Interest in Other Cultures Enriches Family Life

The multicultural world that our children now experience is truly a testimony to an ideal America was founded upon: freedom. America is still a country full of promise and opportunity for people living in repressed regimes, failed governments or poverty-stricken communities.

Time was when many family discussions about culture were about cultures in other nations. Now families can focus on the multicultural dimensions of people from other nations who reside here in our country. Our population in North Carolina alone represents families who migrated from central Mexico or Mexican border towns. The Hmong culture is made up of people from Laos or Cambodia who fought alongside American soldiers in the Vietnam War and resettled here after the war. Many African immigrants are attracted to our traditional black universities around Raleigh and Greensboro. These are only a few examples of the different groups that add to our state’s diversity. All of these new people add rich cultural stories, morés and customs to our life together.

The increase in the number of people from other cultures underscores the importance of a greater awareness of these cultures. Culture comprises behaviors and beliefs that characterize particular social, ethnic or age groups.

For example, families within Hispanic communities are formal when they communicate with others, until they become familiar with members outside of the family. This means that schoolteachers and administrators often adapt their style of interaction in parent-teacher conferences with Hispanic parents. The Hispanic family is interdependent upon each other for support, for child rearing and for loyalty to the family. If you want to attend family gatherings, you may find resistance initially until the family builds trust and familiarity with you.
Asian communities also have opportunities for inclusion at festivals or celebrations. In this group, the needs of the individual are not as much of a concern as the needs of the group or community as a whole. Parenting within the Asian community seeks for the child to place the group’s needs ahead of one’s individual needs.

As North Carolina’s population continues to grow and change, it’s important for families to learn more about their neighbors. Parents can foster a world of learning opportunities if they encourage their children to learn about the cultures around them. This often requires us to get outside of our own comfort zones and visit someone else’s home, community, religious house of worship or ethnic neighborhood. You will learn a great deal.

Locate multicultural literary authors in your local library and read some of their novels or autobiographies. Attend festivals and community sporting events with other ethnic groups.

Build up your family’s social network to include people of other cultures. Seek out a niche in your community to help and support diverse groups of people. Cultural awareness and inclusion is a process. Building new connections that are bridges into other communities is the work of an open heart without judgment or bias. It contributes to community health.

Mark Twain wrote, “I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me: he can’t be any worse.” Explore your new world full of interesting human beings.