“IT’S IN THEIR CULTURE”:ENGAGING DIVERSITY AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES Sujata Warrier, PhD Phone: 212- 417- 4477 e-mail: sujata-warrier@att.net Cultural Identity Exercise * What is your cultural identity? * How does your identity enhance, limit, affect your work? For a minute….. * You are facing the Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Walk around its walls until you come to a brass strip set in the pavement. The smooth, gold band in the ground marks the Prime Meridian, or Longitude Zero… Stand to the left- hand side of the brass strip and your are in the Western hemisphere. But move a yard to the right, and you enter the East: whoever you are, you have been translated from a European into an Oriental1. Why Should We Consider Culture? * Culture shapes an individual’s experience of domestic and sexual violence. * Culture shapes a person’s response to intervention and acceptance of responsibility. * Culture shapes access to other services. * The culture of the advocate/professional,the system and the victim will impact outcome. What Is Culture? * The field of anthropology as well as historically and anthropologically thought to be a stable pattern of beliefs, values, thoughts, norms etc.. that are transmitted from generation to generation for successfully adapting to other group members and their environment. * The problem is that this is an outdated definition. Definition Of Culture * A critical definition of culture refers to shared experiences or commonalities that have developed and continue to evolve in relation to changing social and political contexts, based on: Cultural Context * In all cultures, contexts of privilege and access are created by certain norms against which all other sub groups are compared. * In the U.S. the features of the dominant culture includes English as a primary language, “whiteness”, Christianity, physically able, male, economic resources and heterosexuality. Cultural Context * Privileges and access arise from having one or more of the above attributes of identity. Privilege includes not having to recognize own culture as norm, access to resources, connections and status. * Privileges for one group can create the dynamics of domination. The everyday world A web of agencies and political entities make up Institutions of Social Management (ISM’s) Regulatory bodies and economic systems shape the functioning of the ISM’s Discourse and Dominant Ideologies The Idea of Intersectionality * People live multiple, layered lives derived from social relations, history and the operation of the structures of power. * Understanding intersectionality exposes all types of discrimination that occur as a consequence of the combination. * Something unique is produced at the point of intersection – full complexity of experiences. * No slotting people, no single form of discrimination – exposes full range of vulnerabilities as it links all structures of oppressions. “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Anias Nin Working Assumptions IN GENERAL: * Women and men have the right to live free from violence and any advocate can take preventive action against domestic violence. * Victims have the right to safety and self-determination, which might include staying with the perpetrator, family and community or leaving the relationship. * The batterer is responsible for the violence. * Domestic violence cuts across race, ethnicity, class, sexual identity, religious affiliation etc.. but we know recognize that there may be serious institutionalized disparities in the response that survivors face especially if they are from a marginalized group. Working Assumptions CULTURALLY COMPETENT ASSUMPTIONS: * All cultures are contradictory in that there are both widespread acceptance of nurturing and oppressive values as well as traditions of resistance. * Each victim is not only a member of her/his community, but a unique individual with their own responses. The complexity of a person’s response is shaped by multiple factors. * Each individual comes into any encounter with cultural experiences and perspectives that might differ from those present in the system. * All institutions have to develop specific policies and procedures to systematically build cultural competence. Cultural Competency Begins With: * Being aware of one’s biases, prejudices and knowledge about a person. For example, – Challenge your assumptions. – Use appropriate language. – Be aware of assumptions of family. * Recognizing professional power and avoiding the imposition of those values. For example, – Use non-judgmental questions * Listen to the person. For example, – Let them narrate their story. – Do not assume people have resources. CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH: * Gathering information about the person’s interpretation of their culture. For example in assessment: – “what is it like for you to talk about this problem in your community?” * Validating the person’s strengths. For example in intervention: – thank them for sharing and acknowledge existing support systems and efforts to keep safe. CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH: * Negotiating the acceptance of a different set of values. For example, – Remember, it takes time for people to accept new systems and ideas. – Patience is the key. “World Travelling1” method of Cultural Competency * Culturally challenging practices require a vision of independence and connectedness: – understanding oneself in one’s own historical context with an emphasis on the overlaps, influences, and conditions one observes in the other. – Understand one’s historical relationship to the other - see the self as the other sees you – must see the other in their own context. * Arrogant perception creates distance between oneself and “the Other”. Commitment to Working with Diversity * It is morally the right thing to do * It is absolutely necessary to build community collaboration so that particular communities can take responsibility for addressing violence against women. * It helps programs provide quality care for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Reminder * Accepting differences is a challenge * There is always an unconscious imposition of attitudes * Be aware of guilt, anger, and use of privilege * To connect we need to learn to imagine the world in a different position Value Diversity * Diversity is stability * Diversity is strength * Diversity is a challenge Reminder * “Our struggle is for a fundamental change in social relationships rather than for a per community quota of representations in the parliament of “race” and “ethnicities.” We are engaged in politics, linking theories with practices, examining ideologies through our lives, and our lives through revolutionary ideas. We are not shopping in the market of cultural differences”. – Bannerji, Himani. 1993. “Returning the Gaze:An Introduction,” in Returning the Gaze. Toronto: Sister Vision, p.xxix