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Cultural Diversity
The tendency to look for what is familiar, trusted, and predictable is how everyone tries to make sense of their perspective of the world, to reconcile the explosive changes happening in the world today due to globalization. The fact that everyone has their own perceptual filters of how they interpret reality further leads one to judge others, often very quickly. When a person doesn't actively question their perceptual approaches and biases, stereotypes get solidified and intolerance, bigotry and even racism can get solidified. Only through the opportunity to learn about many different perspectives through education, by participating in other cultures, and by finding out that first impressions based on stereotypes are often wrong does a person grow past intolerance to acceptance of people dissimilar to themselves.
People reject those that are different, and its hard work to accept those people who are even a little different than ourselves, so in a sense everyone at times could be considered bigoted and even racist in their views of others. Just preaching tolerance of others rarely works; the best approach of all is for those with stereotypes to get to know those they are judging as persons first. Judging others excessively does create societal pollution and creates more conflict, discontent, and pain than is necessary. The fact is that judging others in their age, sex, race or nationality is like seeing only with the portion of a single eye; the remainder of what is truly in front of us is not seen; bigotry and racism blinds us from connecting with and enriching others. In that enriching of others, we enrich ourselves. So in the throwing off of stereotypes, however difficult that may be, we actually strengthen ourselves. In the service of others and in striving to understand them, we in effect broaden our own perceptive and become stronger for it. So in spite of bigotry, racism and the cruelty those aspects of human behavior deliver, if a person can rise above them through actually befriending the people they judge, they become stronger, more adept at re-ordering their own perceptual views of the world.
Cultural diversity refers to the diverse varieties of human cultures that exist in a certain region, society or in the world as a whole. The characteristics of diversity may include ethnicity, traditions, geographic background, language spoken, religious beliefs, race or physical features. This term is also based on the idea that different cultures should respect each other's differences. With the global integration, the need for communication in accordance with other
While in high school, she worked as a waitress at a local diner. Most of the population was black, therefore there was little contact with white customers or employees. Margaret feels that she was socially isolated until the 1950s. She was not exposed to white culture; it was foreign to her. She was only exposed to black culture of the time. They were not allowed in certain stores, restaurants,
Cultural diversity and academic achievement are two areas where psychology has long argued over nature vs. nurture origins as though one excludes the other. The following essay attempts to structure a synthesis between the two showing that both can be integrated into one science. Biology bestows the individual with certain genetic traits; culture defines what is desirable, what is to be believed, how one is to judge, and how one
Cultural Diversity Concepts The Dimensions of Cultural Diversity The concept of cultural diversity includes ethnicity, racial identity, country of origin, sexual preference, gender identity, and socioeconomic class. In principle, each of those aspects of individual identity can affect the manner in which people perceive and respond to one another in any environment where they encounter one another. To a great degree, there is a natural inclination for people from one culture (in
I would say this is more a part of the Russian-American immigrant cultural values I have been exposed to since I was a child than Russian values, however. There is a stereotype that Russians are brusque on the outside. I would say that there is a tendency in my family and other Russian families to be direct and not to beat around the bush. Also, people in Russia and of
Thus, the first step is to dispel of few of the common myths about cultural diversity, such as the myth that a minority culture should be characterized as a phenomenon that diverges from the mainstream culture, the myth that bilingualism should be considered as a disability rather than an asset, or the myth that multicultural education is only relevant in those classes where there are members of the minority