Importance Of Cultural Awareness

The film Hidden Figures is based on a true story and adapted from the book ‘Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race’ by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie is centered around a trio of African-American women who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and played an essential role in sending John Glenn to space amidst a burgeoning Space Race between the United States of America and Russia. Based in Hampton, Virginia in the 1960’s, film depicts the deep racism and sexism prevalent in the United States at that time. The film provides a glimpse of the stark realities that black women faced at the time. From the segregated bathrooms and

What I also found to be quite interesting and perhaps a weakness of the film, was the sense of performative racism that four of the main white characters utilize and how the makers of the film appeal to such a phenomenon through symbolisms as well. In the movie, there seems to be two main kinds of racism the characters exhibit, one of them being blatant racism and another being subtle racism through microaggressions. For example, Katherine experiences blatantly racist and misogynistic behavior from her coworkers, especially from Paul Stafford, the lead engineer (making groupthink much easier) and Ruth, the only other woman working in the office. On the other hand, Al Harrison and John Glenn appeal to the subtler sides of racism and performative white pity, Glenn going out of his way to shake the hands of the computers as the film attempted to paint a positive, “not-all-whites” picture of inclusion, acceptance and tolerance, a kind of racism that almost all of the white people in the film come to, by its end. Examples of this can be seen in scenes like the one in which Al Harrison smashes down the “coloreds” and “whites” restroom signs as if implying that doing so will abolish all racial inequalities with a couple of blows of blunt force. One could infer it seems, that paired with the groundbreaking stories of these three women, white people being decent human

Many Black women have conquered and overcame many biases barriers to perform a leading roles on #1 television shows in Hollywood, being rewarded for their performance and combining the reinforcement of the bias negativity of black women and the opposing of black women in Hollywood as well. During the early days of television entertainment, a “real black women” wasn’t able to participate in entertainment, but the image of a black women was present on shows.

Redefining Black Film by Mark A. Reid is the book I’ve selected for the mid-term reading report. This book is an eye opener learning experience as well as a beginning guide to understanding African American film, filmmaking, actor/actress and directors. Mark A. Reid discussed the challenges and obstacles African Americans faced during the turn of the century up and through the civil rights movement of the Sixties including the focus on feminism in black cultural production . Redefining Black Film fits in the history of filmmaking as it relates to the ground breaking movements of African Americans in film as well as production process. The acceptance by white society of African Americans in film was a major part of this book as African American

“The Negro Soldier” (1944) was a war propaganda film which was used to recruit African-Americans to the Army. It received such positive review that it was viewed by both white and black troops and eventually released to the public. It depicted African-Americans capable of well-respected, and previously white-restricted, .jobs like lawyers, doctors, musicians and other respected jobs. After the showing of “The Negro Soldier,” African Americans gained respected and prominent roles in films. It was due to “The Negro Soldier” that film makers realized that they could manipulate societal structure by using films.

I have scored well on both assessments which consider me to be a particularly cultural sensitive person. The cultural awareness assessment which I scored lower on was due to inexperience for some of the questions that were asked. Question one, for example, asked, "I listen to people from other cultures when they tell me how my culture affects them is one experience I have yet to encounter. I have always considered a person culture and briefs are fascinating in every fashion. Growing up in a very diverse environment allowed me the opportunity to interact with people of many different cultures, religions, beliefs, and practices. My personal experiences dealing with those of different culture different from my own does not equate to providing

Back during the time period following the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, television and film studios alike began trying to attract new audiences by “refusing to promote racial stereotypes” as was common in the past. For example, one such program, Julia, was centered around an African American Widow, her son, and their everyday lives in an integrated apartment building, with the titular character being portrayed as an intelligent, professional woman who “Deserved the Respect of her White

