ETHICS

When I was a kid I never questioned anything of what my mom told me. Whenever she said something was “right” or  “wrong” I trusted and believed her utterly because after all I thought how could my mom ever be wrong. Lets just say since then things have changed. The one thing I’ll always appreciate though, is how she always stressed the difference between doing what is most commonly regarded as “the right and good thing to do” and what is most commonly regarded as “ the bad or wrong action to take”. She always emphasized never to lie, cheat, steal, and to avoid harming others at all costs. I always grew up with the golden rule “Do what you would want others to do to you”. My mom taught me never to lie; yet she never told me the gray areas of this rule. As a result, this caused me to tell people exactly what I thought of them and to what degree even when it was not particularly favorable. I remember a particular situation where my mom and I went to a meeting with my third grade teacher and she asked me how I was liking the class. Well, lets just say I didn’t have anything nice to say. My mom punished me soon after saying that I could not talk so bluntly to my teacher and tell her that I hated the class and critiqued her teaching skills but rather I should try to focus on the positive points she had. Nevertheless, she understood that I had not gotten that sugarcoating and lying were not the same thing and that sometimes it is better to say something nice or not say anything at all. The idea of personal beliefs and opinions again caused me trouble in fifth grade when I was in swimming class and the teacher was showing all of us how to dive. However, as a result of my mom constantly telling me all these stories of how people had dived into pools and broken their neck, or become paraplegic or suffered some sort of accident I refused to dive, causing my teacher to find me disrespectful and sending me to the principles office. My mom came in and talked to him about why she believed that kids shouldn’t dive into pools and as a result they agreed to disagree. Through these experiences and others, I have learned that although people may not agree with your beliefs, morals, ethics, etc it is key for people to be able to respect different perspectives.  I learned also through several awkward encounters that it is essential also to stay away from taboo topics such as sex, religion, politics, and instead keep to neutral topics like the weather. Ultimately I believe that as long as people have a generally similar idea of what is right and what is wrong (i.e,not kill others, hurt others, or to not steal) and instead try to respect other peoples culture, religion, family beliefs everyone should be able to respect and live harmoniously together, because after all no two people are exactly alike.

Social Justice

In today’s society passing judgment and having opinions toward certain people or groups of people is a way of life and often times is inevitable. This can be seen in the media, group gatherings, education, and even through the government and public positions that believe there to be a need to keep a certain stereotype and reject others. Nevertheless, I have always thought if you have nothing nice to say why say anything at all? Through the activity that we did in class where we self-categorized ourselves on how we perceived the “labels” that define each and every one of us, I found it a bit stressful since I felt like I was in constant scrutiny and being judged by my peers, granted I was also unconsciously judging and making assumptions myself; nevertheless I found it to be intimidating. When trying to think of the actions, hobbies, and clubs I was in and how that defined who I was, it made me think of the stereotypes that go along with those certain activities I take part in. As I got into the circle to acknowledge my personal identification with being a painter, I thought maybe people never thought of me as creative, artistic, or unique and would laugh. However, at the same time I found the whole process of sharing who I was with other people liberating and comforting since I was able to see what other peoples interests were as well and maybe who I could possibly identify with. I found this interesting especially when comparing ascribed identity to social group membership, and how this activity would cause other people to be surprised by some people and reconfirm the assumptions of others (ascribed identity). However, I also liked the fact that this also could show people the difficulties others struggled with and made them more sensitive to the challenges they went through on a daily basis (being mentally or physically challenged, being a minority, etc). I enjoyed the activity where we became more conscious of the misuse and derogative connotation of words that many of us use often since it really allowed me to become more conscious and aware of what they actually derive from and mean. This exercise made me think of when I hear the word “spick” or “wetback” and the negative connotation it has for Latin’s, and for me since I am half Latin. It reminded me of the anger and frustration I felt when hearing this word and how others really do not understand how this word pains and angers the group being attacked to hear. I ultimately really enjoyed this activity of learning about types of identities, effects of oppression and derogation words since it has made me more aware of how others perceive me and made me more conscious of how I express myself verbally and which words I use especially when thinking that the particular word does not even mean what I intended and hurts other people in the process.

Multicultural Leadership

Multicultural leadership now more than ever is a fundamental part of everyone’s life. It has become a great part of my life and other people’s lives due to the fact that it has allowed for several beliefs, customs, and traditions to be able to reside within one community and be able to prosper now more than ever before. It has allowed several countries including the United States to become melting pots of multiple diverse cultures and open to different ways of living. I for one being half Guatemalan and half Czechoslovakian know I have definitely adopted traditions from both heritages and it has made me a much more dynamic and culturally sensitive individual. It has allowed me to adopt the Latin hospitality known as “mi casa es tu casa” which I believe  has made me much more open, friendly, and willing to share with people. I notice that whenever someone says my food looks good, I always offer them some, or if I am out eating and another person does not have money I always share with them. Consequently, the European aspect of me has made me a rather more independent and strategic individual, and thus more frugal with my money and what I like to spend it on. My multicultural nationality has also allowed me to relate to people on different levels since I believe that it has made me a more accepting and less ethnocentric individual due to my combination of nationalities. The idea of multicultural leadership is also great as it encourages us to shift from focusing on each one of us as individuals to people as a collective unit (I to we). I particularly like the idea of sankofa since it focuses on learning from our past and applying it to our future in order to avoid committing the same mistakes. I for one use the concept of sankofa in almost every area of my life; however the one that sticks out for me the most is probably when trying to avoid getting hurt. When I was five years old I was walking to school and I didn’t have my shoes tied, one of my friends started playing tag with me and I started running and stepped on one of my untied shoes laces and as a result I broke my two front teeth, since then I have had a fixation with tying my shoes laces in order to avoid that from ever happening again. Overall, I feel like the core principles of culture and the merging of multicultural values and acceptance of other people’s core values make people greater leaders since it allows them to relate to a greater amount of people and be culturally aware of differences between one culture and another. I think that if we all tried to learn a lot more about one another’s culture and develop more cultural sensitivity we would all be that much closer to becoming great leaders. After all, this world is full of diversity and we are not alone.