Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week, I reached out to friends and family and asked them to define culture and diversity.  I would like to share some of their definitions:

"Culture to me is related to people and their race or where they came from.  It encompasses their beliefs and values, how they dress, customs, and sometimes how they act or interact depending on how deeply their cultureis a part of the individual. - K.W."

"Diversity is that there are many races and cultures and that they are diverse or different from each other.  This diversity needs to be respected and should guide how the individual should be treated depending on how they believe or what their culture believes. - K.W."

"Culture is the way of life of particular people as shown in their families, their lives, and their religious beliefs. - M.W."

"Diversity is having having many different abilities and ideas.  People from different races. - M.W."

"Culture is defining characteristics or traditions that belong to a specific civilization such as foods and dance styles. - T.W." 

"Diversity is what makes everyone different or diverse.  Diversity can be something as simple as hair color or personality. - T.W."

"My definition of culture is the common bonds, attributes, and beliefs within a group who identify themselves as being connected through race, socioeconomics, or other common denominators. - D.G."

"Diversity is developing an understanding of people who identify with different cultures and beliefs and then accepting and including those differences in a social or work setting. - D.G." 

  

"Culture is a way of life.  You go to a new part of the world to experience and explore a new culture, to see how that part of the world celebrates, works, cooks...to see everything about it.  It is a particular society. - T.R." 

"Culture to me means how you are raised to believe and do certain things based on your family and where you live.  You are raised to believe that a certain religion or political affiliation is the only way to believe or that certain races act a particular way. - H.S."

"Diversity to me means that despite your upbringing (by whom and where) you are open to all cultures and beliefs and understand that it takes many types of people to succeed.  You associate with people of many faiths, races, and backgrounds. - H.S." 

Culture is like an iceberg!  There are so many aspects to one's culture.  It's likely when you ask someone to define culture that they will omit aspects that others see as key points.  Overall, I believe that we all have a deeper understanding of culture than that which lies above the surface.

It is fascinating to discover how others define culture!

Many of us have gone through Diversity Training at work.  Hopefully, your training was NOT like this!