Inisghts into Cultural Differences
I had my first insight into cultural differences and how they might be perceived when I brought home my Tupac Resurrection book. I asked my son to help me get my groceries out of the car and when he saw the Tupac book lying on the front seat, he asked me, with amazement in his voice..”What are you doing reading the Tupac book? Do you even know who he is? I told him I was reading it for a class assignment, which instantly had him draw the conclusion that my class was “awesome.” However, were it not for this assignment, I would NEVER have picked up this book – or looked at the video. Tupac’s type of music – or even what I thought he stood for is is not my thing.However, what I did get from reading the book were some real insights into growing up poor and growing up black during Tupac’s time as a child. His take on poverty is right on the mark – and the respect and love he showed for his mother was also on target. He put into words what a lot of people may feel, but cannot express. I strongly disagree with what he had to say about not having a full-time father or a man in his life when he was growing up. “You need a man to teach you how to be a man.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Tupac gave us an idea of what it is like to live in the downward spiral of poverty – and how his strong mother could become a drug addict. There is a culture of poverty and a culture of drug use and abuse. He, too, got involved with drugs – but his creative talents gave him a way out and a way to tell about what he saw. “As an artist, as a rapper. I’m gonna show the most graphic details of what I see in my community and hopefully they’ll stop it quick.”
(I got the book based on the video (or was it vice versa) from the public library when I could not find the video quickly at my neighborhood Hollywood Video.) Perhaps that is one indication of differences in cultures. I am used to borrowing books and videos for “free” from the public and/or university library system – it is a (cultural?) habit that I developed as a child and it has stuck with me. For those of you who are younger, I will remind you that those were the days when video stores did not exist (nor did videos) and books were meant to be borrowed not bought. I still think of libraries as one of the last, great bargains available to us in the
Over the past year, I have worked occasionally as a substitute teacher in the
In the context of these teenagers, culture is power. They speak a language (we) the adult elite don’t always understand. They adopt habits and dress styles that we don’t grasp either. It is a statement that keeps them (the youth) from feeling dominated by us (the adults or within the school system, the teachers and administrators
I do NOT like the dress style (pants that are falling down on the boys—skirts that aren’t there on the girls – piercings, tattooing, shaggy-looking hair (strange coming from a child of the 60s) or Mohawks. Am I becoming my parents – who might have had the same complaints about a teenage me?
I am also disturbed by the constant reliance on what I consider foul language. The language is not employed in conversations with adults (power relationships) but it is certainly bandied about as they talk with each other.
I am confronted with my limitations on accepting other cultural experiences almost every week when my younger son has band practice at our home – my son is the drummer – their music style (ska?) gives me a headache. But I am glad – as a parent – to have them in our home.
When it comes to interacting with people whose cultural background is different from my own, I am quite comfortable with Latinos – perhaps because I lived in Latin America myself for many years and feel a real affinity for the lifestyle, the broad culture and the focus, as our readings pointed out, on the present. I had more time for life and relationships there than I ever seem to have in this country. Would I return to living in another country if I could? In a heartbeat, and something I think about doing when my youngest son finishes high school two years from now
posted by Ronnie @ 12:22 PM
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