Friday, September 21, 2012

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture


I talked to three individuals about various questions as it relates to diversity and culture. The individuals were:

·         My aunt who is a 48 year old, African American female, who lives in Memphis.

·         A co-worker who is 20 years old and of Spanish decent.

·         My husband who is a manager who has a number of individuals under his supervision.

 
Their definition of culture

·         Aunt: The background of someone.

·         Co-worker: The background and foundation of a person.

·         Husband: The way a person was raised and the beliefs they abide by.

 
Their definition of diversity

·         Aunt: The mixture of people of different races in a close environment.

·         Co-worker: The combination of various cultures that comes together to form a finished product.

·         Husband: Individuals from African American, Hispanic, Caucasian, and etc. that gain information from each other.

There are some aspects of culture and diversity that was studied in this course that was included in the answers from the various individuals. All of the individuals I spoke to have similar definitions of culture and diversity. All of them were simple and not expanded much on. The word culture refers to how particular groups of people live (Sparks and Edwards, 2010) during this course I have come to understand that this topic includes much more than just race and gender but also includes language, social status, religion, and even the individual sexual orientation.

 
No aspects have been omitted, because the course has offered so much information on culture and diversity.

 Other individual’s definition of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics in one main way. When individuals think about culture and diversity, what comes to mind is people’s background. It is so much more that applies to this topic, but many of us define it by what society say.  It includes the language we speak, the religion we practice, and the clothing, housing, food, and rituals/holidays with which we feel most comfortable (Sparks and Edwards, 2010).

 
Reference:

Sparks L. &Edwards J. (2010).Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourself. Washington, DC.

2 comments:

  1. Kelisha,

    Before I started on my education journey, I didn't know that culture included so many things. I only thought it was where we were from, the food we ate, and how we talked. I never would have thought to include the little things. I am from the south and most people think I should like country music. Well, I don't like all country music. Because I am African American people think I should like rap music. I hate rap music. I refuse to buy it for my children. Although I don't like it, I have allowed my children to make their own choice about it. Believe me, I monitor everything that they listen too. If they buy it I make sure that it is the copy that Wal-Mart sells (No profanity).

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  2. Interesting enough they all pretty much agree culture pertains to a persons background. Diversity there are two that mentions race as, living and coming together and one that states various cultures. Through your conversation, it shows people of different educational background that they share common understanding that each person is shaped by the persons background. Culture is very broad and complex as you state.

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