Cultural Diversity Ewareness Essay

Many cultural differences abound in San Francisco’s educational institutions. The so many people of different races who live together in this side of the United Sates have quite a challenge trying to coexist because of their cultural differences occasioned by their differences in race, religion, gender, social status besides others. These differences pit the whites, Latinos, Caucasians, Black Americans and the physically challenged against each other in their day to day activities whether it is in the educational institutions, in church or in several other social organizations. A case in study here is the educational institution set up where these differences are so common they threaten to get out of control. All these groups live in a state of denial because they are not able to appreciate their cultural differences. Stereotyping coupled with worrying levels of intolerance has adversely affected social order in campuses since no one group is prepared to accept what they see as an act meant to devalue them from from an otherwise well- meaning different racial group. This has resulted in near total communication breakdown. One needs to be well acquainted with the several differences in the cultures of these students so as to be able to coexist without these unnecessary conflicts (Paul et al 1967). Black Americans and students from foreign countries mainly from Africa, Latin America and some Asian countries have most of the time had the going tough due to racial profiling. Discrimination is meted against them and their response is denial and defencse. A few respond to this challenge using minimization. Most cases of violent confrontations on many campuses in San Francisco are as a result of these differences which are more often than not ignored by the concerned authorities. Professionals handling students’ affairs should make every effort to infuse into students affairs work the needed skills that bring about multicultural competences, for example awareness and the knowledge together with the necessary skills so that the students can be able to work with fellow culturally different students in a way that bears meaning, relevance and productive ways (Pope, Reynolds & Mueller 2004). Cross-cultural communication is a big issue here as the different racial groups speak a language that sometimes has words that do not exist in the vocabulary of the others or words that bear different meanings and this presents a case of communication on cross-purposes and therefore conflicts are bound to be frequent. We are talking about slang, idioms and dialects that are not common to all. A student from outside the U. S. will not fully understand the meanings of many words used by their native college mates occasioning a breakdown in communication. This age-group has its own set of language that deviates from the common language, the only one they know and this brings misunderstandings among them posing a threat to communication. The physically challenged do not fare well in many socio-cultural settings due to heir disabilities. They are left to maneuver through the tight and difficult programs in the educational institutions on their own. The frustration resulting from these acts of abeism makes them react by way of misplaced aggression (Jaime 2004). To this, they respond by coiling to a corner to give the strong way, and so do some female students. College youth has serious intolerance for some religions especially Islam. Most of them in this region few and associate it with terrorism, which is a very harsh term to a fellow student, but still they cannot avoid using it against students from some Asian countries or those from a similar origin. Counseling needs to be given priority in resolving these various differences and biases. REFERENCES Jaime, (2004). Toward Multiculturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education; Newton, Ma, Intellectual Resource Corporation. Paul et al, (1967). Pragmatics of Human Communication: A History of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes. New York, W. W. Norton. Pope, Reynolds and Mueller, (2004). Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs; San Francisco, CA.