Saturday, November 12, 2016

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Hello class, this was a very enlightening assignment. I always love when I get to ask people outside of class for their opinion on the topics that we are discussing. This week I had the pleasure of talking to a good family friend, my sister, and my aunt. They were all very eager to help me when I told them I needed their assistance for this class. I valued all of their opinions and they were all quite interesting to me.

My interviews went as follows:

Leah:  Angela, What is your definition of culture and diversity?

Angela: “Culture is what you are raised around, you’re its morals and values that are taught to you by your family members. “ “Diversity is the outside world around you”

Leah: Cynthia, What is your definition of culture and diversity?

Cynthia- “Diversity is the state of having people who are different races, religions, and organizations live in the same community and get along.” “Culture is a set of rules and guidelines that you grow up by, it can be your language, religion, the way you dress, or even the way you talk.

Leah: Elle, What is your definition of culture and diversity? (Elle is my good friend who is Muslim he requested that I not use his real name. I was very delighted that he agreed to answer these two questions because he is a very secluded person and does not talk a lot.)

 

Elle- “Culture is knowing your history of the lineage that you as a family member and an individual comes from. It is the way you are taught to live your life until you enter the world and learn otherwise.”

“Diversity on the other hand is the difference between the learned cultures of individuals.”

 

All three of my participants gave wonderful answers to my questions, and I appreciate them for their valued opinions. I feel that the aspects of culture that I have learned in this class that were in my answers were dominant culture for one. Hence when Elle stated that “Culture is knowing your history of the lineage that you as a family member and an individual comes from. It is the way you are taught to live your life until you enter the world and learn otherwise.” Dominant culture makes one feel that their culture may not be correct, or can make one feel bad about being a part of their culture.  I also feel like culture class was introduced in some of the definition for diversity, because in reality a mixture of different cultures can cause a culture clash within a community. I also feel that family culture was expressed in each of the definitions for culture. I don’t feel that any of the aspects of culture and diversity were omitted however they were merely not mentioned. For instance social identities were not discussed, also culture and diversity in the school setting was not discussed. All of the definitions on culture and diversity made me value the opinions of others even more. It also made me realize that people all have their own unique thoughts of what culture and diversity, but at the end of the day they all have their same meaning of each topic.  It is always good to hear the opinions of others, it’s good to think outside the box at times.

 Image result for culture
Image result for diversity
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Leah thanks for sharing, I think it was a great opportunity for us all to communicate with others involving our learning experiences. I think that if we as a society embraced all cultures and took the time to learn and understand about each other we would establish much more love and respect and less negativity and hate.

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