Multicultural Competence Summary

Article : Multicultural Competence by Paul Kivel
Cultural competence is to understand another culture well enough to be able to communicate and work with them. This article talks about cultural competency and how it is important to have cultural competence to be able to help people of minority groups and become allies with them. Learning to be open and sensitive to other cultural expression takes lot of time. In addition, for those who are able culturally competence in their own culture along with other cultures has a broader view of the world. They can also be better advocate to the need and help of those people and help those people find their own voices. However, the article says it is harder for white people to be multicultural competence because they are seen as the mainstream culture and are considered the culture in power. Since, it is taught that their values, form of government, literature, science and athletic accomplishment is the best of them all, above any other cultures. Hence,
The things learned from other cultures should not be use for profit, to insult or criticized, but should be used to better understand the community, group and families. Same for examples; thing such as their slang language, the way they do things, their religions, the things they eat, the way they parent their children, the way they show their respect their people, their music, their way of medicine, etc. Although, people can be of the same race and ethnicity, but they can still have different cultures; because some families and group of people hold different values, beliefs and traditions. Even though they may have more similarities than differences it is best not to categorize them as the same. As a result, information learned from one community and or group should not be generalized for all people who are of one race and