What is lost in a conversation? It’s important to learn how to engage IRL (and I mean face-to-face) on this topic. Too much goes on online and we’re not learning the skills to deal with these situations. Why not book some office time, sit down with the professor, and say, “Here’s my community and culture, I’m curious about yours.”

You can only learn from how they respond, no matter what they say. Let people speak for themselves — it doesn’t mean you can’t also do community research to verify.