[Music]
nameste perhaps you’re wondering why i
just greeted you with a bow a curtsy and
a namaste welcome as many are aware in
other countries cultures and social
engagements these gestures would be
accepted and even expected when meeting
someone were ending an encounter the bow
used in East Asian countries such as
China Japan and Thailand is often
commonly used at the beginning and
ending of a martial arts competition the
curtsy would be the appropriate gesture
if a lady had the opportunity to meet
the Queen of England and also for
dancers to say thank you to an audience
at the end of their performance the
namaste welcome is used in the Hindu
culture and religion and also at the end
of a common yoga class and it literally
translates to the divine in me vows to
the divine in you these gestures
highlight the concept of humility
literally being able to bow to the
culture persona and the position of
someone else yet for many of us
Americans that is we would struggle with
the concept of humbling ourselves we
would not go as far as to say I’m
superior but we definitely don’t believe
that we’re less than so it begs the
question that if I humble myself in my
by default saying that I’m less than or
giving power to someone else allow me to
offer you a counter perspective this
evening let’s think about the physical
posture of being able to bow and curtsey
it actually takes physical
strength in one’s back and knees to be
able to do such even for me I would have
to have a good weather day
not including today where the twins good
old Arthur and writers don’t bother me
to be able to do a proper curtsy thus to
yield to the concept of cultural
humility means that you are so self
aware that it’s okay to have the
introduction of another culture someone
else’s viewpoint because you’re gonna be
grounded in who you are in retrospect I
find that I had one of my greatest
humility experiences during my senior
year of high school the spring of 1992 I
know I don’t look that old anyway so I
was attending at the Indiana Academy for
mathematics science and humanities this
is a special boarding school for
academically gifted juniors and seniors
and due to our advanced curriculum and
our college prep focus we were offered
foreign language courses not typical to
high schools at that time such as
Russian German Japanese and Chinese me
being Who I am I figured if a quarter of
the world will speak in Chinese I need
it to be in the majority
so after nearly two years and learning
almost 300 plus characters our teacher
decided that we needed to have a true
cultural immersion experience and by the
way that’s enough characters to actually
be conversational so I know what you’re
thinking we went to China no school
didn’t have that kind of money but she
gave us the next best opportunity to our
rural Indiana location Chinatown in
Chicago
there you go my classmates and I were
extremely excited the opportunity to use
Mandarin for the first time with native
speakers so we spent most of the day
walking around town buying souvenirs of
course and taking in the sights
finally we decided to have a little
lunch and eat what we thought was pretty
authentic China’s food we sit down at
the restaurant we opened the menu and
we’re excited we can actually read most
of the characters one by one my class
may start to order their meals and the
waitress you can tell that she was
impressed through her smile and even a
slight bow I was the last one to place
my order trying to give myself more time
to get my words together but I got a
very different response after only three
or four words the waitress literally
takes off running to the back of the
restaurant I look at my teacher and I
ask her did I say something wrong for
those who don’t know Chinese is a tonal
language therefore the meaning of a word
changes based on one of the four tones
she assured me that my Chinese was fine
had no idea why the woman ran off just
as we were finishing our conversation
the waitress comes back with what
appears to be the entire kitchen staff
and she says to me a Mandarin to speak
again and so I finished placing my order
I can tell by the huge smiles and even
the head nods that that great mystery
had been revealed
perhaps they were used to white
Americans speaking their language but I
think I may have been the first black
person they ever saw speak Chinese as a
cultural diversity trainer I have
learned that this was truly one of my
greatest cultural humility experiences I
didn’t know then what I know now but I
have been spending about two years
yielding who I was as a black person
American and native English speaker to
learn and appreciate the culture history
and language
of China I wanted so desperately to be a
part and to be immersed in this
wonderful culture and so we have this
concept that I realized that was really
the pinnacle moment for me the kitchen
staff or the restaurant staff was
impressed perhaps even honored that we
as Outsiders had learned their language
and I was trying so desperately to give
it right I wanted to pay honor to the
coat the country and the culture and the
language that I had become so fond of
and so this type of cultural surrender
and the increasing multicultural
diversity in our society I believe is
the foundation that led doctors Melanie
turbot loin and Jan Marie Garcia to
develop the concept of cultural humility
in 1998 these physicians were looking to
develop a concept and a model that would
be an extension or go beyond the
limitations of cultural competency but
yet create a cultural framework that
would help them to better serve their
patients essentially they realized
they’re the experts in medicine but not
the experts in culture of their patients
yet they understood fundamentally that
culture weighs heavily in someone’s
thoughts their beliefs their habits and
the choices that they will make for
their life you see cultural competency
is learned knowledge and also skillset
that you need to manage cross-cultural
relationships but it actually can have
some shortcomings and cause prejudice
because the focus is heavily on what you
learn and not necessarily looking at and
evaluating your own personal experiences
thus cultural humility was created to be
a process oriented approach that takes
