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Diversity Exploration #4: The Challenge to Culturally Self-Authorize

Goals
: To help individuals authorize their own meanings and standards, with awareness of their enculturation, rather than be ethnocentrically bound to received cultural perspectives.

Walt Whitman, the 19th century American writer, wrote, in his poem Leaves of Grass:

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church [or at home] or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.

This quote might be interpreted as asking individuals to create a self that can choose the cultural elements it wishes to claim for itself, as much as that is possible. Whitman encourages individuals, in a sense, to have a self-authorized (Kegan, 1982) vision of what they believe and value, and how they act, a vision based on careful consideration of what matters to them, a vision that is separate from the supposed “givens” of culture. In this vision of the self-authorizing person, all cultural conventions are treated as social constructions, that is, creations of a community at a particular time and place. Conventions are thus examined for their origins in and use for a particular historical, political, or cultural context. In the process of such examination, we can ask these questions of our assumptions, values, beliefs, and behaviors: Do they still work? Do they help? Whom do they serve? What shall I discard and/or reclaim? What new, more multicultural perspectives might I take?

In order to claim, or reclaim, your cultural givens, and perhaps move closer to self-authorizing them, try this activity. In all, it will take several months of searching, questioning, and reexamining for most of you to engage in more complete self-authorization in all areas. But you can begin here.

1. In the chart below, in Column I, name one belief, “truth,” standard, manner, custom, or behavior that you have been taught (e.g., in school, at home, through religion) for each category. Review this list and jot down ideas of your received norms around any of the following: courtesy, personal space, facial expressions, patterns of handling emotions, notions of modesty, concept of beauty, tone of voice, concept of cleanliness, definitions of obscenity, care for elders, music, food, language, interpersonal behavior, manners, family structures and behaviors, career, patriotism, loyalties, the good life, material goods, the importance of work versus leisure. Scan this list for specific beliefs and assumptions that you learned from your culture. You will also use the six cultural group memberships of race, ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, and religion as stimuli for thinking about beliefs and behaviors you have inherited. Take a risk: name some strong, deeply held beliefs or assumptions (e.g., “Gay and lesbian people are somehow odd and unnatural,” “The only courageous stance is to be an atheist”) that you hold absolutely about how things should be or about what is true and right.

2. Then, in Column II, write an alternative behavior, custom, or belief, one that challenges the inherited one (e.g., “The gay and lesbian sexual orientation is natural, and I support and appreciate the presence of gay and lesbian people in our community”; “Agnosticism is not the only viable or valuable belief system; belief in God is important for many people and can be a positive force”).

3. Next, review each initial inherited belief and each alternative belief, and in Column III, name your current view, which can be different from or the same as your inherited view.

4. In Column IV, name the basis for your current view. That might be simply, “I was raised this way” or “I met people who . . . and I thought . . .” or “I experience . . . and read . . .” Remember, you need not necessarily reject cultural customs; you can instead reclaim them in a more intentional way, perhaps more generally as principles, not as rigid rules. Also, more fully reconsidering inherited conventions does not necessarily occur in the short time it takes to do this exercise. Consider this to be the beginning of a self-authorizing way of knowing.

5. In Column V, reflect on doing these activities. Jot down some notes on what thoughts and feelings come up for you as you consider these experiences and perceptions.

Column I

Column II

Column III

Column IV

Column V

Inherited/learned beliefs/customs

Alternate position (an alternative behavior, custom, or belief, one that is different from and challenges the inherited one)

Current view

Basis for your current view (how you came to it)

Reflections on doing this activity

Received norms.

manners, personal space, definitions of obscenity, notions of modesty, care for elders, etc.

Race/Ethnicity. What I was taught about race or ethnicity, including particular groups (e.g., characteristics of groups)

Religion.

What I was taught about religion/spirituality (e.g., divinity, sin, morality, afterlife)

Sexual Orientation. What I was taught about sexual orientation (e.g., homosexuality, bisexuality)

Gender. What I was taught about gender (e.g., roles, rules, parenting, sexual behavior, transgender)

Source:
Culturally Alert Counseling
, McAuliffe and Associates, 2013.