Cultural Awareness of Self

Cultural Awareness of Self

Being aware of one’s own culture is essential since it keeps one from projecting one’s values and beliefs onto others. This prevents individuals from thinking that other people are doing things for the same reasons they do. For instance, in my culture, boundaries are necessary, like not getting involved in the affairs of others. Therefore, I may find it intrusive if someone shows concern when they see somebody else crying and offers to listen. However, someone from another culture may find that kind and humane. Therefore, I must understand that people may interpret matters differently from my perspective.

One of the issues that may arise when I am not culturally aware of myself is a negative stereotype. This can interfere with professional communication and lead to misinterpretation or misunderstanding (De Long & Fahey, 2000). For example, in my culture, timekeeping is considered necessary, and if I am unaware of this, I would project that a client must adhere to timekeeping as well. If a meeting were to end at 2.00 pm and the client extended the period, I might be inclined to think that the client and people from their culture are not sensitive to time even if we had more important items to talk about. Another issue that may arise is conflicting values in my culture that I am unaware of (Diller, 2019). A client may feel offended or attacked if I am unaware of my culture and may not want to be in business with me after that.

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The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 9/11 terror attack have altered people’s view of the world as many American people and people around the world began to be highly suspicious and hateful towards the Muslim and Arab people (Diller, 2019). These dynamics made the U.S. a hostile place, especially for culturally diverse people, and thus affected how human services were administered in the country. It was hard to mainstream Arabs and Muslims in these kinds of services, let alone allow them to serve.

References

De Long, D. W., & Fahey, L. (2000). Diagnosing cultural barriers to knowledge management. Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(4), 113-127.

Diller, J. V. (2019). Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services. Cengage Learning.

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Discuss the importance of knowing about yourself and your culture and how your culture influences you when working and establishing relationships with culturally diverse people, such as possible clients.
Think about this not only from your perspective but also from your client’s perspective. Why is it essential to the client?

Cultural Awareness of Self

Identify at least two issues that might arise when interacting or working with others if you are not culturally aware of yourself.
Discuss how culture has historically influenced the field of human services and how that impacts the practice of multicultural human service work.
Use at least two scholarly or credible sources to support your responses. For help with this, review the Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) guide.