Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The friends and colleagues I asked for assistance were people who I knew were open and willing to be honest about their opinion.  Each person is different from me and have different opinions from me.  I asked each person how they wanted to be identified explaining to them about social identity adding to their personal culture.  I was intrigued in how they assigned themselves to the social groups. 

 Ask each person to share: Their ideas definition of culture and diversity. I chose to omit their names.

Person 1 Female, 41, Moroccan, Muslim

Definition of culture: The passing down of tradition from generation to generation. Living and upholding the moral integrity and values set.  

Definition of diversity: Moroccans welcoming and respectful people towards different cultures, ideas, and ways of life.  We are a country made up of different religions and languages.  Diversity means people come from different cultures but co-exist as a community.

Person 2 Female, African American, 38, Bipolar, Christian, Republican

Definition of culture:  Family customs, and people who share common backgrounds, and faiths and core beliefs.

Definition of diversity.  Acceptance of peoples, ideas, and cultures

Person 3 Male, Caucasian, Mormon, 34, Father

Definition of culture: culture is who you are and what you believe.  My culture encompasses everything I am.  My faith in The Father, I am Mormon. My role as a father and a husband and a son, the values I instill in my children.  My role as a father and the example I set for my family is my culture. 

Definition of diversity: Diversity is about seeing and being different from one another. 

Reflecting on their answers from these very different people their answers are very similar.  Though the constructs of their culture varies, the importance they place on the surface aspects of their culture is universal. 
Each of the participants placed value on their family, their religion, and their cultural group.  They all did not identify social characteristics as major contributing factors of their culture.  Two of the participants used the words values and morals as an aspect of their culture.  However, they did identify cultural groups such as being female, Republican, a father and even being Bipolar.  These social identities contribute to their culture and these characteristics are influenced by their culture.  They saw their importance when it came to identifying themselves but did not include these aspects in their definitions of culture and diversity. 

Neither of the participants chose an activity as a part of their culture.  They did not really emphasize on race or a specific ethnicity when speaking on diversity.  They chose to focus on having respect for those that are different.

What I really took from the conversations with these individuals is how we may be different on the outside, and come from different cultures, however we all think alike in regards to showing respect to others.  I fully expected there to be more drastic differences because stereotypically these cultural groups are polar opposites.  What I was happy to find out is once the stereotypes and assumptions are put away, most people hold the same things at value.  They approach their culture with the same passion as everyone else.  That to me is the truest celebration of diversity.  You accept and respect the culture of others while holding dear and embracing yours.