Cultural Sensitivity

This week we went to both the US embassy and a museum outside of Moscow. These trips made me think a lot about how Russia and the United States are perceived around the world, mainly in terms of misconceptions of both nations. The visit to the embassy was very informative and gave me some insight into what the courtesies of political discussion are in these situations. When discussing Russia's own infrastructure and economy anything and everything was up for discussion, but as soon as Crimea was brought up it was more of an official statement. It seemed as if that was too sensitive, and almost taboo to mention. This was completely different from a discussion that stemmed from a cutout of a Native American that we saw in the museum. The Russians did not understand why it would be considered offensive in North America so we explained to them the current situation of Native Americans in the US and Canada and the history surrounding their relations with our countries. I think that this is indicative of a larger problem of people not willing to talk about important social and political issues for fear that they will only cause more problems and not educate others on what is wrong with the given situation.