Being Multicultural

I feel like writing a bit about multiculturalism, so here it is. I personally believe that being multicultural is about being able to adapt to, respect, honor, value, and really be well, yourself. What that means is that you don’t necessarily have to “be” or “identify” as any one culture, but rather, you have to see the connections and similarities (and also be aware of the differences) that exist within various societies.

Now, a note on societies. There are millions, bajillions, gazillions. Societies cannot be grouped into general terms, as often is attempted with the use of nationalistic references. This means things like, you can’t say “all” Mexicans/Japanese/Ugandans/Americans/etc. are a certain way. Although there may be some consistency within these so called “societies” in nationalistic terms, I’m more concerned with the expressions of micro societies, i.e., the societies that exist within these nationalistic (or worldwide rather) terms.

Okay, what the hell do I mean then? Being multicultural isn’t about tokenizing people. It isn’t about saying “Japanese people are…” (which can occur a lot for “foreigners” in Japan, both by foreigners themselves and by actual Japanese people). It’s a little less complicated (ironically) than that. Being multicultural is about adaptation, developing understanding, and essentially simply about existing. Essentially, being multicultural isn’t about being “cultural” in the token sense at all, but is about using one’s knowledge and background to interact with those from different backgrounds from you, which is in essence every single other person.

Many times, folks think, or believe that because they’ve traveled (usually on a tour group) that they are now suddenly more worldly, can make huge assumptions about different cultures, and essentially have experienced a ton. While I’m not downplaying the importance of getting out there and seeing the world for oneself, which I am very much an advocate for, I am saying that there is a big difference between traveling somewhere for a bit and “experiencing” a culture, and actually living and being a member of a society.

But let me state something important: you don’t have to have lived in many other places and speak many other languages to be multicultural. In fact, down the line, I’ve met many “world” travelers who are stubborn proponents of their own views and find other places just to be so “odd” and not the way things should be done (this is quite unfortunate), and believing that their culture and way of life is the “better” way. Next point: being multicultural IS a framework of thinking, it is more than a few hours in an elective course every week, it IS a way of life, it IS life itself.

I have met some awesome multicultural people who have not done a huge mass of travel and living overseas. This has to do with the fact that these people actively 1) look for similarities between people and try to focus on how we can all work together and 2) are cognizant of the seemingly stark differences in cultures, yet value these differences as unique ways of living and respect the fact that there is more than one way to doing things and that essentially, there are many different “right” ways to accomplish anything. This is what being multicultural is all about.

So, stepping away from the tokens and stating broadly that “__ people are all __” helps us see that folks around the world are indeed all in the same boat. It’s better to state “well in my experience, I learned that SOME __ people do/are/etc __.” Changing our language and points of references when we refer to our own experiences is crucial in understanding that indeed we are unique and that indeed we all need to work together for the sake of our own peopleness. Actual cultural expressions, languages, ways of life, foods, etc. are simply just conveniences. The multiple expressions pay homage to the beauty of peoplekind’s ingenuity, our incredible resilience to the world around us, and an immense potential to adapt to our circumstances and utilize the resources around us. Now if we could only get some more multiculturalism and cross cultural connections going at a better pace, then maybe we can start figuring out better solutions to our problems, maybe we can learn how to value those that are different than us, and perhaps we may even learn how to respect and utilize the uniqueness of every individual.