Valuing Culture

My first coworker defined culture as beliefs and shared attitudes of a certain group of people and defined diversity as different interests.

My other coworker who I would consider from a different culture than me has spent 20 years in prison and is male and in his late 30s. He answered the difference between people for both questions.

I asked my mother what her definition for culture was and she responded beliefs, values and your particular group or set of rituals and her definition for diversity was being able to step out of the box and being aware of other peoples opinions, views and beliefs.

The aspects of culture and diversity that can be compared with between what I have learned and what I asked was that culture is related to a belief system. Their examples were shared attitudes relating to religion, rituals and groups of people with social forms. Their definition of diversity all had the word different in it. One example of a definition was having the ability to step out of the box and being aware of other opinions, views and beliefs.

It seems as though the things that were omitted was when it came to culture. None of the people I talked to mentioned the different types of culture besides religious beliefs. For example culture can also be gender, age, interests and so forth. It wasn’t until after I asked the definition did I explain to them the other types of culture and all of my participants shook their heads and were like of course.

Thinking about other people’s definition of culture and diversity help me to realize that before taking these courses I am sure that I was thinking about these subjects in a vague way as well. I am glad that I now have a better understanding of what being part of a culture is like.