This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: This week, we will focus our lens on culture and our own personal stories. We will reflect on the various cultural groups we belong to and how we have been socialized into our group memberships and the values, traditions and norms that have been transmitted.
Our group memberships are key ways in which we "get" culture. Culture is defined as the traditions, values and norms we hold and transmit to other members of our group, which influence how we dress, what music we listen to, foods we eat, etc. Those examples are surface dimensions of culture. They are often easy to list and easy to spot. However, the deep aspects of culture (e.g., think iceberg) take more time to identify and are not as readily visible to us.
For example, you might have heard people refer to “Midwest culture.” It’s been explained to me as being nice and courteous and avoiding conflict. St. Louis transmits cultural norms around baseball, hockey, and gooey butter cake to begin at the surface.
Behind the surface markers of St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras, a number of St. Louisans engage in more deep culture activities surrounding those holidays. For example, the Catholic tradition is strong in St. Louis and influences notions of leadership and family. Acknowledging these various cultures and recognizing how we have been shaped, or not, by the extent to which we have lived, engaged or been schooled in St. Louis is worth reflection. Being cognizant of what institutions as well as individuals gave you messages about yourself and others is a process of making the invisible visible.
Culture is not synonymous with race, but culture and race definitely intersect. As our world is becoming more flat, you see many examples of people sharing culture and appropriating the culture of others. Most often this happens on the surface.
You visit an ethnic restaurant, listen to the music of another culture, adopt a way of dress etc. Yet, those deeper, more meaningful aspects of culture often go undiscussed. For example, how often do we know the worldview, gender role norms, beliefs about healing and ideas of cleanliness of other groups. Oftentimes those concepts remain unexamined in ourselves.
The reflection exercises this week will continue the personal work of raising awareness to more effectively understand ourselves and to subsequently connect with individuals across racial lines.
Goal: To reflect on how you have been shaped and socialized through the transmission of culture.
Challenge: Complete the reflective exercises on culture and socialization. Bonus, write the poem described at the end and post your poem on the Both And Facebook page or in the Beacon comments section.
1. Complete the exercise.
2. Write poemabout your cultural background. Start with this template, which can be expanded.
3. If time, read this short articleabout the perils of only staying on the surface of culture.
Kira Hudson Banks, PhD is on faculty at Saint Louis University, a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois and Missouri and a diversity and inclusion consultantfor corporate and educational institutions.