PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE
I asked a couple of my friends and relatives to share with me their definition of culture and diversity. However, I was only able to receive three responses (by the due date).1. The first person I asked is a cousin of mine who is in her early 40's, an American Citizen and lives in the USA. Her definition of culture is "is the artifact, rituals and language that reflect a group. It can reflect an ethnicity, like the food and art of a specific group, the language, and holidays, the dances or it can reflect a social trend, like post-modern fiction, which is international.". Diversity for her is "that a variety is represented. In the US, we usually use it to mean ethnic, gender or religious diversity because we have such a wide variety of ancestry. It might mean that an organization seeks to reflect a wide variety of people: they seek to hire gay and straight, black, white and Asian, Jewish and Christian and Atheist. OF course, it can mean anything, not just groups of people, a diversity of opinion, of cloth from all over the world, of types of olives."
2. The second person that replied is a friend, she is a Filipina Surgeon in her late 40's. The definition of culture that she gave was that it "means a pervading spirit of a certain people group that has been passed on from generation to generation. It manifests itself in varied art forms such as music, dance, the visual arts and even in literature." She defined diversity as " a branching out of a differing personality, character, flavor or style".
3. The third person that provided a reply is a former colleague in the early childhood department I worked at before and is now a consultant for an international Non-Government Agency. She is in charge of child survival programs in Asian countries. She is in her early 30's. She said that for her culture is "what defines a nation, an organization, any group of people e.g youth, ethnic, interest groups, etc. The culture is their set of behaviors, traditions, beliefs and way of doing things." Diversity on the other hand is " is a variety or the differences that exists among cultures, people, creations, thoughts, ideas, etc. This is a by-product of the uniqueness the Lord has in each of His creation. Diversity adds color and life to what would seem dull and plain if all is just similar Because of diversity, it is a given that there is always the presence of challenges, which can be turned into opportunities, which make human of diversed groups/cultures develop."
I noticed that most definitions provided referred more to what is called 'surface culture' (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Examples of these are artifacts, music, literature, holidays, and dances. Which is to be expected as like what Gonzalez-Mena said, we often just see the tip- the iceberg (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). One of the respondents however, was able to include beliefs, behaviors and ways things are done in her definition. This then refers to what we call deeper culture (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Gonzalez-Mena also said that culture is something we learn from people around us and one of my respondents indicated that culture is passed on. Meanwhile, all three respondents defined diversity similarly as branching out or a variety of differences. My cousin, however, knowing that we live in different countries, gave me what she thought diversity means in her country. Another respondent, being a Christian, added how she thinks diversity is related to her object of faith, God.
Based on the answers I got, I was able to see that indeed different people have different thoughts, ipinions and definitions. These differences are of course influenced by their identities, their culture, their geographic location and personal belief systems. This jst makes me see how important it is to find out and learn from other people. As one of my respondents stated, differences can be turned into opportunities.
posted by Elizabeth King Santos @ 7:33 AM
6 Comments:
I love the comments from your former colleague. Diversity adds color and life to what seems dull and plain when all things are similar. I think this paints a very good picture for many of us. I love seeing how different people explain what culture and diversity means to them. Thank you for sharing!
Dear Elizabeth,
Your blog posting was enlightening. I enjoyed reading the part when your cousin gave her definition of culture. She gave great detail about what she thought culture meant to her. I have learned that culture can be define in several ways because everybody's up bringing is different from one another.
Elizabeth
I wish more people viewed differences as opportunities to get to know others, to experience different cultures, to tear down stereotypes and to dispel myths. Unfortunately, many people see differences as reasons to fear, to hate, to discriminate, to judge, and to blame. Differences are opportunities but what you do with that opportunity is up to you! Powerful! Thanks for sharing!
What a gift this assignment was for me. I don't know if you felt the same, but I loved having discussions with my family and friends about this issue. I think we all learned a lot!
Wow,
I never thought of culture as a spirit transmitted from generation to generation. I love that idea. It makes so much sense specially in oral cultures. These are all great answers and a reflection of your participants different social identities. Thank you for posting.
I love the comments that diversity is a branching out of a different personality, character, or style and that diversity adds color and life to our world. This is very true! If we all had the same culture and were just alike, there would not be any variety or chances to learn about new things. Great post!
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