As an adult, I started seeing my "white culture" in the terms of hearing my non-Scandanavian heritage pastor discuss the foibles of the largely-Scandanavian descent congregation she was serving (I'm 1/4 Swede). I saw my self/family in everything she said. It was all done lovingly, and sometimes jokingly, but she also pointed to the potentially self-damaging trends of martyrdom and silence in my cultural background - especially when living in a society where other people don't share the unspoken assumptions about obligation/responsibility. It's an eye-opening experience realizing that other people from only the most slightly different backgrounds often have VERY different perspectives on how the world should work, what's good/bad, right/wrong.

It's also eye-opening to see how differently things are interpreted when using ostensibly the same language - what is an obvious cry for help in the stoic Scandanavian background I find familiar, for others is only a mild request for assistance. If such apparently similar populations have such huge gaps in understanding/communication, what are the differences between very obviously different backgrounds like?