I had an interview recently, and admittedly I was nervous. It was me speaking to 4 people who knew each other. It was a bit intimidating to say the least, but I had spoken in front of groups of people before, so I felt overall fine. I was more excited to be given the opportunity to speak with them than anything else.
A question came up that had to do with culture. This question I expected to be asked, but it made me nervous to talk about. The subject of culture is broad and complex. Honestly, I could have talked about culture the entire interview, but there wasn't a lot of time to be spent on it. So I gave them a version that was short and sweet, that was along the lines of "I am the type of person that likes to know why people are the way that they are. I believe learning about other people's culture is important so we can understand them better." I treaded on this subject relatively lightly, when I wanted to dive in headfirst, but refrained as I didn't want to offend anyone, which would result in me not getting this job.
What I wanted to have with this was a dialogue, one in which allowed me to ask questions so I could further explain my reasonings for why this is so important. I will share that here instead. I would have started the conversation with "Culture is a diverse and complex topic that I can't explain its importance in a matter of a few sentences. I will begin with the basics. We can agree that we are American, correct? They would answer hopefully yes. I would then say, ok, great! We already share things in common. There are unspoken societal rules that we share and don't have to be reiterated because we already know what we can and can not say or do. This question likely hasn't raised any questions yet, but now I will add a layer to this."
I would then say, "I am a Black American. This is not the same as an African American. I have no immediate family that derives from Africa nor has any of my relatives lived there. Black Americans may have ancestors who originated in Africa, but we are so far removed from African culture that we can not relate to native Africans. Black Americans are Americans who were born and raised in the United States. They are Americans who are immersed in this culture with a society that enforces this culture, but this culture often works against us."
When I say I am a Black American, I'm sure that has raised some questions that may not have occurred consciously, but perhaps subconsciously. With this additional layer it has created space between us that wasn't there initially. At this point, we now have fewer similarities because I have pointed out that we are different. Culture is the mother umbrella to society, which nurtures individuals. With these new questions that have risen, sometimes conflict arises from it because of those differences. The only way to combat conflict is with understanding. Attempting to understand what a Black American is will then give some incite to the group, especially the individuals that derive from those groups.
Understanding the individual is harder than understanding the culture. As culture can explain some of our behaviors, it can not explain us in its entirety, because at the end of the day, we are free-thinking individuals and our beliefs don't always align with our culture.
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