Cultural Diversity in My CommunityEssay Preview: Cultural Diversity in My CommunityReport this essayCultural Diversity in My CommunityCindy KirklandCultural DiversityFebruary 18, 2007Chino a community being so diverse, there is not enough cultural awareness. Leaders in the community treat people friendly, because they either know them already or read their personalities. In a diverse community, it is essential that the members of that community be aware of other members in the community. Knowledge is power and people can learn a lot by just paying attention to the actions of others. To strengthen the community, cultural awareness is the key factor to improve the whole community. If everyone were to on an individual basis strive to improve cultural awareness, then a cultural diverse community will follow.
Cultural Diversity May be a Thing to Be Done, but the Goal is to Get Your Hands on More
The following article, “Sixty Years of Community Culture,” is from The Conversation.
In my 30+ years working here I have learned to make myself feel at home and to want to get there. On one hand I like to focus my energy on community. I am very lucky to have such an open place for anyone who is curious about their culture. On the other hand I can find myself constantly thinking about the challenges of having so much information, and I am always learning how to take it all into my own hands and not just take what I don’t understand as personal. I am always in awe of my community’s history and what it is about. Whether I’m talking about my own community, from the early beginnings of the community itself, or even by the time of my students, I often wish to share that history with you.
So here is my advice. We are all unique and some are good at making others feel like they belong in a larger society. To be a more inclusive community, we had the opportunity to meet our neighbors. If you are an African immigrant coming from a diverse community, then that means that you must be passionate about being a part of an integrated culture. I am certain that I have been treated this way in my life. And we have different perceptions of the things happening and different needs. I believe that that is the greatest compliment I can give. I am sure that a variety of people need to come out and be a part of that community. Whether it is someone new to the project, having a sense of community around them, or something even more positive, being a part of it is just a small part of it. In general I think when one person comes out, there is so much different conversation going on, and I wish there was an easier way to participate. If someone is not a part of the diverse community and who is doing what they’re doing, then I hope they can contribute their creativity as well.
I believe that in the long run it’s better to be a community of people, rather than a collection of people. I’ve seen the great many groups in my region. For example, it’s not because African and Asian immigrants were different; it’s because there’s an effort being made to separate American culture from the culture of African Americans. I believe that this whole ‘culture’ problem doesn’t mean that Asian or African Americans are unique. It means that we’re all unique, regardless of what race you come from. This is what’s causing us to do these things. It isn’t just African and Asian Americans living in the same neighborhoods. My point isn’t that everybody should be different, it’s that we simply need to take the next step with our diversity. There are other cultures and cultures that are already out there and we need to help them to be part of the cultural heritage with which they share and have a voice. Our culture needs to change. The one thing we certainly can’t accept anymore is that there is so much more to this and to do with the way in which we perceive the world
Cultural Diversity May be a Thing to Be Done, but the Goal is to Get Your Hands on More
The following article, “Sixty Years of Community Culture,” is from The Conversation.
In my 30+ years working here I have learned to make myself feel at home and to want to get there. On one hand I like to focus my energy on community. I am very lucky to have such an open place for anyone who is curious about their culture. On the other hand I can find myself constantly thinking about the challenges of having so much information, and I am always learning how to take it all into my own hands and not just take what I don’t understand as personal. I am always in awe of my community’s history and what it is about. Whether I’m talking about my own community, from the early beginnings of the community itself, or even by the time of my students, I often wish to share that history with you.
So here is my advice. We are all unique and some are good at making others feel like they belong in a larger society. To be a more inclusive community, we had the opportunity to meet our neighbors. If you are an African immigrant coming from a diverse community, then that means that you must be passionate about being a part of an integrated culture. I am certain that I have been treated this way in my life. And we have different perceptions of the things happening and different needs. I believe that that is the greatest compliment I can give. I am sure that a variety of people need to come out and be a part of that community. Whether it is someone new to the project, having a sense of community around them, or something even more positive, being a part of it is just a small part of it. In general I think when one person comes out, there is so much different conversation going on, and I wish there was an easier way to participate. If someone is not a part of the diverse community and who is doing what they’re doing, then I hope they can contribute their creativity as well.
