Interpersonal conflict (BenMeowzAllTheTime Version) -REVISED-

In America, conflict has been increasing difficulty to handle among the young individuals. A survey from a website called ‘PewResearchCenter’ states that, there is a high increase in young people in conflict situation and one of these many reasons interpersonal conflict happens is because of racial and religious discrimination. Today I am going to discuss about a disagreement seen on the internet between a young man, and a U.S soldier in a convenient store.

              This conflict takes place in a convenient store in New Jersey where a soldier walks up to a Muslim cashier and gets interrupted by a young man saying ‘not to buy from a Muslim.’ The soldier then giggles, not taking the youngster seriously. The young man then insisted that the soldier should not buy from the cashier, which annoyed the soldier. The soldier then asks him what his problem is with the cashier, and what did the cashier do to receive such a treatment. The young man ignores the question and implied to the soldier that he was supposed to ‘fight the Muslim not harmonize with them’. The soldier then raised his voice a little, telling him that he was fighting for the freedom of the citizens and freedom of people to believes in whatever religion they want. When the soldier realized the situation was a not a joke, he was quite upset but decided to try to avoid the conflict. Unfortunately, after the young man’s persistence, the soldier acted to lecture the young man, starting an argument.

              In this scenario, I believe that the soldier had a very calm and well-mannered response as compared to majority of the common people. The soldier looked tired in a uniform in, we can assume that he was most likely just let off duty. This would affect his views of consequences and lead to an argument. His giggle at the start was most likely a sign of surprise. This is a common reaction for someone that is surprised about that remark, showing a hint of question if that remark was serious or just a joke. In the views of the young individual that gave those comments, he has been influence by the internet and poor cultural upbringing. It might also be because of a past experienced event that cause a bias of racial discrimination. This young man had no means of collaborating or accommodating, instead, he was using a competitive state of means to get his point through. This is a weak way of handling the situation. Instead, I would recommend not one but both that should compromise and sit down and talk about the situation. Compromising, defined by Thomas Keilmann, is being assertive, but cooperative. Although both parties do not have the same perspective and views, but could have cooperated and discuss it together in a more neutral manner.

What would you guys have done if you were the soldier? As readers, was there any other way to react in this situation?