Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

What is Culture?

I asked my friend Sawsan what her definition of culture was. Sawsan and I work at the same preschool. She grew up in Egypt. Suzy said that culture is a set of beliefs one learns from their family. Culture involves food, clothing, art, language and religion. She shared that she sees diversity in our school community. She explained that our school is diverse because not only of the variety of families that enroll their children, but in their way of raising children. Some of the children are not allowed to look at an adult in the eye when they greet them because it is considered disrespectful for some families, while others demand that children show the courtesy of a greeting.

I asked my daughter Karina what does she think of when she hears the word culture. She looked at me and said "Isn't culture stuff you learn from your family?" I asked her what kind of stuff. "Stuff like certain foods you eat that are different from other people. Like music. We listen to Spanish music like salsa and merengue and we dance to it. We also dance cumbias when we go with daddy because of his Colombian culture." I asked her if she thinks that culture could be the difference in the way that I grew up and her. She smiled and said. " Our clothing styles are different!" I asked Karina what does diversity mean? She responded "That's when various cultures are living in one area." Like here in Paterson, we have Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Colombian, Arabic families and now I see Bangladesh  community begin to grow."

My mother and grandmother shared that they think culture is everything that is taught within the families. Their beliefs, opinions and definitely traditions. My family is very strong in preserving traditions like music, songs, cooking especially. We also have a strong connection within our religion which is Catholicism but we also have the background of Santeria. The practice of Santería dates to the fifteenth century when its earliest practitioners - members of the Yoruba people of West Africa - were brought to Puerto Rico as slaves. Not allowed to practice their traditional religion, the Santería priests, called Santeros, hid their rituals under the guise of Roman Catholic figures. 

Within all the responses I do notice a consensus that culture involves belief system of the family. The family is the core to culture. It involves a certain way of life. How they eat, what they eat, what they believe in, how they incorporate their beliefs and fit in. I did notice that they all view culture as the full range of a learned human behavior. Culture shapes everyone both as individuals and as members of society.

Through the readings and responses I noticed that one essential feature of culture is that  it is learned and transmitted from one generation to the next.
Diversity extends far beyond race and culture to include a number of dimensions of differences. Valuing diversity recognizes differences between people and acknowledges that these differences are a valued asset.