WHY IS CULTURE IMPORTANT?
Culture is a strong part of people’s lives. It influences their views, their values, their humor, their hopes, their loyalties, and their worries and fears. So when you are working with people and building relationships with them, it helps to have some perspective and understanding of their cultures.
But as we explore culture, it’s also important to remember how much we have in common. People see the world very differently, but they know what it is like to wake up in the morning and look forward to the adventures that of the day. We are all human beings. We all love deeply, want to learn, have hopes and dreams, and have experienced pain and fear.
At the same time, we can’t pretend our cultures and differences don’t matter. We can’t gloss over differences and pretend they don’t exist, wishing we could all be alike, and we can’t pretend that discrimination doesn’t exist.
This chapter will give you practical information about how to understand culture, establish relationships with people from cultures different from your own, act as an ally against racism and other forms of discrimination, create organizations in which diverse groups can work together, overcome internalized oppression, and build strong and diverse communities.
This section is an introduction to understanding culture, and will focus on:
- What culture is
- The importance of understanding culture in community building
- Envisioning your cultural community
- How to get started in building communities that encourage diversity.
But first, it is important to remember that everyone has an important viewpoint and role to play when is comes to culture. You don’t have to be an expert to build relationships with people different from yourself; you don’t have to have a degree to learn to become sensitive to cultural issues; and you don’t have to be a social worker to know how culture has affected your life.
