Beyond “Cultural Tourism”:
Striving for Cultural
Competence
by Paul C. Gorski gorski@EdChange.org
May 1, 2008
I.
Introductory Blabber:
Warming Up
The Quiz
 Humility
 Cognitive dissonance
 Authenticity
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I. Introductory Blabber
• Getting the most out of it:
– Comfortable with discomfort
– Respond positively to cognitive dissonance
– Willing to be challenged and pushed
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I.
Introductory Blabber:
Who We Are
• Who’s in the room?
• My background and lens
• The gap (NMH story)
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I.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introductory Blabber:
The Agenda
Warm-Up Callisthenic Activity
Definitions
Rethinking
Toward Transformation
Challenges to Authenticity
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Part II:
Defining “Diversity” and
“Cultural Competence”
II. Defining
• Your definitions
– Diversity
– Cultural Competence
• The purpose of diversity and cultural
competence..?
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II. Defining
•
Stages of Cultural Competency:
1. Heroes and Holidays (“Celebrating the Joys
of Diversity”)
2. Intercultural Learning (“Learning about Other
Cultures”)
3. Human Relations (“Why can’t we all just get
along..?”)
4. Transformational (Equity & Social Justice)
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II. Defining
•
•
The problem with “cultural competence”
Diversity and cultural competence as
status quo
– Why diversity and cultural competence often
are reframed to fit dominant society
•
And to whose benefit..?
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II. Defining
Morning Callisthenics: The Crosswalk
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Part III
Rethinking “Diversity” &
“Cultural Competence”
III. Rethinking
Critical Concepts
•
•
•
•
Deficit Theory
Hegemony
Systemic (Institutional) Oppression
Institutional Likeability
•
See handout(s)
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III. Diversity as Inequity
Changing Hearts, Not Systems
• Focus exclusively on changing hearts and
minds while ignoring systemic inequities
• Ex.: cultural plunges, “how to teach
Latinos,” anti-prejudice workshops
• Your examples?
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III. Diversity as Inequity:
Universal Validation
• Diversity and cultural competency can not
be about validating all perspectives
• White supremacy is not a valid perspective
on race
• Conservative reframing: equity and social
justice as “inclusivity”
• Your examples?
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III. Diversity as Inequity:
“Whitening” of Social Movements
• Research shows that as civil rights orgs
become more white, they become more
conservative
• Ex.: Candy-coating “diversity” discussions
to be consumable to privileged audiences
• “Change takes time”
• White-washing of MLK, Rosa Parks, etc.
• Your examples?
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III. Diversity as Inequity:
Regressive Programs
• Service learning that maintains social and
political hierarchies
• Cultural competency as economic strategy
• Dances, food fairs, cultural plunges, arts
and crafts (dealing with race/racism
through cultural events)
• Your examples?
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III. Diversity as Inequity:
Ruby Payne Syndrome
• Leaning on the work of popular speakers
without critical analysis of their work (and
how it might contribute to that which we
purport to fight against)
• Your examples?
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III. Diversity as Inequity:
Homogenization
• Minimizing cultures to surface-level
stereotypes and assumptions
– Usually based on a single dimension of
identity
• Conflating identities (such as race,
ethnicity, nationality, language, religion...)
• Your examples?
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Part IV
Toward a Transformational
Diversity and Cultural
Competence
IV. Shift of Consciousness #1
• Must be willing to think critically about
those things about which I’ve been taught
not to think critically
– Corporate capitalism
– Two-party political system
– Consumer culture
• And the relationship between these things and
racism
– Hetero-normative-ness
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #2
• Must acknowledge that authentic cultural
competence requires me to advocate
equity and justice for everybody
– No picking and choosing who gets it
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #3
• Must expose and reject deficit theory
– Blames people in oppressed groups for their
oppression
– Create hostile conditions, then demonize
people for being angry or resistant
– John and the lunchroom story
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #4
• Must acknowledge inequities and
oppressions—and understand them as
systemic and not just individual acts and
practices
– So changing hearts isn’t enough to reach
cultural competence—must prepare ourselves
and others to change institutions and society
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #5
• Must regain a sense or urgency
– “Change takes time”
• How much time does it take?
• An expression of privilege
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #6
• Must move beyond the “objective
facilitator” or “human relations educator”
role and take on activist role
– Not about validating all perspectives
– “Neutrality” or depoliticizing difference means
endorsing oppression
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #7
• Must transcend “celebrating the joys of
diversity” and move toward dismantling
systems of power and privilege
– Beyond food fair and cultural plunge
*** We CANNOT address systemic oppression
through events that focus on culture
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #8
• Must be willing to unsettle and discomfort
– Institutional likeability
– Am I framing my diversity work as “peace and
harmony” or “equity and justice”?
– Who am I trying to keep comfortable, and at
whose expense?
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #9
• Must be careful to avoid “savior syndrome”
or “messiah mentality”
– This is an expression of supremacy and
privilege
– Who, exactly, is being “saved” in anti-racist
work?
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #10
• Must understand diversity issues—racism,
sexism, imperialism, classism, etc.—as
intertwined
– Stop working against each other
– Deal with oppressions within movements
• Racism and classism in feminist and gay rights
movements
• Sexism and classism in civil rights and gay rights
movements
• Homophobia in anti-racist movements
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #11
• Must work for JUSTICE first, then PEACE
and HARMONY
– Racial harmony without racial justice is
compliance with systemic racism
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IV. Shift of Consciousness #12
• Focus on understanding the cultures and
forces of power and privilege, not only on
the experiences and cultures of the
dispossessed “other”
– We cannot understand race and racism
without understanding white privilege and
power at the systemic level
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What We Can Do
IV. What We Can Do:
Challenge & Support Each Other
• Strengthen “the choir.”
• Challenge each other. Worst possible case
is people committed to diversity and
cultural competence contributing to
inequity and injustice.
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IV. What We Can Do:
Socialize Youth for Activism
• No more hosting dances and food fairs.
• Work with youth on organizing and
deepening their understandings of issues,
beyond what they see on TV.
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IV. What We Can Do:
Put “Diversity” in Context
•
•
•
•
•
•
Globalization & Global Capitalism
Imperialism
World Bank/IMF
Environmental Justice Movement
Immigration/English-Only Movement
Etc.
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IV. What We Can Do:
Take Back Our Heroes
• Resist whitewashing or commercialization
of social justice heroes
• MLK
• Rosa Parks
• Black Panthers
• Today: Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, etc.
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IV. What We Can Do:
Organize Across Identities
• We’re fighting the same fight, so let’s fight
it together!
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IV. What We Can Do:
Know Your Prejudices
• Never stop identifying and working to
eliminating our own prejudices and biases.
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IV. What We Can Do:
Find Local Resources
• Reframe “Cultural Competence”
• Include, for example:
– Ability to recognize inequity and injustice
– Ability to resist inequity and injustice
– Ability to de-center the U.S.
– Ability to think critically
– Ability to identity one’s own prejudices
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Part V
Challenges to Practicing
Authentic “Diversity” and
“Cultural Competence”
VII. Reflection
“Humility is the ability to see.”
-Terry Tempest Williams
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