Dealing with the real world you will see a lot of culture competence.

When I was
younger I did not know anything about diversity. It really wasnt until I came to Loyola and saw
all the many different cultures and realized that it was a lot to learn from different cultures. In
chapter 7 of Kiser he talks about diversity is not only about ethnicity and race; there is many
other aspects such as gender, socioeconomic status, age, sexual orientation and others. People
should be aware of dissimilar cultures and be able to respect them especially if you are working
in a human service field. Through my internship I have the opportunity to interact with different
groups on two different days out the week. On Tuesdays I work with 3 Caucasian boys and 1
Hispanic boy; their age ranges from 3 to 5; seeing their parents they all seem like they come
from middle class families but I cannot be too sure. On Thursday I work with an 8 year old
African American little boy; he comes from a single parent home and the mom works two jobs.
I know Kiser says The acceptance and respect that you convey through your interest in
their unique backgrounds contribute immeasurably toward developing a positive and productive
cross-cultural helping relationship (Kiser. 200). What he is saying is right but It is hard to not
show any judgment when you see somebody that is different from you. For example you may see
a family in a grocery store and the women are all wearing long dresses and look really religious.
It is hard not to stare and ask yourself why they are wearing long dresses but because your
beliefs may be different you have to respect them. You do not know their story or background so
you should not show any judgement
The first thing in cultural competence is being aware of your own culture and then you
can notice others. Once you become aware of your own culture, do not feel like your culture is
the only way to go that is known as ethnocentrism. Going into a Chinese person house and in
their culture they sit on the floor to eat; if you come into their house and decide you want to be
different and sit a chair that could be a sign of disrespect. It would not count against you if you
did not know but if you did but just going over their culture because you feel its wrong then that
is ethnocentrism. People will not get far in life if you are ethnocentric because you would not be
able to work with anyone if you think this way; that is why Kiser said In order to work
effectively with people from different culture, human service professionals must strive to
overcome ethnocentrism (205). In my internship it would not be smart to be ethnocentrism
because we are dealing with children from all types of background. It is easy to choose children
that have your same background culture and stick and work with them the whole time but that is
not right and could cause tension in the agency. The parents of the other kids would see that you
are showing favoritism and would not be happy their child is not receiving the same care. To
help out with ethnocentrism Kiser mentions the term bicultural which occurs when a person can
change their behavior to a certain culture as needed but still keeping their identity. This is

something everybody should have to not be offensive to other people culture; it is meaning to be
adaptable.
Kiser talks about power differential and how in the working field it is almost inevitable to
not have some power differential. However at my internship it is hard to say because of course
there is power differentials because our clients are children. It is not much you can really change
about that because the professionals have the power to help the clients and that is better that way.
I have notice that there are a lot of different levels at PDC such as interns, externs, social
workers, therapist, psychologist and more. You would think the higher the power the more
intimated you would be by them; I can honestly say that at PDC you do not see much power
differential, whether you are an intern or psychologist they show you equal treatment however
your responsibilities are different which makes sense (Exercise 7.7).
PDC is an agency that is all about community and togetherness. Not just with the clients
but with each other. They want to make everyone feel welcomed and embraces all cultures. My
first couple of days there I felt like everybody was very welcoming and introduced their self; all
the staff members seem like they all knew each other well and was a big happy family. During
lunch even if they are busy they would meet in the break room to warm up their food and chat
for a little bit. The expectations differed from my usual experience at my college because there
are a lot of students but not everybody is welcoming and at times it almost seems like a
competition between students. PDC culture was similar to my own culture or how I was raised
because I was raised to treat everybody with open arms no matter what and that is what PDC
believes in also (Exercise 7.8).
Diller talks about bias and cultural insensitivity in the work field in his article Bias in
Service Delivery. People may not know it but they maybe bias in certain situations; for instance
it depends on who is providing the care. Some people may have a bias of who is taking care of
them; it makes sense for a person to want somebody of the same ethnic background because they
believe that person will understand them better and wont treat them differently. A bad thing
being bias is that but doing so people may not be aware of but could lead to people having
attitude, not being treated properly or making sly or indirect insults. I have to admit that Diller is
correct from personal experience. As hard as it is to admit I have been bias before when being a
counselor for a day camp. There were two children, one African American little girl and a
Hispanic boy, they got into an altercation and came to me for help. They told me the situation
and I automatically took the girl side and told the little boy he was wrong. Looking back I was
bias because I could relate more to the girl than I could the boy. I should have got a fourth party
involved that was unbiased to make sure the problem got handle right. Now that I have grew up
and see the harm in being bias in some situation I can honestly say that we should do our best to
not be bias because it can be very dangerous.