Chapter 9 Intercultural Comm Ethics

I was looking forward to this chapter, due to our class talking a lot about diverse cultural expectations and me writing my Final paper on a subject that pertains to these types of ethics.  What caught my attention right away in the chapter is when it stated, "The philosophical first principle of intercultural communication ethics is that culture is a good that shapes individuals and communities and that this shaping has ethical consequences for persons and communities" (155).  I can relate to this greatly.  Being biracial, I feel that my ethnicity background has played a monumental role in the person I am today.  It has played a factor in what type of man I aspire to be, what news I pay attention to, what forms of entertainment I like, what music interests me, etc.  I identify myself more with my black side than my white side, because that's what the world perceives me as.  Some are surprised when I tell them I'm actually white too.  Also, my ethnicity has its share of consequences I have to deal with.  Often I am followed in stores, approached by others with "what's up homie", and believed to be up to no good.  These are the pressures and constraints that black men have to deal with in America, but I own up to them because I'm proud to be one.
There were four metaphors that were of importance in this chapter.  Intercultural communication is the study of differences and similarities between varying cultures.  These studies have an "influence on within and across different cultures" (156).  I personally love to study other cultures, and learn things that I hadn't known before. 
Culture is the practices and studies of a specific ethnic group.  The chapter says that culture provides a "communicative background that provides meaning and stability to human life, providing an often unexamined sense of ground that makes foreground implementation of given communicative actions sensible within a given culture" (156).  To me, this means that culture justifies practices of a certain culture, and makes sense out of a culture's actions or traditions.
Culture shock is when a person steps out of their comfort zone and experiences  another culture that is totally different from their own.  I've had culture shock before, when staying the night at one of my friend's house in high school.  He was Egyptian and Muslim, and his house/family was something that I'd never had to deal with before.  I was uncomfortable at first, but I quickly became accustomed to their practices and gained deep respect for the Muslim traditions.
The inarticulate are things within a culture that cannot be defined or pinpointed, but also play a crucial role within a culture.  I think that our class and our country deals with this when discussion of the N word is brought up.  No one can define what it actually means, because the word is so ambiguous.  All we know is that the word is used in an omnipresent matter, within discussions and music (hip-hop).  I feel that the inarticulate is the true essence of what a culture is, because you can only understand it if you are actually apart of the culture, when people outside of the culture desire a true, universal understanding.