Cultural tolerance is defined as the ability to accept and respect a selected culture, its norms, beliefs and rituals. The evolution of mixed cultural societies has given rise to multiculturalism, which identifies people from diverse beliefs and identities inhabiting a single area, such as New York City, as stated by the article on the Great American City website, named ‘Cultural Diversity in New York City.’ This article claims: ‘A recent U.S. Census Bureau report about NYC revealed an increasingly diverse and dynamic city with immigrants making up the majority of the residents in some neighborhoods.’ (GAC, 2019) Tolerance and peace are the other two variables of this research, which are very closely linked together. This is because peace can only be established when individuals around the world are able to tolerate one another. This is achievable in mixed cultural societies, because people from different regions live together in one place, and thus, need to be able to interact with and tolerate one another in order to survive.
In today’s world, stereotypes have become an issue adjuring to be solved and shed light upon. Cultural stereotypes have been set, whereby affecting a community’s reputation globally. The video on ‘Labels’ (Labels, 2019), broadly suggests the cultural issue we face nowadays, where people from a certain cultural background are labeled to be good or bad. This stereotype, in turn, creates a mindset, where the person from a specific society is perceived according to their cultural label, causing aggression and dispute amongst nations, as proven in the research by Tsukasa Teraguchi and Naoki Kugihara, named ‘Effects of Labeling.’(Research, 2019) This glaring issue compelled me to select the topic at hand, and research whether mixed cultural societies are the solution to these cultural stereotypes and disputes amongst nations.
I have opted for a secondary research, which contains both qualitative and quantitative information, source analysis, and possible solutions to the two main issues presented in my research question. I have taken cultural intolerance as the independent variable and cultural stereotype as the dependant variable. Both the identified issues are crucial and realities adjuring to be addressed, because ‘the history of civilization is a history of constant warfare, destruction, conquest and violence, and not prosperity, peace and development’, as written in the book by Prof. Emmanuel Agius called ‘Towards a culture of peace and tolerance.’ (IBCR, 2019)
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According to the Council of Europe’s article headed ‘Discrimination and Intolerance’ (COE, 2019) ‘Discrimination – in all its possible forms and expressions – is one of the most common forms of human rights violations and abuse.’ The source thus analyses the types of discrimination and its effect on society. A link is established between cultural discrimination and stereotype, as it states, ‘Discrimination and intolerance are often based on or justified by prejudice and stereotyping of people and social groups, consciously or unconsciously; they are an expression of prejudice in practice.’ Hence, it becomes clear that both these issues are strongly connected with one another, and very much prevalent all over the world. This is a strong source, as it covers all areas of study regarding the topic and adds to my knowledge. It is cited and well structured, which presents a positive impact about it. However, it is restricted to Europe only, and not the rest of the world, whereby we see that it is limited to the specific area only.
The Perception Institute (Perception, 2019) published an article headed ‘ Representation: Culture and Perception’, which talks about how media influences or shapes the attitude and overall interpretation of different cultural groups. Media content can be divided into two main categories: the first of which is news and the second is entertainment. Both of these prove to be highly influential in molding the mindset and actions of people. News channels use sensitization and exaggeration to inculcate a particular idea about the concerned group. The validity and reliability is lost, as false data is aired, whereby influencing thoughts and creating a deceptive image in one’s mind of a particular culture. An example given in this source aptly portrays this. ‘For example, black men and boys are systematically portrayed negatively in both news and entertainment programming. Many media images of black men are linked to criminality or poverty, and positive depictions are often limited to sports and music.
One study of local news coverage found that black people are disproportionately portrayed as criminals, while white people are more often shown as the victims of crime. Despite the reality that most crime happens between members of the same racial group, the media exaggerates the prevalence of black-on-white crime. Though these representations are factually inaccurate, they are often left unquestioned because they fall in line with prevailing cultural stereotypes’. The second faucet, i.e. entertainment plays a vital role, as it is the main agency of secondary socialization through which individuals learn social expectations, norms and values of not only their culture, but other cultures as well. Due to this, cultural intolerance and resentment is created within the society.
