Diversity, Power, Culture and "Other"

Being socialized and living in the dominant culture often lessens awareness that beliefs and behaviours reflect a particular racial group, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, or gender affiliation. A dominant group can so successfully project its way of seeing social reality that its view is accepted as common sense, as part of the natural order, even by those who are disempowered or marginalized by it. In fact, for some, it may feel like heresy to acknowledge that Anglo-Americans and dominant Western norms enjoy a position of privilege and power and has diminished other norms as valuable as cooperation (versus competition) and interdependence (versus independence).

The importance of acknowledging diversity in the workplace and society in general cannot be overstated. In a multicultural country and a world interconnected by global travel, diversity conveys a need to respect similarities and differences among human beings and to move beyond simply developing sensitivity to active and effective responsiveness. This requires constructive action to change ideas and attitudes that perpetuate the exclusion of underserved groups of the population and significantly challenge their motivation to take their rightful place in society.

In discussions of culture or worldview, it is important to examine the place of power, dominance, race and ethnicity in the overall concept. Unfortunately, colonialism played a significant role in the difficulties we continue to confront.
Cultural forms in newly classified ‘traditional’ societies were reconstructed and transformed by and through colonial conquest and rule which created new categories and oppositions between colonizers and colonized: European and Asian, modern and traditional, West and East. The idea of colonialism as a tool to create the cultural other was discussed by Gupta and Chattopadhyaya:

It is not surprising that many people of the industrially developed countries think that the peoples of the underdeveloped or developing countries are culturally inferior to them. They also believe that their cultures are superior to those of their ‘cultural others’. The hidden assumption is that the cultures of countries like USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, essentially based on modern science and technology, are to be rated higher than those of others. Except for Japan, all these countries are Euro-American . (Chhanda Gupta and D. P. Chattopadhyaya, eds. “Introduction” in Cultural Otherness and Beyond (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1998) at 1 (Gupta & Chattopadhyaya, 1998) .

This analysis accorded with the view of some anthropologists that the concept of culture was introduced as a means of designating some cultures as “superior” and others as “inferior”.

Whether you refer to the concept as “culture” or “worldview”, it is complex and difficult to define. What is clear, however, is that it is the very essence of individuals. It provides the lens through which we see ourselves and view the world. It provides meaning and purpose for our lives. It is a means of solving problems that groups experience over time. Culture is also the source of conflict. Therefore, failure to acknowledge your own worldview and ignoring or diminishing the culture or worldview of another is inviting dispute and misunderstanding into the workplace or institution.