Growing up in a big New England city and then working for fifteen years in an even bigger New England city, I then found myself surrounded and exposed to many different cultures. Some of these cultures I was already comfortable in, but other cultures I felt like I was lost or even afraid. It was not uncommon, for example, to find myself comfortable in the North End of Boston surrounded by a predominately Italian community. There was full comfort because those connections with language, customs, and traditions were the exact same from where I was born and raised, which was Providence Rhode Island on Federal Hill. At the time, my hometown was predominately an Italian community.
On the flip side of this was how I felt with my exposure to some of the Chinese culture found in Boston. Chinatown, for example, which was not far from the financial district and some of the more popular shopping areas, like Quincy Market, was a place I liked to frequent. They too have their own history to share as Chinese Americans. Their food, sharing of history, and culture in general was very foreign to me. The traditions and the language alone left this Italian American kid from Providence confused and sometimes I felt as if I was being slandered and exploited.
All these years later, honestly with the help of this lesson, I realize what was going on. I was suffering a form of ethnocentrism, and I didn’t know this was very detrimental. On some subconscious level, I was unfortunately stereotyping. My vulnerability mainly stemmed from I could not see the world from their perspective, even when I was fascinated, curious, and wanted to know. Our lesson reminds us that “the idea behind ethnocentrism is that people who are not part of our group are perceived as being all the same because they aren’t one of us, so we treat them differently” (Penn State, 2017).
This is an important lesson for me because I need to recognize I may behave like this, even subconsciously, and if I do it within a business context, then I may fall into the same trap of making a generalization on a person from a different culture. If I continue to fool myself into thinking that my values that were formed in my early years are not “working against me,” then I will continue making bad decisions with or around certain people that work for me. Furthermore, I need to combat this by trying to gain a global perspective on them and their culture. This course is helpful for sure, but until I really commit to this mindset and accept that I don’t know as much about my folks and their diverse culture as I pretend to, then I am vulnerable.
If I could travel around the globe I would, but that is not a reality in my job right now. So my commitment, when appropriate, is to try and learn about my folks, ask about their language, perhaps even inquire about a dialect to better understand their family’s region, engage them by asking about their family’s traditional foods, and finally simply ask them questions about their culture when I interact with them.
References
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge
Melissa Jeniene Adams says
Since I have lived or worked in almost every state I often see Chinatowns. They are so much fun to visit. most have the windows with ducks hanging upside down . I found the article on Modern Notion on “Why Does Every Major City Have a China Town? http://modernnotion.com/why-does-every-major-city-have-a-chinatown/…”According to PBS, the success of Chinese immigrants relied heavily on their ability to come together in these small communities where they could build their own relationships and foster economic growth in a safe environment. What began as safe havens from an embarrassingly unwelcoming America, Chinatowns have evolved into cultural hubs for global foodies and curious travelers and continue to provide a tiny slice of home to Chinese immigrants and visitors.”
When I was in Reno there was stories about the Chinese migrants for gold mines, they were also on MidWest Railroad crews. San Francisco has a large China Town ; Oahu has one that is not as nice as it use to be but was founded for the boating industiries, each has a great story.
Thank you for your blog