I believe that in the long run it’s better to be a community of people, rather than a collection of people. I’ve seen the great many groups in my region. For example, it’s not because African and Asian immigrants were different; it’s because there’s an effort being made to separate American culture from the culture of African Americans. I believe that this whole ‘culture’ problem doesn’t mean that Asian or African Americans are unique. It means that we’re all unique, regardless of what race you come from. This is what’s causing us to do these things. It isn’t just African and Asian Americans living in the same neighborhoods. My point isn’t that everybody should be different, it’s that we simply need to take the next step with our diversity. There are other cultures and cultures that are already out there and we need to help them to be part of the cultural heritage with which they share and have a voice. Our culture needs to change. The one thing we certainly can’t accept anymore is that there is so much more to this and to do with the way in which we perceive the world
Chino? Where is that, is the question I usually receive upon stating the city which I reside in, I say “its next to Pomona”, and that is followed by an ohhhhh. I have lived in Chino, California for thirteen years now, a community I am familiar with, I attended four of the schools in the area, and seen it industrialize over the years. At my house we know when our usual mail carrier is on vacation, my elementary D.A.R.E. officer still waves to me when we see each other, the cashier at Stater Bros knows our family, the mall is where I held my first job, and I still hang out with my friends that I met 13 years ago. There is not a week that goes by without there being pro-life protesters praying in front of the free clinic, and the only time there is no one skating at the skate park is because of the weather conditions. I know at which hours I should avoid driving anywhere near the schools when school lets out, and I can go back to my elementary, junior high, and high school teachers and they know me and my parents. I know the area like the back of my hand, from where my high school soccer coach lives to where the sale of narcotics is happening, I know and am involved in my community. The library, city hall, police station, post office, and park are all located a whole .5 whopping miles away from my house; it is not that the city is extremely tiny; it is more that I am located right in the middle. When readings the article this statement made me thankful for my Neighborhood, “The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these Microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending” (Chung L. H. 2006). My neighbor hood is extremely close everyone is always looking out for each other. An example is a neighbor down the street had a halfway house, within a week the family with four young children living right next to the halfway house went door to door to inform the block and ask for signatures to petition against the halfway house. My block is a diverse collection of individuals, a lesbian couple, a middle-aged Caucasian man with two Asian roommates, a single father with two children, a Hispanic family, a Caucasian couple who house the streets stray cats, and my biracial family; that is just my surrounding neighbors, there is a whole block of different cultural households which are important. The mayor himself had this to say, “In the City of Chino, people are our most important resource, hence our motto, “The People Are the City” we welcome the involvement and commitment that produces a greater quality of life with citizens and city government working in partnership” (Mayor Paul M. Eaton 2007), like he said people are the most important thing, making their culture most important being that is what makes them who they are. In my community with it being so diverse, there is not enough cultural awareness. A community with diversity should have individuals that show awareness of other cultures, because if the community does not bother to grasp the concepts while they are happening during their lives then there is no real benefit of diversity.
The community is quite diverse with Hispanic being the dominating ethnicity, with African American and Asian being the two ethnicities making up the communities ethnic pie chart, Caucasian along with other ethnicities make up a very small percentage of that chart. I think that is why I feel that it is no longer races such as Hispanic, African American, and Asian that should be considered a minority, Caucasian in my community seems to be the minority and with individuals like myself, biracial and multiracial ethnic backgrounds. I read back on that thought and feel that in some other area I am not familiar with, that thought makes no sense at all, but in my community, it fits. A nice way to think about it “Indicative of the changing landscape, biracial and multiracial children present us with new definitions of identity emerging through a process of racial formation, reminding us that race is socially constructed” (Schaefer, R., 2006, Pg 29). Members of my community do look alike, dependent on where you go, for instance, my mother goes to our local store and while waiting for the butcher the odds she will have a conversation with the person next to her, this person if female Hispanic, short, short dark hair, and similar in body type is 7 out of 10 times. My female friends and I are 55″ at the tallest, dark hair, brown eyes. We are surprised when we see a female 57″ or taller, blonde hair, blue eyes, and usually think she is not from around here. The same for the males, 57″ but never taller than 510″, dark hair, brown eyes, and oddly enough they seem to all have similar hairstyles. To be honest it seems that in most situations where a minority would be looked down upon by Caucasians, it is the complete opposite, within my group of friends if we see a Caucasian girl or guy, depending on their dress style is the label we associate them with. Labels such as Bro, Bro Hoe, Preppy, and Airhead with rich parents, Bro appeals to the guys who drive raised trucks and wear black socks pulled up, Bro Hoe appeals to over bleached hair and wearing the thong hanging out with their girls tee version of the Bros, and I think Preppy and Airhead are common stereotypes. Leaders with our community treat people that are like me friendly, because they either know us already or read our personalities. If the leaders treat people differently, it would be because their personality or reaction to something they did. Other members of the community treat