Perspective on Diversity and Culture

The individuals that I interviewed for this assignment were my co-worker who is a different race than I am, my close friend who is African American and my male friend who is older than I am. My co-worker’s definition of culture states that culture is defined as the way people do certain things, morals, values and beliefs. My childhood friend stated that culture relates to what makes a person unique. She believes that culture is being aware of who you are on the inside and where you originated from, by respecting your family’s beliefs, customs and way of life. My male best friend believes that culture relates to tradition and beliefs. He stated that culture relates to family and the traditions that continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

My co-worker compared diversity to a quilt that has been stitched together by many people. She believes that diversity is what makes the world so unique because of each person differences that are mended together. My childhood friend stated that diversity is what separates one culture from the next. It is what makes us a unique individual. My male friend stated that diversity relates to the demographic variables that are not limited to race, class and other factors.

The responses that I received from the people I interviewed all relate to the aspects of culture that I have studied in this course because each person defined culture as the make-up of a person. Culture relates to the way that people do certain things that include the morals, values, traditions, but their definition is not limited to these things. During the week 2 discussion the panelists defined culture as race, ethnicity, and economics. It was also mentioned in this presentation that everyone has a culture and the importance of realizing how complex it is.

I believe that the interviewees did a great job of defining culture but I do not believe that enough was mentioned about how culture ties back to a person’s family. The Family System’s Theory states that the family includes interconnected members that influence each other (Christian, L. G., 2006). My male friend did mention his family, but the others failed to mention their family.

Learning about other people’s definition of culture has allowed me to become aware of similarities and differences amongst people who are from the same ethnic group and who are from a different ethnic group. Many people relate culture to a particular group believing that people of a certain ethnic group might not be the same beliefs or way of living. This is not always the case and this assignment has allowed me to learn more about the people that I am close to as well as their perception of diversity and culture.

Christian, L. G. (2006). Understanding families: Applying family systems theory to early childhood practice. Young Children, 61(1), 12–20. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?