The National Institute of Biotechnology Information weighs the consequences of cultural bias and discrimination on young adults in a published research titled ‘Diversity and the Effects of Bias and Discrimination on Young Adults’ Health and Well-Being’, where a primary social experiment was conducted as the basis of the research. According to this, ‘the experience of being exposed to biased and discriminatory behavior has been characterized as a pervasive and normative stressor in the lives of people and can take a toll on adolescents and young adults, negatively affecting their future well-being.’ Hence, we see that there are many adverse effects of cultural discrimination and intolerance, which further highlights the importance of the issue. Mental health is affected, as said in this source, and therefore, people, particularly young adults are emotionally distressed when they face an intolerance and opposition towards their culture and are stereotyped.
As explained by an article (Frontiers in Psychology, 2019) published by the Frontiers of Psychology under the name of ‘the influence of stereotype threat on immigrants: review and meta-analysis’, highlights the consequences of cultural intolerance, primarily focusing on the lives of immigrants in various countries. As stated in this source, students who immigrate to study abroad are not able to perform due to their full abilities, mainly due to the fact that they are stereotyped because of the culture they belong to. The article talks about identity of these people getting effected, and the undue embarrassment they face. Upon analyzing this article, we see that it is an overall strong source, because it is up to date and examples have been given with relevant evidence to support the writer’s claim. However, an area that this source falls short in is that it revolves around the norms of psychology and not other fields of study.
A possible solution to these major issues is presented by the United Nations Human Rights Council (Human Rights, 2019), according to which awareness can be created amongst people to remove the distaste and intolerance towards cultures. When a mindset is altered, the stereotype will be removed automatically, and various cultures will be promoted and given the chance to flourish. Media representation can be molded by introducing more diversity of channels, which are controlled by the cultures themselves, thus false data may not be produced. Laws regarding media content should be reviewed to make it more neutral and unbiased towards different cultures, which are represented negatively.
Another course of action is multiculturalism, which would foster a sense of peace amongst people globally. Mixed cultural societies such as Dubai or New York are an example for this, as people of different cultural backgrounds come together in one place to live. Apart from promoting peace, multiculturalism also has other benefits. Students from different countries would have equal chance to study in prestigious universities, as the locals and life would be easier and much healthier, due to grudges not being kept against people from a certain culture. A mutual understanding develops amongst people, who become more open minded and accepting towards others. Furthermore, extremism would diminish when people of various cultural backgrounds would come together.
Multiple cultures, while working together would come to the conclusion that their pre-made and stereotypical opinions about certain cultures was not accurate, but, in reality, the culture is very different from what they expected. Cross-cultural competence will also be enhanced, and discrimination in the workplace, for example, will reduce. People will be able to think more open-mindedly, as well as be compassionate towards one another’s thoughts and feelings, as they would develop a sense of understanding and acceptance by living with one another. Consequently, globalization occurs due to improvement in technology. This means that people all around the world can interact with one another, hence all the questions and queries regarding diverse cultures are solved.
Upon reflection of my research report, I am able to gauge that I have learnt a lot while conducting this research. The basic concepts of stereotype, intolerance and discrimination were made clearer to me through the articles that I used as sources in my report. Problem solving skills were developed, as I brainstormed solutions to the two inter-linked issues. By taking a number of perspectives, I was able to open-mindedly think about not only the topic at hand, but also many other fields. Moreover, I believe that my report is a strong one, as is my argument. A weakness that I identified upon completing it was that I could have added more sources than I did, and a multimedia element would have given a boost to this research.
Reference List
(GAC, 2019) https://www.greatamericancountry.com/places/local-life/cultural-diversity-in-new-york-city
(Labels, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRzgCOUClOY
(Research, 2019) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672931/
(IBCR, 2019) http://www.ibcr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Towards-a-culture-of-tolerance-and-peace-1.pdf
(COE, 2019) https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/discrimination-and-intolerance
(Human Rights, 2019) http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/fight-against-discrimination/promoting-tolerance/
(Perception, 2019) https://perception.org/representation/ (Frontiers in Psychology) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4495554/
