Cultural tensions were left at the door and thoughtful dialogue was brought to the floor in a small classroom in Lagomarcino Hall on Tuesday evening.

The goal of the dialogue was to begin establishing a common ground between Africans and African-Americans in hopes of dispelling cultural tensions that exist between the groups. Participants spent their time sharing their personal life experiences in which they have been misunderstood by members of the opposite group.

The dialogue, which was facilitated by Yanira Pacheco, multicultural liaison officer, was between current members of the Black Student Alliance and the African Students Association.

Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction and facilitator of the Intergroup Dialogues On Diversity Campus Series, brought the concept to Iowa State last semester after witnessing first-hand significant tensions between Africans, African-Americans and African-Caribbeans at Colgate University.

“This is seen traditionally on college campuses – an identity difference between the groups,” he said. “We don’t feel it is enough to only bring multicultural students on campus.”

Blumenfeld felt a way to combat the growing divide between the groups was to establish an open-ended dialogue last semester.

James McShay, adjunct assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, was in charge of putting the dialogue together for this semester.

Participants began the two-hour dialogue by introducing themselves and writing down topics they hoped to focus on during the discussion.

Among the topics were questions of what it means to be “black” and the positive and negative connotations associated with it. Another topic was how some Africans and African-Americans have a “double persona,” or a tendency to act differently around different races.

“We have this image of us being so different that it separates us,” said Keith Mensah, sophomore in communication studies, of the misconceptions he experienced when first visited his parents’ homeland of Ghana.

“In Ghana, people look at African-Americans as being uneducated and in American people think of all African men as having 10 wives,” he said.

Tameka Greene, junior in art and design and vice president of BSA, said this is because there is a “tradition of apprehension” that exists between Africans and African-Americans that does not allow them to get closer than a casual greeting.

“We have not taken the time to get to know one another. We’re just on the classmate level,” Greene said.

Although this divide does exists, Rachel Iheanacho, senior in chemical engineering and president of BSA, pointed out that there are a lot of commonalties between the groups that are frequently overlooked. She used the example that many of the musical rhythms and gender roles commonly found in African households also found in African-American households.

“We nitpick too much and don’t get down to what our commonalties are,” she said.

Iheanacho said growing up in a Nigerian household in Baton Rouge, La., she had a chance to view life from an African perspective and an American perspective, and gave her firsthand knowledge of the similarities between African and African-American cultures. For example, in both cultures, men are typically found as the head of the house and women are typically found taking care of the children and household duties. She pointed out, however, that as time has progressed women are found pursuing higher education and holding higher-end positions in society both in America and in Africa.

Blumenfeld said he has high hopes that this dialogue, as well as future dialogues between separated cultural and religious groups on campus, is a positive step for the ISU community. In addition, he said he would like the dialogue series to become a course that can be taken for academic credit, similar to one found at the University of Massachusetts.

“This is a new trend in cultural education, and I can only see it advancing and progressing,” Blumenfeld said.