into consideration who you are your
experiences how you live the world how
you view the world through your own
identities
let’s take me for an example this
evening
I see the world through my lens of being
a black woman who’s Christian middle
class and heterosexual to name a few
as a cultural diversity trainer I’ve
used the concept of cultural competency
for many many years but I see cultural
humility as an evolution of that work
not to say that cultural competency is
bad but just that now we’ve taken it
another step and so what we’ve done is
have that focus on who we are and then
also being able to value what others
bring to the proverbial table and so
let’s evaluate these two schools of
thought tonight cultural competency
suggests that learning is finite which
means I can take a course I can take a
workshop and learn about a group of
people so you may have someone say hey I
understand mexican-americans in their
culture prior to my teaching in Houston
Texas
I took a cultural diversity workshop
where as cultural humility says that
learning is infinite we are lifelong
learners who must critically self
evaluate we must look at who we are what
we believe and why based on our own
experiences and so I had the opportunity
a couple years ago to do a follow-up
training to an organization I had worked
with previously actually right here in
Westchester and at these day-long
retreats you know we normally have food
nice little potluck everybody brings
something and so there was a gentleman
who brought a dish which I fell in love
with I think I probably had two plates
anyway so um and what happened I saw him
and I said hey did your wife make that
dish that she made the last time y’all
already know
he said my wife didn’t make that I did
and I thought oh my goodness how have I
slipped into this gender norm I
immediately apologized and then I used
it as a teachable moment for our
training session but this is why it is
so important to critically reflect and
constantly self evaluate even for me as
a trainer what happened
I was so influenced by social norms that
I slipped right into one myself even
when I know what is culturally
inappropriate number two cultural
competency says that is concerned with
book and learned knowledge and that that
has power which would mean that my
certification as a diversity trainer
takes precedence over my entire life
experience of working with diverse
cultures cultural humility on the other
hand seeks to fix and challenge those
power imbalances recognizing yes who you
are but that we have to see everyone as
a complex multi-dimensional being who
brings to the table their experiences
their culture and their heritage and
this is demonstrated in the formation of
a pearl so you have a little granule of
sand who loses his way from his friends
ends up slipping into it Easter it’s all
of a sudden afraid and scared this is a
big foreign place and I don’t know where
my people are the oyster is saying hey
what’s going on your and they’re moving
around and I’m starting to itch so it
does what it I call the shimmy shake and
it starts to release this neck tar this
has two purposes one it coats that
granular sand providing a tight covering
making it feel a little bit more secure
in this big foreign place but it also
stops the irritation because it no
longer feels the little granule of sand
moving around and so essentially what
happens is the oyster
sandé they learn how to coexist they
share their power and they create
something of beauty a pearl finally
cultural competency is concerned with
self-advocacy where we might have a
woman for instance who uses her personal
connections to help elevate her career
instead of using the resources before
her to help all of the women in her
organization to collectively break the
glass ceiling cultural humility then
says no we want you to aspire to have
partnerships so that you can learn about
not only a group of people but to be
able to advocate for them as well
realizing that we do not live in this
diverse world alone and that we need
everybody to be there and so we saw this
recently in the last couple of months
with all of the instances of devastation
we had the hurricanes that plagued
Houston Miami the Caribbean in Puerto
Rico leaving thousands in waist-deep
waters no power completely destroyed
homes in all of their material
possessions then you’ll remember the
hundreds of people running for their
lives when all they were trying to do
was enjoy a concert in Las Vegas or the
complete neighborhoods burned down
leaving thousands homeless in Northern
California and even this week a small
Baptist Church in Texas a mass shooting
leaving 26 dead some of you right now
are fighting back the tears and the
overwhelming sense of emotion even as we
recall these events but one thing that I
want you to see and remember was all the
images on television and in the social
media of people doing whatever it took
to save someone else in those moments
their race ethnicity socioeconomic
status political affiliation and
religion did not matter
it was the Humana
of man that shined bright and cost
someone to risk their life for someone
else
there’s even an image that stands very
close in my mind that I love and it’s of
an older white woman’s face being held
in the hands of a black woman and I
would like to think that she’s saying to
her we will get through this together
and so you see I offer you the
opportunity to take the road to cultural
humility to position yourself and humble
yourself so that you can learn best from
others as you do this I hope that you
will do the three things that we talked
about that you will one consider that
learning is a lifelong process
take your seat in that classroom be
willing to learn from one another while
sharing of yourself I hope that you will
do whatever is possible in in your power
to shift and challenge those power
imbalances in a way that allows us to
live communally together in our diverse
society and then finally to be able to
advocate and partner with others in a
way that we charge our systems and
institutions to level the playing field
so that equity becomes the norm and
humanity is our most important identity
namaste
[Applause]
[Music]
you
nameste perhaps you’re wondering why i
