Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Ask three people to share their definition of culture

First of all I really enjoyed asking my son, brother-in-law, and my neighbor this question so much that I continued asking other people this same question. However, when asking my son his definition of culture he said, it’s who I am, his race, his background, his principles, and morals. Then I asked my brother-in-law who is from India. He said culture to him is all about morals, beliefs, and respect for yourself and others in his culture. And also holding on to traditions, and family customs. The last person I asked this question for this assignment was my neighbor who is from Germany. She said culture is who you are. It can be a lot of people within your culture group but at the same time separate groups within your culture that do not have the same beliefs as you may have.

 Ask three people to share their definition of diversity

Then I asked, what is diversity? My son said it’s the difference between people’s culture, and people themselves. It could be old or young or tall or short, it’s about being different. My brother-in-law said to keep it simple the definition of diversity is me (brother-in-law), and you (me). I laughed when he said this because it was true. He said for instance our gender or some of our beliefs are different so things like that shows diversity. When asking my neighbor this question she said she thought diversity was just like culture, showing that you are different than someone else.

 Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

In looking back at their answers to my questions, all their answers to culture and diversity were included in what I am learning in this course. For example, my son said culture is who he is. My brother-in-law said diversity can be gender or having different beliefs than someone else which shows different characteristics of a person. And last my neighbor said she thought culture was diversity, which in a way made some sense to me.

Which aspects have been omitted and what are some examples of such omission?

I believe some of their characteristics where omitted such as; their language, and only my son mention his race. Although two out of the three mentioned beliefs, no one said anything specific about their religion.

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

In thinking back on their answers to the definitions of culture, and diversity, it made me think that people in general define culture and diversity as being tied into one category. As a result they do not see pass a person’s ethnic background when thinking about culture or diversity. However I have to say that before this course my way of thinking was somewhat the same.