Transcript DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - Ending Violence BC

“IT’S IN THEIR CULTURE”:
ENGAGING CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES IN THE CONTEXT
OFA GLOBAL WORLD
Sujata Warrier, PhD
Phone: 212-417-5944
e-mail: [email protected]
7/17/2015
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Goals Of This Session
As a result of this presentation, you will be better able to:
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Define the terms culture and cultural competency and enhance respect
for the dynamics of difference.
Identify ways in which culture is relevant in the every encounter.
Recognize cultural misinformation and avoid assumptions about a
person or the facts of a situation based on misinformation.
Assess blinding preferences that are brought to various encounters that
might influence demeanor or the interpretation of facts, or developing
diverse messages and shaping outcomes.
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Apply framework to cases
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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TASK
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During the next few minutes, fill in each box
presented with stereotypes that exist “out
there in the world”
May be positive or negative
Each group divided into men and women
Awareness of a stereotype DOES NOT mean
that you believe it
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
First Nations
Men
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Women
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Asian Canadians
Men
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Women
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Jewish
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Men
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Women
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Poor
Men
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Women
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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Caucasian/White
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Men
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Women
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Immigrants
Men
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Women
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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Gays/Lesbians
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Gays
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Lesbians
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Disabled
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Men
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Women
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Research indicates that stereotyping is part
of the normal psychological process of
categorization that under pertinent
conditions, can lead to inaccurate
generalizations about individuals...
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Categorization
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The process by which we classify items,
objects, or concepts, placing them together in
groupings on the basis of their similarities
with each other.
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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Stereotypes
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A set of attributes ascribed to a group and
imputed to its individual members simply
because they belong to that group.
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Stereotypes
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Descriptive
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tell how most people in
the group supposedly
behave, what they
allegedly prefer, and
where their competence
supposedly lies.
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Prescriptive
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tell how certain groups
should think, feel, and
behave.
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Stereotype matching advantage
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indicates that information that fits one’s
stereotypes is automatically processed; it is
easy to take in, making stereotypes seem to fit
automatically.
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SUMMARY
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The brain, through such processes as
categorization and stereotype-matching
advantage, processes information through
various short-cuts that tend to reinforce our
expectations, especially under stressful
circumstances.
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
SUMMARY (cont...)
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The elimination of stereotypes requires more
than good will. It requires: awareness of
stereotypes, motivation to avoid reliance upon
them, and an intentional thought process.
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
SUMMARY
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We are all products of our culture and
experience
As such, we hold or are aware of many
assumptions about our own and other groups
Sources of stereotypes are many
Effects may be positive or negative
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Dynamics of Difference
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“…encourage us to tolerate and interpret ambivalence,
ambiguity, and multiplicity as well as expose the roots
of our need for imposing order and structure no matter
how arbitrary and oppressive these needs may be. If we
do our work well, reality will appear more unstable,
complex and disorderly than it does now.”
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J.Flax, 1990. Thinking Fragments:Psychoanalysis, Feminism and
Postmodernism in the Contemporary West. Berkeley: University of California
Press. pp.56-7
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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Cultural Competency
Begins With:
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Being aware of one’s
biases, prejudices and
knowledge about a victim.
For example,
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Challenge your assumptions.
Take into consider implicit
bias
Use appropriate language.
Be aware of assumptions of
family.
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Recognizing professional
power and avoiding the
imposition of those values.
For example,
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Use non-judgmental
questions
Listen to the person. For
example,
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Let them narrate their story.
Do not assume people have
resources.
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CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH:
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Gathering information
about the person’s
interpretation of their
culture. For example in
assessment:
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“what is it like for you
to talk about this
problem in your
community?”
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
Validating the person’s
strengths. For example in
intervention:
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thank them for sharing and
acknowledge existing
support systems and efforts
to keep safe.
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CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH:
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Insuring safety and selfdetermination. For
example,
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Take into account culturally
specific needs.
Developing linkages with
the community. For
example,
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Negotiating the acceptance
of a different set of values.
For example,
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Remember, it takes time for
people to accept new
systems and ideas.
Patience is the key.
Give culturally appropriate
referrals.
Work with community
based agencies.
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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“World Travelling1” method of Cultural
Competency
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Culturally challenging practices require a vision
of independence and connectedness:
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understanding oneself in one’s own historical context with an
emphasis on the overlaps, influences, and conditions one
observes in the other.
Understand one’s historical relationship to the other - see the
self as the other sees you
must see the other in their own context.
Arrogant perception creates distance between
oneself and “the Other”.
1Gunning,
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Isabella. 1992. “Female Genital Surgeries,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 23(2):189-248.
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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Value Diversity
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Diversity is stability
Diversity is strength
Diversity is a challenge
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Reminder
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“Our struggle is for a fundamental change in social
relationships rather than for a per community quota of
representations in the parliament of “race” and
“ethnicities.” We are engaged in politics, linking theories
with practices, examining ideologies through our lives,
and our lives through revolutionary ideas. We are not
shopping in the market of cultural differences”.
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Bannerji, Himani. 1993. “Returning the Gaze:An Introduction,” in Returning the Gaze.
Toronto: Sister Vision, p.xxix
©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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In conclusion……
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“It seems utopian, but the world must recover
its capacity for dreaming and in order to start, a
new paradigm is required…..”
Cecilia Lopez
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©Sujata Warrier, 2009
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