Multicultural "Generalizations" - the new stereotype

I’ve been thinking lately about the impacts of cultural stereotypes on our world vision. Personally, I dislike using them. Last fall in one of my classes at BGI we had a segment on multiculturalism and there was a lot of discussion at how “useful” such cultural stereotypes and/or generalizations could be. This really grated against my instinct to categorically reject such tools. But I have to ask myself: why? Why is it, precisely, that I think such tools are not tools at all, but excuses for laziness?

I come from an admittedly thin racial and cultural background – a true American mutt mix of Irish, Polish, and German immigrants, along with some colonial settlers and Cherokee thrown into the mix. So I’m a white guy. Yet I absolutely loathe that sort of labeling. Those little checkboxes on multiculturalism I always check the “other” box. I do this because I am not my race, or even my cultural background. Certainly I am impacted by my immediate cultural surroundings, but in today’s global environment, as connected as we all are over the internet, and exposed to various cultures as we have become, it’s hardly fair to say, or assume, that the nation of one’s origin is even the leading factor in shaping each individual.

It has been argued that cultural stereotypes and generalizations give us useful information about the perspective an individual comes from. I see the idea here, but it’s flawed in its application. We can learn about another’s culture and customs, and let that knowledge inform us as we interact with an individual from another culture – especially when it comes to areas of offense and ritual – but it should not be the first mental model we put on when talking to a new acquaintance from another region of the world. Each person that we meet must, absolutely 100% of the time, be treated as a unique individual. The part of me that refuses to be labeled is the same part that also refuses to label others. I have a very strong sense of individuality and self identity. I am not a “product” of my environment, but a self shaping entity – guided and nudged by my environment, by not dictated by. I have reached out across cultural boundaries to absorb and integrate the aspects of other individuals and cultures as I have come across them.

I don’t want to learn about multiculturalism and some generic practices I can apply to my interactions with another individual. That’s just common respect, decency, and understanding. I’ve been surprised at times certainly by how others from a different cultural background have acted, yet I did not need a priori knowledge of their culture to handle it, just an open and learning mind. I have also seen just how similar two individuals from different cultural backgrounds can be – and the corollary – just how disparate two individuals from the same cultural background can be. Trying to stamp a label on your interaction, or put some shade of glasses on, is a mistake, no matter how well intentioned, or how good you think those glasses are.
Teaching cultural generalizations I feel is a dangerous practice. It’s little more than stereotypes, renamed. Yes we can try and dress it up as something kinder and gentler, but the facts of its origins and influence remain. If we want to prepare someone for interaction with an individual from a different culture, we need to first teach them an open mind. The best way to learn about the cultural differences is first hand – and anyone with the right mindset can have a positive interaction with someone from a different culture if they have their head in the right place. I feel the first hand method is truly best, because you can not know what aspects of an individual’s background cultural potpourri they have adapted and taken on themselves – nor which aspects of other cultures, in today’s world, they have adsorbed as well. Each human interaction is a separate event – not some amalgamation of a nation or race. The diversity of individuals is staggering, and without the right mindset – not “information” in terms of cultural generalizations – we can approach and deal with each person on equal footing.

If we feel we must inform others of cultural differences, the proper way to do so is through cultural education. That means learning about religious practices, social practices, governmental practices, and economic practices. It means learning the history of a place; what happened yesterday, what’s going on today, and what’s going to happen tomorrow. Yes, it is a lot of work and it’s specific to one culture. In teaching on generalities, however, we are jumping to conclusions, and not imparting understanding. This is the major failing of the methodology I feel. You can say “Person A is from country B, therefore they likely have view X of the world”. That might be true. It also might not be true. What’s missing is the middle part – the why. Why does individual A have view X? It’s not because they grew up at latitude 47.3 N and longitude 122.5 W, it’s because of the institutions they have been exposed to. Without an understanding of those institutions, we only see part of the picture. We are unable to make intelligent choices in our interactions when all we have is a generic end product to utilize. There’s this cultural black box where we have knowledge of some inputs and their expected outputs. What we don’t know, however, is what happens when we put in some other input – without understanding someone’s cultural “black box”, we are unable to make new decisions, or infer possible outcomes in novel situations. Having an open mind enables one to adapt to the outputs of a cultural black box, however.

Absolutely the most important aspect of positive cross cultural interactions is an open and learning mind. With that as a foundation, we are well adapted to handle any cultural variation thrown our way. We can handle the new global cross-cultural blends that we will encounter. And it prepares us for any differing culture – not just those for which we have memorized their cultural generalizations. An even deeper understanding can be obtained by an open minded individual undertaking study of other cultures and their histories – of course this only provides information to inform them of interactions with individuals impacted by those institutions, but is still useful in its own right.

My rationale for this view stems from my self-held belief of the individual. It’s possible my view is skewed because I fall into numerous outlier populations, several standard deviations from the norm. Perhaps because I am relatively unique, I project that image onto everyone else, but perhaps that is not the case? Thus far, however, my interactions with other individuals, over the past 30 years, have informed me that even people who don’t fall into outlier populations are still quite capable of being unique. Perspectives from people who grew up right next door are sometimes just as surprising as those of someone from halfway across the globe. Multiculturalism in the workplace is then really just another way of saying – you need to be able to handle different individuals from yourself, not just those from different locations and of racial background.

As somewhat of a postscript, I’d like to briefly discuss the point that multiculturalism is often not tied with the country or culture of origin, but with race. This, to me, is absolutely deplorable and functionally useless. I grew up with numerous friends whose parents were first generation immigrants from China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, and India. While they were influenced by their parents’ perspectives, the stronger influence certainly was the cultural they grew up surrounded by in the greater Puget Sound region, and everything that entails. To counterpoint this, there certainly are individuals who, despite relocation, bring their cultural practices with them. I find this intriguing because these individuals seem to find their self-identity not as an individual, but as a culture. Perhaps, however, this is a view that they enjoy and see no detractor to, and it’s my western cultural upbringing with a focus on individual uniqueness that finds this strange. Perhaps if we embraced our culture AS our identity, the world would be a better place? Thinking about this a little more, there are certainly examples within all cultures of this – people who cling to their religion, their culture, or their nation as representative of who they are. Americans and western Europeans are certainly no exception to this phenomenon. So rather than strictly a cultural issue, once again, I believe this comes down do differences at an individual level – further reinforcing my point that it is wholly dangerous to try and apply a generic label to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

Everyone is unique and in all our interactions we must come prepared to learn.