We have been discussing the aspects of intercultural communication and how communication across cultures becomes confused. Now it is your turn. Your initial post answers these questions: Describe a time when cultural bias has inhibited you from communicating. What were the cultural factors involved

Cultural bias, unfortunately, is very much alive in this world and time. Although borders are supposed to have been almost banished due to globalization, and the increase in communication media and transportation for travelling, the barriers seem as high as they used to be before all this happened. The reason? An intent at re-assertion of who people are, and a desire to regain an identity as citizens of a country, in the face of an increased wave of immigration, especially from the poorer countries.

When you reach a country as advanced as the United States, a country that was born from immigration, you expect open-mindedness and acceptance of other ways of thinking, and other cultures, and in general, you are correct. Many Americans not only accept, but embrance, the differences in culture. However, there is today a very present, and ever growing trend, against people of different backgrounds, especially, of differing cultures.

There was one time when as a Hispanic, I went to get my provisional Social Security number, as I had been given permission to work. When I reached the office, and handed over my application form, the lady told me I had to correct it because I had ticked the box that classified me as Hispanic. She told me that it was not possible because my skin color and my English, categorized me as white American, and that is exactly the words she used. Then when I told her I was from a Hispanic country, she told me that Hispanics were from Mexico, Guatemala and Hoduras. I wanted to cry and I told her that Latin America, and people who spoke Spanish, were much further south as well.

The cultural factors for her were my language, which was almost Native, and therefore she thought English was my mother tongue, and the color of my features: skin, hair and eyes. According to her, since I was not "tanned", or "dark-skinned" I was not from Mexico, and therefore was not Hispanic. It took me to show her my passport for her to accept that I was not white American and I told her that in Latin America, there were lots of white people.