Importance of Recognizing Cultural Differences Essay

Culture is defined as a community of people who share common experiences that are vital to understanding the world at large. In short, culture can influence people negatively or positively in aspects of their views, humor, values, loyalties and even hopes. In this case, it is important for one to create a relationship with people from other cultures to have a clear understanding of their beliefs and way of life. The importance of this relationship prevents cultural prejudice that occurs due to misunderstandings. In chapter 43, Hirsi Ali talks about the Modern clash of cultures through the image of the Western society and the Muslims. The fact that the Westerners do not approve most of the Muslim beliefs makes it hard for the issue of cultural difference to be done away with. In the real sense, the clash between these two groups does not imply that a certain culture is right while the other one is wrong. It is only important that both the Muslims and the Westerners recognize the difference in their cultures and thus create an ample way of creating a cultural correlation. The importance of this fact is that recognizing cultural differences reduces the pressure of superiority of certain groups over others. The Western culture is different from the Muslim culture; therefore the act of integrating the two societies may be hard but only possible if the Western society can stop denouncing values and standards of Muslims.

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Discursively, once cultural difference helps to minimize discrimination among diverse groups. For instance, the fact that the Western society has made it mandatory for immigrants to learn and even adapt to their values and standards makes the immigrant culture to feel disadvantaged. When a certain culture is made to adopt new beliefs and values of the host culture, this makes them feel like their traditional customs from their community is considered less important and the reason for the change. Failing to adapt to the customs of another culture does not imply prejudice provided there is respect and relations. However what is needed is that the superior cultures like the Western society should not force the Muslims to adapt to their way of living but rather should help them learn new values that can be added to their traditional customs hence cultural development. For instance, Muslims believe in polygamous marriage because of their pride in having many sons, a fact that is opposite to the Western culture which emphasizes on monogamy. In this context, without understanding the reasons behind the Muslims' value of marrying many wives, it is easy to make judgments on how wrong the Muslim culture is. Arguably, understanding the array of cultural differences in modern world leads to a community that values individuals and not their cultural symbols, ideas, knowledge and traditional. Cultural expression of most people may vary depending on their traditional way of thinking.

Conclusion

However, once we understand that we all are human with brains to reason and make concrete decisions, then there is a high chance of promoting social control (Hirsi, 2006). It implies that people can freely interact and relate to each other despite their cultural differences, hence ability to work together to promote a reliable economy. However, if people fail to accept the fact that every culture has its customs, then the issue of racism is in no place of being extinguished both in places of work and other areas. For instance, if a boss is not familiar with the beliefs and traditions of those employees that are from a different culture, then he or she can look down on them and fail to realize their ability and contributions in the organization. The fact implies that a successful company is that which respects every individual's culture and that the leader puts aside the standards of his or her culture to embrace the organizational values that are balanced and treats each employee in a fair manner.

References

Hirsi Ali, A. (2006). The caged virgin.