The “olden days” of diversity training started with “the other.” It assumed a majority culture norm, and defined everyone else in contrast to the norm. “This group behaves this way. This group behaves that way.”
The anthropological approach gives each group ‘hegemony,’ the power to exist in its own right. It recognizes the inherent value that multiple perspectives bring to probelm solving and innovation.
The idea is to know thyself first, then observe, participate, interact, to know ‘the other.’ It’s like being an ethnographer studying yourself–being keenly aware of how you communicate (as an individual or business), revealing your unconscios bias, being sensitive to how others react to you, and fine tuning your messages accordingly, with the ultimate goal to create multicultural marketing that doesn’t perpetuate stereotypes.
Do you know your own communication style? How do you define your own cultural identity? If you are white, do you identify culturally that way?
