This fall, I’ll be teaching a social stratification course for the first time. As I prepare my course material, I’m reflecting on a discussion I had with a colleague recently about fellow scholars who get shocked by the unfamiliar “other” – whether it is poverty, another place, or culture. For instance, an academic acquaintance – at an elite institution – once told me that he didn’t enjoy a particular city in the developing world because people were not friendly. Others have remarked on seeing real “poverty” for the first time, or finally seeing a non-Western culture.