Perspectives on diversity and culture

The first person I interviewed, Jennifer, was a friend from church.  When I asked her what her definition of culture was, she responded with the following: “Culture is how we are raised.  People are from different cultures; there again no one culture is right or wrong but they are different.  I just had a conversation today with my Ethiopian friend who was telling me of some cultural differences where he is from.  I think we are sheltered culturally.  There are so many different cultures out there but we tend to only stick to our culture that is right here around us.”  She went on to discuss diversity by saying “diversity to me means differences.  We live in a very diverse world.  I am open minded to diversity as to where some people are not.  Race does not matter to me....intellectual differences do not matter to me....political views.....economic status...etc....differences to me are what make the world a more exciting place to live.”

Next, I interviewed a friend of a friend named Manuel.  Manuel said “my definition of culture would have to be how a person values their own families beliefs as well as their own.  Diversity would have to be would be having respect for culture and also being in complete acceptance of cultures and beliefs.”

Finally, I talked to my best friend Stephanie.  She defined culture as “A community or group of people who have the same ideas and values and morals; beliefs.  Diversity is the differences from one culture to another.”

Looking over these answers, it seems like everyone had the same kind of answer to both of the questions.  Culture is how we were raised- our beliefs, values, morals, etc.  while diversity is the differences between cultures.  Over the past two weeks, we have been talking about specific areas regarding culture and diversity, not just the definitions.  While it is important to comprehend these definitions, it is important to understand these terms from a personal perspective and relate them to our own lives, as Jennifer did.

Asking people for their definition of the terms culture and diversity only scrapes the surface.  This week we were asked to relate specific aspects of culture and diversity from real life situations.  By doing this, we were able to get these terms off of the paper and into our heart.

Through this assignment, I realized that other people, even people who are culturally different from myself, all have the same basic understanding of what culture and diversity is.  Some people are more open minded about culture and diversity while others are rather close minded.  Jennifer challenged me to take a deeper look at myself and how open I am to diversity.  I have always been open to diversity as far as race and economic status, but am I really that open minded when it comes to age or abilities.  Thankfully, I believe that I am pretty open minded on all aspects of diversity but I could always use some work, especially when it comes to people who do not necessarily do things the way that I do them.  I get frustrated because their way is different and I have realized that this difference may be because of a cultural difference.  I need to be more open minded and patient!