I first called my mom because who better to ask questions! When I asked her to define culture she said culture is “what you and your family identifies with in terms of what you believe, what you eat, how you speak”. Her definition of diversity was “the things that make us all different and unique”. Next up, I called a co worker his definition of culture “what makes us who we are” and diversity “people bringing in the the things that make them different and using it in a positive way”. Lastly, I called a friend who grew up in Russia. Her definition of culture is “everything about a people is their culture. The way the talk, the way they eat, what they do for fun, what they believe in, what they think about, what they call right and wrong, you know just everything that makes a people a real GROUP of people, you know?” and about diversity “it really is just making sure there is a bunch of people with cultures, like I talked about before, that are different”.
I would say that in the responses they are basically what we have learned in this course. That culture is what makes up who you are. I think it really is neat because sometimes in the class you get almost ‘too’ definition based on what culture is when it, in all actuality, is just what my people said! I especially LOVED my friend’s response (the last one). For me that one really drove it home!
Thinking about other peoples thoughts on diversity and culture has influenced mine as well. As I said above it makes me really remember it is more of an intuitive definition for me. Like my friend said culture is what makes a group, a group! Your culture, or pieces of it, are what make you lean towards others and eventually make relationships! I think that is really amazing when you think about it like that!
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