The United States’ social and cultural journey toward desegregation has always centered on removing and preventing segregation by changing systems. A simultaneous need for the US has also been to desegregate the individual from the racial hierarchy that permitted systems of segregation. More specifically, desegregating ourselves from racial hierarchy must involve tackling Whiteness as an ideology. My use of the word Whiteness, in contrast to White, is to signify an ideological system in which a White racial and at times ethno-racial identification is utilized as the norm or standard and framed as superior to non-White identities. The ideology of Whiteness invokes a diminishment of non-White identities and cultures that plays out in multiple ways, such as devaluation, stereotyping, discrimination, and segregation. It manifests itself across our institutions, including education, banking, housing, and workplaces. The process of desegregating ourselves invites us to consider the cross-cultural skills that we need to practice in order to diminish the presence of Whiteness ideology.
The ideology of Whiteness invokes a diminishment of non-White identities and cultures that plays out in multiple ways, such as devaluation, stereotyping, discrimination, and segregation.
Let’s start with the first component of cross-cultural knowledge and skills: psychological and emotional well-being. In other words, each person must reflect on their cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability, and flexibility when interacting with different people (van der Zee & van Oudenhoven, 2000). Such skills appear in the ability to listen to and experience cultures that differ from our own with a disposition of “This is a new experience of learning.” In particular, we must not assess the new experience as less than or of an inferior status than our own cultural custom. For instance, when visiting another country and observing that driving occurs on the opposite side of the road than we may be accustomed to, we must have cultural empathy for this new experience of driving versus having the view of cultural diminishment in which we think, “Why do they drive on the wrong side of the street?” The trait of cultural diminishment is of significance because Whiteness ideology utilizes colorblindness, deficit thinking, and poverty disciplining mindsets to enact diminishment.
We can think of the second component of cross-cultural competence as the skills necessary to be cross-cultural: the ability to fit into new environments. In other words, the ways we talk, behave, and interact in social situations such as school can enhance the comfort and malleability of development.
Some examples of cross-cultural skills (Rasmussen & Sieck, 2015)include:
- reflecting and seeking feedback on intercultural encounters,
- developing reliable information sources on cultures,
- learning about cultures,
- engaging in disciplined self-presentation (i.e., paying attention to how one’s cultural presentations are layered with Whiteness),
- coping with cultural surprises,
- taking perspectives of others, and
- understanding oneself in cultural contexts
These types of skills are valuable for developing cross-cultural competency. However, it cannot be overemphasized how this competency requires a nurturing environment. In other words, we need to understand how to develop these skills when we may live in a segregated neighborhood, work in a segregated school environment, remain surrounded by other individuals not keen on developing cross-cultural skills, or work for district or school leadership sporadic in prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Rasmussen and Sieck (2015) outlined a range of cross-cultural competencies that we can understand as skills and attitudes developed from intergroup experiences. Let’s talk through these skills and attitudes in our everyday lived experiences.
- Diplomatic Mindset: This domain refers to a person’s understanding that intercultural interactions or relationships can have a personal and/or work-related benefit. For instance, the diplomatic mindset of a teacher approaching an intercultural interaction with parents of students who speak a different language would involve them learning phrases from the parents’ language. The teacher gains cultural insight as well as social capital by investing in the expansion of their own cross-cultural tool kit.
- Cultural Reasoning: This domain refers to a person’s ability to make sense of culturally different experiences such as encountering how various groups celebrate different holidays, drive on different sides of the road, and dress in different styles. In school settings, cultural reasoning is an important skill for understanding student misbehaviors, interacting with parents who speak a language other than English, visiting the home of a student, and so on. To put the skill in practice, we need to reach a level of perspective-taking that allows us to develop the cross-cultural ability to understand something from a different cultural seat than our own.
- Intercultural Interaction: This domain refers to a person’s ability to communicate and interact with individuals who identify differently than themselves through a disciplined manner. That is, if you walk into a mosque, you follow the cultural customs of removing your shoes. If you enter a Catholic church during mass, you follow the custom of silence. This skill requires at least a cursory level of cultural knowledge not steeped in stereotype to guide the intercultural interaction.
- Cultural Learning: This domain refers to a person’s ability to gather new cultural knowledge and put it to use within social interactions and work-related tasks. The gathering process involves relying on credible sources and maintaining an understanding of self within that exploration. That means, if interested in learning about cowboy culture, preparing yourself to visit a cowboy ranch to learn about their cultural customs and ask questions steeped in curiosity rather than stereotype. Instead of asking “Is it true that…” say, “I’m interested in learning more about . . .” In schools, cultural learning skills among educators involve understanding that adding a new volume of “culturally diverse” books requires the educator to maintain cultural knowledge regarding the topic or theme. For example, reading The Hate U Give (Thomas, 2017) requires cultural knowledge about policing and its history within Black communities.
These skills and competencies are important to explore in our personal lives, and Desegregate Ourselves provides tools to help you consider how these skills currently exist and are absent in your life.
