homosexuals walking with their partner’s freely. For me, I see him hiding in his apartment not exploring these different cultures, not learning to use his left
hand. I am an American Born Italian, French woman. I have a niece, Amira; she is Palestinian, a Muslim, and a left-handed teenager. I see her often struggling with her religion in a public school; she comes home crying, she gets made fun of. It is hard for her complete tasks at school that seem miniscule to someone who is right handed, and some teachers are not sensitive to her needs because she is one in a few. Looking at her struggle I try to remember that while we live in an age of diversity, we are not living in an age of diversity sensitivity. It is important for to not only recognize that people come many different walks of life but also to understand that because of this, they are different from us and one another.
We are so quick to become frustrated with the person in line at the pencil sharpener because they always take so long. Well, that is because that sharpener is made for people who are right handed. My family feels offended when my nieces other family won’t come to our barbeques, that is because they don’t drink or eat pork. These little things that bother us as individuals can be worked out if we took the time to talk to people in other cultures or even people that are just different from us. Engage in conversations; learn different views from people, and what their struggle is like. Go into these conversations with an open mind and open
eyes. Living my whole life one way and having to change my whole day including the pants I was going to wear helped me to look at simple mistakes I make when interacting with people that are different from me. With that being said I believe that we need educate ourselves about other cultures and what they do in their day to day lives, even if they are not doing the same. We may not be able to fix the problem of discrimination or ethnocentrism but we will be much closer to ending it by simply educating ourselves and living with compassion.