Culture Quiz 265their way to facilitate communication. (Bolivia twice elected a
president with an English accent, a man of Bolivian descent
who had grown up in the United States.) The answer is .
The more you practice, the more you learn.
SITUATION 6
You are at a dinner with eight people at your table. During
the dinner, one of the people makes an overtly racist remark
against indigenous Bolivians. You should:
Hope that someone else will respond, but if not, let the
incident pass so as to not be unsociable, thus avoiding
dinner table polemics.
Discreetly respond to that person when you can get him/
her alone after the dinner.
Respond immediately, but diplomatically with: ‘How
strange you make that remark because I have come
to Bolivia precisely out of admiration for the great
achievements of her indigenous cultures.’
Let the person in question know that racist remarks cannot
be tolerated.
Comments
When the Spaniards conquered South America, they used
racism as an excuse for the right to plunder and exact cheap
labour. Racism was therefore imposed in colonial education.
Until 1952, Bolivia was one of the most caste-conscious
countries in the world. Since then, the prevailing ideology has
been to oppose racism, though gains were mainly in words
rather than actions. Gradually, with the ‘incentive’ of militant
protest, Bolivia has converted many on-paper declarations
into real-life practice, to the extent of electing an indigenous
president. However, attitudes do not change completely in
one or two generations, and nuances of racism remain.
To not respond () or to respond privately to a public
remark () would imply to the other people at the table that
you, as an individual and as a representative of your country,
are not concerned with the issue. On the other hand, a
combative response () will only serve to put the other person