Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

Culture and diversity is one of those terms that have different meaning to different people. This was such a great way to gain other perspectives from other people. I ask my best female friend who is African American, My Co-Teacher, who is Cuban, and my brother what culture and diversity means to them. My brothers stated that culture relates to some form of identity; this could be race, class, and political views. My best friend stated that culture is different ethnicities that come together and shape the community. Music, food, traditions, how people communicate with one another are all apart of culture. Diversity is how people deal with differences in sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and opinions on varies subjects, like politics, and how people deal with differences in general. My Co-Teacher stated that culture and diversity are the same because they show how groups of people come together and share and celebrate what makes them different. This can be food, ideals, family traditions, race relations, language, and theories of life.

The people I asked about culture and diversity hit a lot of the material that we have covered thus far. All of the people I asked said that culture involve differences in people, their views, status, race, and how they overall identify themselves through traditions. The aspects that have been omitted by my brother and best friend were stating that language is a huge part of culture. My brother and co-worker did not elaborate as much on the differences in communication styles, music, sexual orientation, and ethnicity and religion like my best friend did. I think my best friend had very accurate definitions about culture and diversity that we learned about this week. With that being said, they all hit what we have discussed over the last few weeks about diversity; it is a unique identifier of who and what we are. Listening to other’s definitions about culture and diversity makes me more aware of how this means almost the same thing to most, but still has a different definition from different people, and we have to understand and respect that. I know that culture and diversity is a big part of everyone, but it is always interesting to hear other people describe what they feel and their ideals and perspectives on culture and diversity.