just greeted you with a bow a curtsy and
a namaste welcome as many are aware in
other countries cultures and social
engagements these gestures would be
accepted and even expected when meeting
someone were ending an encounter the bow
used in East Asian countries such as
China Japan and Thailand is often
commonly used at the beginning and
ending of a martial arts competition the
curtsy would be the appropriate gesture
if a lady had the opportunity to meet
the Queen of England and also for
dancers to say thank you to an audience
at the end of their performance the
namaste welcome is used in the Hindu
culture and religion and also at the end
of a common yoga class and it literally
translates to the divine in me vows to
the divine in you these gestures
highlight the concept of humility
literally being able to bow to the
culture persona and the position of
someone else yet for many of us
Americans that is we would struggle with
the concept of humbling ourselves we
would not go as far as to say I’m
superior but we definitely don’t believe
that we’re less than so it begs the
question that if I humble myself in my
by default saying that I’m less than or
giving power to someone else allow me to
offer you a counter perspective this
evening let’s think about the physical
posture of being able to bow and curtsey
it actually takes physical
strength in one’s back and knees to be
able to do such even for me I would have
to have a good weather day
not including today where the twins good
old Arthur and writers don’t bother me
to be able to do a proper curtsy thus to
yield to the concept of cultural
humility means that you are so self
aware that it’s okay to have the
introduction of another culture someone
else’s viewpoint because you’re gonna be
grounded in who you are in retrospect I
find that I had one of my greatest
humility experiences during my senior
year of high school the spring of 1992 I
know I don’t look that old anyway so I
was attending at the Indiana Academy for
mathematics science and humanities this
is a special boarding school for
academically gifted juniors and seniors
and due to our advanced curriculum and
our college prep focus we were offered
foreign language courses not typical to
high schools at that time such as
Russian German Japanese and Chinese me
being Who I am I figured if a quarter of
the world will speak in Chinese I need
it to be in the majority
so after nearly two years and learning
almost 300 plus characters our teacher
decided that we needed to have a true
cultural immersion experience and by the
way that’s enough characters to actually
be conversational so I know what you’re
thinking we went to China no school
didn’t have that kind of money but she
gave us the next best opportunity to our
rural Indiana location Chinatown in
Chicago
there you go my classmates and I were
extremely excited the opportunity to use
Mandarin for the first time with native
speakers so we spent most of the day
walking around town buying souvenirs of
course and taking in the sights
finally we decided to have a little
lunch and eat what we thought was pretty
authentic China’s food we sit down at
the restaurant we opened the menu and
we’re excited we can actually read most
of the characters one by one my class
may start to order their meals and the
waitress you can tell that she was
impressed through her smile and even a
slight bow I was the last one to place
my order trying to give myself more time
to get my words together but I got a
very different response after only three
or four words the waitress literally
takes off running to the back of the
restaurant I look at my teacher and I
ask her did I say something wrong for
those who don’t know Chinese is a tonal
language therefore the meaning of a word
changes based on one of the four tones
she assured me that my Chinese was fine
had no idea why the woman ran off just
as we were finishing our conversation
the waitress comes back with what
appears to be the entire kitchen staff
and she says to me a Mandarin to speak
again and so I finished placing my order
I can tell by the huge smiles and even
the head nods that that great mystery
had been revealed
perhaps they were used to white
Americans speaking their language but I
think I may have been the first black
person they ever saw speak Chinese as a
cultural diversity trainer I have
learned that this was truly one of my
greatest cultural humility experiences I
didn’t know then what I know now but I
have been spending about two years
yielding who I was as a black person
American and native English speaker to
learn and appreciate the culture history
and language
of China I wanted so desperately to be a
part and to be immersed in this
wonderful culture and so we have this
concept that I realized that was really
the pinnacle moment for me the kitchen
staff or the restaurant staff was
impressed perhaps even honored that we
as Outsiders had learned their language
and I was trying so desperately to give
it right I wanted to pay honor to the
coat the country and the culture and the
language that I had become so fond of
and so this type of cultural surrender
and the increasing multicultural
diversity in our society I believe is
the foundation that led doctors Melanie
turbot loin and Jan Marie Garcia to
develop the concept of cultural humility
in 1998 these physicians were looking to
develop a concept and a model that would
be an extension or go beyond the
limitations of cultural competency but
yet create a cultural framework that
would help them to better serve their
patients essentially they realized
they’re the experts in medicine but not
the experts in culture of their patients
yet they understood fundamentally that
culture weighs heavily in someone’s
thoughts their beliefs their habits and
the choices that they will make for
their life you see cultural competency
is learned knowledge and also skillset
that you need to manage cross-cultural
relationships but it actually can have
some shortcomings and cause prejudice
because the focus is heavily on what you
learn and not necessarily looking at and
evaluating your own personal experiences
thus cultural humility was created to be
a process oriented approach that takes
into consideration who you are your
