A Fulbright Teacher in Bogota, Colombia, A Special Series — Guns On Every Street Corner, Stereotyping and Global Mutual Understanding – The North Star Reports – by Laura Blasena. Sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica and The Middle Ground Journal

A Fulbright Teacher in Bogota, Colombia, A Special Series — Guns On Every Street Corner, Stereotyping and Global Mutual Understanding – The North Star Reports – by Laura Blasena. Sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica and The Middle Ground Journal

As the resident “United States-ian” at my university, I`ve been asked my fair share of questions about the United States. While the students are often too scared to ask me any questions at the beginning of class, discussion will often devolve into random questions about Kanye, Trump, Obama, and other social or political figures dominating United States news by the end of class.

While the questions caught me off guard at first, I`ve developed something close to a rehearsed answer for the majority of the questions—in particular, questions about Donald Trump and how he is perceived as a political candidate in the United States.

However, in one of my…