Almost Like a War Cry

Allison Schuette

“On one level, it was intimidating; on another, it was curious.”

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In addition to the questions below, please see How to use the questions for reflection.

Clarifying Questions
  • Why does the speaker talk so concretely about his hometown when telling this story?
  • How challenging is it for the speaker to tell this story?
  • The speaker uses the words “intimidating” and “curious” as he reflects on this experience. Why might he reach for these terms? What is he trying to capture?
Interpretive Questions
  • Why might the speaker’s first reaction be to call the Saudi team’s cheer a war cry?
  • How does the speaker’s own background prepare him, or not, for this encounter on the soccer field? Can you imagine an upbringing in which he would have had additional resources?
  • This speaker has not one but several reactions to this encounter. Is this typical for an experience of difference? Why or why not? What other reactions might one have?
Implication Questions
  • Can you think of a time when you had an immediate reaction to a person or group culturally different than you?  What was that immediate reaction, and how do you feel about it now?
  • What if we don’t want to stick with our initial reactions?  Which strategies might move us to new and more inclusive responses?
  • This story depicts an individual’s reaction to a different cultural group.  Can you think of how schools, workplaces, or civic institutions build such reactions into policies or structures?  How would you evaluate this “institutionalization?”

Let us know how the conversation or self-reflection went. Email us or discuss the experience in our comment box.

Transcript for Almost Like a War Cry

Yeah, I’m actually from a pretty small town of about 10,000 people called Little Chute, Wisconsin. Economically speaking, it was a lot of paper mills, and that’s kind of where everyone worked growing up. I guess, racially, it’s predominantly white, probably almost 99%.

Our team was primarily law students, and the team that I think we were playing against was primarily Saudi Arabian students. When they would score a goal, they would do this – I’m not even going to try to describe it other than [laughs] to maybe do it – but it’s just like, uh, uh, I don’t know how to do it [laughs]. Just like a “ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-yah,” type thing, which is a terrible impression. Doing it together, having eleven guys do that after a goal was actually kind of a chilling thing; it was almost like a war cry, or something. And I thought that was a really interesting – I mean on one level it was a little bit intimidating or something, but on another level it was just kind of curious because it’s not the type of thing – you know, I’ve never grown up on Sue Street in Little Chute, Wisconsin, and had any winning team make this sound where I’m from. You know, it’s just not something that culturally you hear a lot of.

Almost like a War Cry – longer version

“On one level, it was intimidating; on another, it was curious.”

Transcript for Almost like a War Cry – longer version

Yeah, I’m actually from a pretty small town of about 10,000 people called Little Chute, Wisconsin. Economically speaking, it was a lot of paper mills, and that’s kind of where everyone worked growing up. I guess, racially, it’s predominantly white, probably almost 99%.

I’d say the Valparaiso community is… it does have some aspects of the small town neighborhood that I grew up in, but also I think because of the school being here, I think there’s also a lot of international students, or just students who are not from the area, so are kind of visiting, like I am, from outside, that kind of bring things, too.

I remember going to play just out at a city field and I kind of being the only white guy there and thinking, Wow, this is like a different experience, especially to be here in Valpo and have that experience. I think for the most part I felt accepted. I mean, you kind of feel somewhat on the outside just because you don’t know everybody, but at the same time, I remember feeling mostly accepted and not threatened or unwelcome or anything like that. But I think sports sort of lends itself to that, you know, white, black, Mexican, Saudi Arabian, the rules are basically the same, so it kind of does lend itself to that easy mixing, I guess, of different backgrounds because it doesn’t really matter where you come from, the game’s the same.

I guess it was probably two years ago, I think I was a 2L. Our team was primarily law students, and the team that I think we were playing against was primarily Saudi Arabian students. When they would score a goal, they would do this – I’m not even going to try to describe it other than [laughs] to maybe do it – but it’s just like, uh, uh, I don’t know how to do it [laughs]. Just like a “ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-yah,” type thing, which is a terrible impression. Doing it together, having eleven guys do that after a goal was actually kind of a chilling thing; it was almost like a war cry, or something. And I thought that was a really interesting – I mean, on one level it was a little bit intimidating or something, but on another level it was just kind of curious because it’s not the type of thing – you know, I’ve never grown up on Sue Street in Little Chute, Wisconsin, and had any winning team make this sound where I’m from. You know, it’s just not something that culturally you hear a lot of.