experiences how you live the world how
you view the world through your own
identities
let’s take me for an example this
evening
I see the world through my lens of being
a black woman who’s Christian middle
class and heterosexual to name a few
as a cultural diversity trainer I’ve
used the concept of cultural competency
for many many years but I see cultural
humility as an evolution of that work
not to say that cultural competency is
bad but just that now we’ve taken it
another step and so what we’ve done is
have that focus on who we are and then
also being able to value what others
bring to the proverbial table and so
let’s evaluate these two schools of
thought tonight cultural competency
suggests that learning is finite which
means I can take a course I can take a
workshop and learn about a group of
people so you may have someone say hey I
understand mexican-americans in their
culture prior to my teaching in Houston
Texas
I took a cultural diversity workshop
where as cultural humility says that
learning is infinite we are lifelong
learners who must critically self
evaluate we must look at who we are what
we believe and why based on our own
experiences and so I had the opportunity
a couple years ago to do a follow-up
training to an organization I had worked
with previously actually right here in
Westchester and at these day-long
retreats you know we normally have food
nice little potluck everybody brings
something and so there was a gentleman
who brought a dish which I fell in love
with I think I probably had two plates
anyway so um and what happened I saw him
and I said hey did your wife make that
dish that she made the last time y’all
already know
he said my wife didn’t make that I did
and I thought oh my goodness how have I
slipped into this gender norm I
immediately apologized and then I used
it as a teachable moment for our
training session but this is why it is
so important to critically reflect and
constantly self evaluate even for me as
a trainer what happened
I was so influenced by social norms that
I slipped right into one myself even
when I know what is culturally
inappropriate number two cultural
competency says that is concerned with
book and learned knowledge and that that
has power which would mean that my
certification as a diversity trainer
takes precedence over my entire life
experience of working with diverse
cultures cultural humility on the other
hand seeks to fix and challenge those
power imbalances recognizing yes who you
are but that we have to see everyone as
a complex multi-dimensional being who
brings to the table their experiences
their culture and their heritage and
this is demonstrated in the formation of
a pearl so you have a little granule of
sand who loses his way from his friends
ends up slipping into it Easter it’s all
of a sudden afraid and scared this is a
big foreign place and I don’t know where
my people are the oyster is saying hey
what’s going on your and they’re moving
around and I’m starting to itch so it
does what it I call the shimmy shake and
it starts to release this neck tar this
has two purposes one it coats that
granular sand providing a tight covering
making it feel a little bit more secure
in this big foreign place but it also
stops the irritation because it no
longer feels the little granule of sand
moving around and so essentially what
happens is the oyster
sandé they learn how to coexist they
share their power and they create
something of beauty a pearl finally
cultural competency is concerned with
self-advocacy where we might have a
woman for instance who uses her personal
connections to help elevate her career
instead of using the resources before
her to help all of the women in her
organization to collectively break the
glass ceiling cultural humility then
says no we want you to aspire to have
partnerships so that you can learn about
not only a group of people but to be
able to advocate for them as well
realizing that we do not live in this
diverse world alone and that we need
everybody to be there and so we saw this
recently in the last couple of months
with all of the instances of devastation
we had the hurricanes that plagued
Houston Miami the Caribbean in Puerto
Rico leaving thousands in waist-deep
waters no power completely destroyed
homes in all of their material
possessions then you’ll remember the
hundreds of people running for their
lives when all they were trying to do
was enjoy a concert in Las Vegas or the
complete neighborhoods burned down
leaving thousands homeless in Northern
California and even this week a small
Baptist Church in Texas a mass shooting
leaving 26 dead some of you right now
are fighting back the tears and the
overwhelming sense of emotion even as we
recall these events but one thing that I
want you to see and remember was all the
images on television and in the social
media of people doing whatever it took
to save someone else in those moments
their race ethnicity socioeconomic
status political affiliation and
religion did not matter
it was the Humana
of man that shined bright and cost
someone to risk their life for someone
else
there’s even an image that stands very
close in my mind that I love and it’s of
an older white woman’s face being held
in the hands of a black woman and I
would like to think that she’s saying to
her we will get through this together
and so you see I offer you the
opportunity to take the road to cultural
humility to position yourself and humble
yourself so that you can learn best from
others as you do this I hope that you
will do the three things that we talked
about that you will one consider that
learning is a lifelong process
take your seat in that classroom be
willing to learn from one another while
sharing of yourself I hope that you will
do whatever is possible in in your power
to shift and challenge those power
imbalances in a way that allows us to
live communally together in our diverse
society and then finally to be able to
advocate and partner with others in a
way that we charge our systems and
institutions to level the playing field
so that equity becomes the norm and
humanity is our most important identity
namaste
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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