Youtube and ethnorelativism

In one of the courses I teach, we talk about the Intercultural Competence spectrum, which moves from complete ethnocentrism, (i.e., denial that any differences exist between cultures) through ethnorelativism (i.e., integration of other cultures into our own views) with several steps in between.  (Bennett, 2004)  The spectrum looks like this:

In this particular class, I have my students read the article, and then place themselves on the spectrum and justify why they chose that spot.  It requires openness and honesty on their part, and the creation of a safe environment on my part.  It's a wonderful class, and probably my favorite of the 15 individual classes in the course.

A modification of the class that I introduced a year ago was the inclusion of two videos:




Recently, one of my students was talking about how watching Ramaj's video helped to deepen her understanding of what the African American and Black experience in this country is about.   It got me wondering: could one use Youtube, via direct searches since the available information is often highly filtered even when don't see that being done (Meeder, 2005; Sunstein, 2008), in order to be a tool to promote Intercultural Competence?

It would be very interesting to have students conduct a self-preassessment, using Bennett's spectrum to put themselves in a particular spot and justify why.  Then, one could have them find Youtube videos that are challenging and raw - like the ones posted above, and watch or share them.  Following some discussion, possibly in small groups online, students then postassess themselves, using Bennett's spectrum again and talk about why they think the changes experienced happened.


Bennet, M., in Wurzel, J. (Ed.). (2004). Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural
education (2nd ed., pp. 62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation.

Meeder, R. (2005). Access denied: Internet filtering software in K-12 classrooms. Tech Trends, 49(6), 56-58,78.

Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Democracy and the internet. In J. Van den Hoven, & J. Weckert, (Eds.), Information technology and moral philosophy (93-110).Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press