Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Throughout our readings, I have discovered that culture is hard to define and perhaps even more challenging to understand.   This week, I interviewed three different people with different backgrounds and asked them to give their thoughts about culture and diversity.  One participant is a 61-year-old female, who owns her own business, and has advanced degrees.  The other participant is 42-year-old female who works as the manager of small educational service company.  The final participant is a 20-year-old female who works part time.  While their statements were somewhat different, the main idea was very similar.  One defined culture as the set of rules and norms groups of people live by.  Participant A went on to say that culture defines us more than race, socio-economics, or religious beliefs because those things are only a part of our culture.  The other participants’ statements agreed with this because they see culture as what makes us who we are.  Culture is what makes us who we are; however, I believe most of us are not very conscious of our culture we just do what we do.

                We have studied how culture defines us and that we think of as culture is only surface culture and not deep culture.  I think that the statements made by my participants echo this sentiment because they reflect that religious beliefs and race are only a part of our culture.  I think that their definition of diversity is different from what we have studied in our course because their statement says that diversity is a “politically correct way of saying there are differences among human beings and that diversity is a way of increasing tolerance.”  While I believe that, we want to increase tolerance I do not think there is anything politically correct about it just the right thing to do.  I also think that they missed the concept of how diversity makes our lives richer and how diversity should be respected and appreciated.

My Family Culture

                If I survived a major catastrophic event, had to relocate to another country, and could only bring three cultural objects with me they would include my Bible, my favorite book, and my degree.  I would bring a copy of the Bible because it represents my faith.  In fact, it is the blueprint for my faith.  Not only does it represent my faith is also a special object from my family’s culture because my mother so valued the Bible and taught us to respect it.  I would bring a copy of my current favorite book because I am a huge fan of reading.  Reading has always been important to me because it is a learning tool and a way of escape.  Reading is also important to most members of my family.  My mother and I were very close and she taught me to love and respect books, which was one of the many things we had in common.  I would also bring my college degree because it represents a part of who I am and the hard work that I put into getting it.  I was the first person to attend and graduate from college in both sides of my family. 

                If I were to find out that I could only bring one item, I would be highly upset because they all have meaning and significance in my life and my personal and family culture.  During the process of determining the objects I would bring I discovered that I do not know enough about my culture, because I had difficulty thinking about what kind of “cultural” items I would bring.  During our reading, I have discovered that nearly everything I have is some type of cultural item.