Pat-
I always have to think: what do I think of
when someone refers to a culture? I think of music, values, food, clothes,
important places, entertainment, and family traditions. I'm not fond of
American culture but that's what I grew up with. I've often said white people,
American white people, don't have a culture, but that's obviously not true.
Unfortunately, a lot of our "culture" has been exported, to the
detriment of others' cultures I believe. Values probably play the biggest role
in the development of culture. So American values revolve around acquiring
money and things. That seems to dominate American culture. The exportation of
those beliefs have ruined some countries and cultures in my opinion.
Diversity to me has
to do with people but it certainly has to do with culture. A diverse culture
would accept lots of different music, ideas, traditions. And, of course, I
think diversity is highly important for open mindedness and growth. Diversity
means different kinds of people--like Oakland is a very diverse city in the
number of people of different ethnic backgrounds and languages and cultures and
sexual orientations. But diversity as I said can refer to lots of things, like
music, ideas, and traditions. A person can have a diverse music library or book
library or whatever. My children celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah because of
their "diverse" parents.
Ana-
Culture
is about heritage, roots and background but also has a lot to do with the
experiences one has. Culture is influenced by things like location,
surroundings, values and your particular upbringing.
Diversity
is different backgrounds and embracing shared cultures and accepting peoples’
experiences that are different from your own.
Kelly-
Culture is highly personal and is a hybrid of influences
including an individual’s age, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality,
socio-economic levels, home life, family structures, language, and geographic
location to name just a few. Culture is ever-evolving depending on an
individual’s experience. One may be born into a culture, but one can also enter
a culture based on personal preferences.
A
diverse population is when there are differences among a group of individuals
in one or more of the areas that impact an individual’s culture. For instance,
this may occur within one ethnic group when there is a variety of ages or when
individuals are gathered from different areas though they may share a cultural
background. A population grows more diverse when there is an increase of
different views and experiences based on culture.
However, promoting diversity has a goal of ensuring that all individuals feel safe, despite their differences, so I would argue that authentic diversity occurs when/if this is established.
Juan-
My
definition of culture is ethnicity of a person, their background where they
come from. Culture encompasses food,
character and customs.
My
definition of diversity is that you are a part of a certain group within the
population. It means there is a label of
where you came from. It means a mixture
of people with different backgrounds.
There are aspects of culture and
diversity I have studied in this course that are included in the answers. For
example, in the video segment this week Janet Gonzalez-Mesa mentions how
culture can vary from little things to big things (Laureate Education. Inc.,
2011). From the responses that I got,
everyone defined culture with a range of all of these things that included both
surface and deep culture. The aspect that was omitted was
social identity. I think it is important to note how people create their
social identities and how those can be a part of culture. There can also
be sub cultures.
Thinking about other people’s
definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these
topics. It helped me see that there are common and shared understandings
of these words. This was demonstrated in the similar definitions from
different people. For example, there was
multiple mentions of ethnicity, values and every single person used the word “background”
in their definitions. The word “background”
is used to describe ethnicity and culture in a sense but is also used to
describe ones upbringing and experiences growing up. These experiences help shape who we are
uniquely within a cultural group.
Reference
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
Rosanna,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the definitions that were provided about culture and diversity. I found Pat's interpretation of American culture very interesting and profound. I was wondering how she developed this perspective and if there was a personal experience that influenced her feeling toward American culture. In Pat's definition of culture she mentioned, "A lot of our "culture" has been exported, to the detriment of others' cultures". I wanted to know what is the cultural background she is talking about and what aspects of it do she feel has been exported in to American culture?