In our awakening awareness that knowledge of other cultures is not just politically correct, but also a functional necessity in today’s increasingly pluralistic and complex world, we are being bombarded with images of culture clashes of many sorts. We are all familiar with the photo-journalist or National Geographic image of cultural clashes. They are stunning and graphic images, but generally far enough removed from our daily reality to dismiss them as having little direct impact on us.
But what of the culture clashes right under our own noses? What of the African American medical receptionist who mutters digustedly in front of the Spanish-speaking patient, “Why can’t these people learn to speak English?”, or the White Evangelical who fulminates about the need to prevent “demonic” Shari’a law from infiltrating local, state and national government (as if there were a credible possibility of such an infiltration); or the Korean landlord who evicts his African American tenant for a late payment, but allows an extension to the Korean tenant who is late; or the Roman Catholic who dismisses the Evangelical’s faith as not “a true religion”. List goes on and on.
The American landscape of presidential electoral politics makes our cultural differences stand out in high relief, each candidate playing to one or more of our cultures. Though we may be “one nation under God”, the politicians are banking on us not, in fact, being “indivisible”as a strategy of divide and conquer. Moreover, we are witnessing the extraordinary spectacle of the Republican candidates revealing, largely unintentionally, subcultures of anti-intellectualism; sexism; preppie elitism; Washington insiderism. Ron Paul’s “tough love” approach to letting the uninsured die; Michelle Bachman’s homophobia, and delusional promises of $2 a gallon gasoline; Rick Perry’s “hang ‘em high” approach to executing criminals…. are indications of specific cultural biases.
Contrary to the doctrine of political opportunism (which seeks to appeal to all constituents by abandoning principles, scruples, wisdom or facts at their convenience for the sake of a vote), understanding another’s culture does not require emulating it. Sometimes such understanding results in both insight and empathy- but it can also result in a clarity that the other culture is NOT something worthy of emulation. This is where the “feel good” approach to promoting or celebrating our hoped for unity cedes to a non-judgmental awareness that, though we may all be one on some level of higher truth, we are not all the same- nor should we be. Our differences may help us make choices and decisions that can significantly alter the course of events, and create a more just society freed from the cultures of corruption, greed, and narcissism. We should never feel like victims of culture, for we have the power to both understand and reshape it.
