Week Six: Cultural Competence

As Vaugh points out in her book, Psychology and Culture, we do not need to leave our homes to interact with new cultures. While some inter-cultural experiences do come for our time abroad, I believe that a greater percentage of these experiences occur in our day-to-day lives.

I spent some of my formative years in the Chicago Public School system, where I was the only white child in my school and I lived in a largely Hispanic neighborhood. I was surrounded by people who were not like me, but I never felt marginalized. We were all different and these differences were respected. I believe that this is how we all need to approach inter-cultural situations. Most people in our society know not to treat someone differently because they are different from you, but I believe that many people do not realize that being more cautious or formal around others because they are of a different cultural background is still discrimination. I respect differences but also realize that in many ways these people are the same as me.

Rose and her niece

My family in Ecuador

After leaving this urban and culturally diverse environment and moving to cookie-cutter suburbia, I did not have many inter-cultural experiences for a few years. Everyone was white, Christian, and upper-middle class. It was not until high school that I realized that my time in Chicago had helped me understand how to relate to people of other cultures. As I grew up, my friends and I would make increasingly frequent trips into the city. Many of my friends and I became very comfortable exploring parts of the city that were off the beaten trail. Most visitors only see Michigan Avenue, Millennium Park, and Navy Pier. We were venturing out into the smaller artsy neighborhoods to attend small-scale music events and see what cool items we could stumble upon in the countless thrift shops. When my friend Rose and I started to bring our friends deeper into the heart of the city, we realized that some of the others were not as comfortable as we were. I attribute much of this cultural comfort and social maneuverability to the fact that both of us grew up in more multi-cultural environments than many of my friends did.