Dedicated to a culturally and spiritually respectful path that transcends assimilation, resignation, and conflict through the spirit of cooperation, healing, compassion, for creating partnerships with all members of the Human Family. All people have a culture - it is how human beings make sense of the world. Culture shapes how people think, learn and solve problems, what they value and respect, what attracts and delights them, what offends them and their sense of what is appropriate. More deeply, culture is the soil in which the tree of identity has its roots. Culture is manifest in human relations, systems of organization, technology, arts, politics, economics, community life - all the things that humans do. This Powerpoint is utilized by Dr. Lee Brown and Chief Phil Jr in Diversity Workshops for Communities, Governments, Organizations, and Corporations.

1. Cultural
Awareness Training
Unity in Diversity
Dr. Lee Brown
Institute of Emotional Health
Chief Phil Lane Jr.
Four Worlds International Institute

2. CULTURE
All people have culture - it is how human beings make sense
of the world. Culture shapes how people think, learn and
solve problems, what they value and respect, what attracts
and delights them, what offends them and their sense of
what is appropriate. More deeply, culture is the soil in which
the tree of identity has its roots. Culture is manifest in human
relations, systems of organization, technology, arts, politics,
economics, community life - all the things that humans do.

3. A Metaphor for Culture
Music
Folklore
Primary
Culture
highly patterned
implicit rules of behavior
hidden cultural grammar
LanguageLaws
Food
Visible
Culture
CustomsArtifacts and
Behaviour
Beliefs and Values
Assumptions
Relationships

4. Primary Level Culture
….There is an underlying, hidden level of culture that is
highly patterned – a set of unspoken, implicit rules of
behavior and thought that controls everything we do. This
hidden cultural grammar defines the way in which people
view the world, determines their values, and establishes the
basic tempo and rhythms of life. Most of us are either totally
unaware or else only peripherally aware of this. I call these
hidden paradigms primary level culture.
E.T. Hall

5. Primary Level Culture
Tempo of work
Concept of Justice
Cooperation
Family relations
Timing
Social interaction
Nature of friendship
Leadership
Handling emotions
Fairness
Money
Problem solving
Decision making
Gender roles
Space
Authority relationships
Education
Group vs individual

6. Other Metaphors for Culture
 The collective programming of the mind which
distinguishes the members of one group from another - the
software of the mind
 The eyes through which we see the world

7. Cultural Diversity
Universals
• Play
• Education
• Marriage
• Food
• Clothing
• Pray/worship
• Art
Specifics

8. Timing
Anglo-Saxon A
B
Latin A
B
Asian A
B

9. Tone
Anglo-Saxon
Latin
Asian

10. Communicating across Cultures
Sender tone and timing
non-verbal
spoken word
Receiver

11. Cultural Experience
Historical experiences shape cultural patterns which evolve
as collective habits of response to circumstances.
Human potentiality is expressed through these cultural
patterns.

12. CULTURAL ALIENATION
All systems are cultural artifacts, they are the product of
specific cultural values, relationships and attitudes.
Individuals from the culture in which the system is rooted can
function well within the system. Individuals from other
cultures may find the system to be foreign, alienating, and
not at all comfortable.
In an effort to preserve its ways of doing things, the system
can become inhospitable to the “foreign” individual.

13. Cultural Distortions
Some parts of culture are organized around natural laws and
lead to well-being.
Some parts of culture develop in response to trauma and
cause problems in human systems.
These distortions get pasted down historically and become a
hidden curriculum - an agenda at a deeply unconscious level.
These distortions create blind spots that lead to stereotyping
and prejudice.

14. Cultural Self-Awareness
Examine your own culture - what parts of it are life-enhancing
and life preserving and what parts of it are distortions and
need to be changed.

15. EQUALITY VS EQUITY
•Equality = Sameness
• When we treat people equally we ignore differences
•Equity = Fairness
• When we treat people equitably we recognize differences

16. DIVERSITY
Tolerating differences is not enough. We have to cherish
differences, seek them out and cultivate them. This makes
our lives, our departments, our organizations better – it
makes us more creative, more adaptable, more efficient,
more enjoyable.

17. Stereotypes
The capacity to generalize is essential to human intelligence.
Overgeneralizations, on the other hand, can be very dangerous
because they are based on faulty or partial information.
Overgeneralizations that are used to describe people are called
stereotypes. Stereotypes cause us to judge people before we have
the opportunity to get to know them.

18. Prejudice
To pre-judge a person is to judge them on the basis of stereotypes
which have been formed with inaccurate or incomplete
information. When people act on the basis of prejudice, their
actions discriminate against thee people or groups

19. Putting it Together
Stereotypes
Beliefs based on
faulty or partial
information
Prejudice
Attitudes and values
arising from beliefs
Discrimination
Action on the basis of
attitudes and values

20. Theories of Prejudice
The Prejudiced Personality
Certain people, because of their upbringing, their insecurities and
their fears, tend to be more prejudiced than others

21. Theories of Prejudice
Learned Prejudice
By unquestioningly accepting the values and attitudes of the people
around us, we can sometimes learn to be prejudiced.

22. THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Culture
The culture into which we are born determines much of the
way we see the world, even though we aren’t aware of it.
Cultural differences can cause prejudice because people
don’t understand the way those of other cultures dress,
worship, eat, etc.

23. THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Frustration and Scapegoating
People who are frustrated or angry often take out their
feelings on a helpless and innocent victim.

24. THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
Economic Competition
When there is competition for limited resources the dominant
or most powerful group in society will exploit the weaker
groups in order to gain material advantage.
They will often invent a good reason for doing so - one which
shows why the exploited “deserve what they get.

25. THEORIES OF PREJUDICE
1. Prejudiced personality
2. Learned prejudice
3. Cultural differences
4. Frustration and scapegoating
5. Economic competition

26. TYPES OF PREJUDICE
Type Focus Example
Race Physical characteristics (skin
colour, hair texture, stature)
African, First Nations,
Asian
Class Income, clothes, location,
education, occupation
Welfare recipients
Gender Male, Female, Sexual orientation Women, homosexuals
Age Calendar years since birth Elders, children,
teenagers

27. Type Focus Example
Physical Physical appearance Handicapped, “good
looking”
Religion Style or method of worship,
religious affiliation
Sikhs, Muslims,
Jewish, etc.
National Place of origin, citizenship Newfoundlanders,
Arabs, Americans
Cultural Language, food, clothing, art,
family organization
Ukrainians, French
Canadians
TYPES OF PREJUDICE

28. The Vicious Cycle
Rationalization
Frame of
Reference
Overgeneralization
& stereotyping
Prejudice and
Discrimination
Self-fulfilling
prophecy

29. The New Culture
The Golden Rule
Treat others and we would
want to be treated
The Platinum Rule
Treat others as they would
want to be treated