The topic of my paper concerns how particular movies reflected the views and progress of the Civil Rights/Black Power movement of the 60s. The two films that are being examined are Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and Nothing But A Man (1964). Both films feature African-American characters as more than subservient supporting cast members such as maids, and servants. It reflects America’s progressing social attitudes as a result of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Throughout this paper, I will argue that films like the aforementioned reflect America’s changing social attitudes about race around this time and work to incorporate and expose the African-American experience into the American film industry in a positive manner. In order to further prove my point, I will analyze the presence of African-Americans in film prior to the 1960s, in conjunction with the lack of civil rights at the time. Prior to this era, roles for Black people were extremely limited, and often served as menial and demeaning roles. As the Civil Rights Movement picks up steam, I will examine how the film industry naturally started to adjust its color barriers to accommodate society’s changing attitudes. Nothing But A Man was made in 1964, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, by a white man, but the film seems to have a heightened sensitivity to the injustices in America at that time. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a highly regarded film made in 1967 that sheds light on a

Cultural awareness: having an understanding and appreciation for different cultures as well as your own. Being culturally aware allows you gain more insight and increases your knowledge on the way of life in other countries. You get a different perspective and a better appreciation for other cultures thereby eliminating close-mindedness. (San Diego State University, n.d.)

According to Richardson (2012), in the cultural knowing framework of Pat Moran for a person to be able to develop cultural competence he/she must first engage in the four interconnected learning interactions which involve in the cultural experience. By using the four cultural knowing framework- Knowing About, knowing how, knowing why and knowing oneself- helps in guiding me through to my cultural exploration and cultural learning process. The knowing about interaction, involves the gathering of information and acquiring knowledge about a culture and comprehending the cultural information. The Knowing how interaction refers to have the ability to behave in a manner that is appropriate for the culture and experience the cultural practices. The knowing why interaction involves the developing of understanding of the beliefs, attitudes and perception that underlie all the aspect of the culture by analyzing personal cultural experience and compare it with their own perspective of their culture. And lastly the knowing oneself interactions refers to the ability to understand how your own culture affects their values, views, beliefs and reaction towards their experience in the new culture. With the use of this framework the cultural learning will leads to self-awareness and reflection of the

Cultural self-awareness is strongly linked to development of a cultural intelligence for a number of reasons. Thus, this essay will critically reflect on what cultural self-awareness is and its importance on how it develops ones cultural intelligence. Before we discuss about cultural self-awareness and cultural intelligence, it is important to understand what culture is and how it impacts on our society. Culture is a complex subject that can be defined in various ways.

As counselors, it is our professional responsibility to be aware of the biases we possess. In the context of diversity, and from the viewpoint of multicultural competence one must delve into the core of their individual value system. Upon acknowledgment, of one’s personal values, one embarks on a journey of self-discovery, a process which is essential. Through being cognizant of the lens through which one, views the world, can one recognize that each of our clients, despite their sociocultural, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity; they too observe the world through their lens. Therefore, it is the counselor's responsibility to recognize the differences that exist amid counselor and client, to assure the needs and values of the client are satisfied. In the end, an experienced counselor proceeds to broaden their cultural competency.

In this class I learned just how little of value black women are in most films. Throughout the majority of the films we watched, the black women in these films were shown as being either submissive wives or helpmates or overtly promiscuous. Even though they often were the ones to carry the plot, they were hardly ever shown as a leading role. In this class I learned that form and content are what makes a movies great. Audience’s reactions to the film also play a part in deeming a movie great. The audience’s reaction can allow a movie that is at best average make more money than the movie that was actually superior. I learned that what makes a great movie is not the amount of money that took to create it, as many of the films that were shown

Reading Steven Spielberg’s comments about his approach to the film, The Color Purple (one of my favorite books), was a nauseating testament to not only the advantages afforded to the white male in society, but the one who tells the stories that become history. Spielberg’s inability to acknowledge that this film was in fact about black people, particularly black women, who have a distinctive experience because of their black skin and gender, is an example of the need to decolonize the black narrative in Hollywood.

Cultural awareness is a useful base for human communication and constitutes the aptitude to become aware of what values, believes or perceptions are found within our culture. Culture awareness helps understand why things are done in a certain way and how we perceive other cultures and in what ways we are supposed to act when in a particular situation (Schein and Edgar, 13). Culture includes marriages, religion, music and dance, education, dressing, language among many other aspects.