Intercultural understanding

A post over at Zoe's reminded me of something I've been working on for school. She lamented the sight of a Mother feeding her preschoolers Hostess cupcakes and Mountain Dew for breakfast. It is disheartening to think of the thousands of children who are waking up to or going to bed with this type of food on the menu morning, noon and night. I commented about how I had a co-worker, who had no idea what "broiling" was and aside from visits to Burger King, had never eaten anything broiled.

I had to read a book for school this quarter called A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, PhD. I thought it an unusual choice for a class in Intercultural communications, because I had always thought of that concept in the traditional sense of Americans and Mexicans, or Americans and Canadians, or Americans and any other country you can name. After reading this book I have to say I think it is extremely relevant to intercultural communication. As Dr. Payne illustrates in a very short text, there are definite, huge, cultural divides between the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy. Unfortunately for the poor, the rules and norms for all our systems are written by and in the language of the middle class. What I failed to realize was that poor people are living in a system and society that plays by totally different rules than they are used to in their world. The poor have very different ideas about money. Money is to be spent. If you have extra, you help someone who needs it, or else when you need it, they won't help you. In many poor neighborhoods, the ability to fight is critical to survival. In a school setting, fighting will get you in trouble. The examples are just as shocking and seem just as ridiculous as the stories we hear of Americans going to other countries and offending the natives by their ignorance of the native cultures. (like building bridges over dry riverbeds, or spending thousands building western style homes for pacific island natives who viewed the concrete homes as "jails" and refused to occupy them. Dr. Payne's book gives short tests to see if you could survive being "poor", "middle class" or "wealthy".

From the poor test:
Do you know how to move in half a day?
Do you know how to get someone out of jail?
Do you know how to live without a bank account?

This book points out not only the effects of these differences, but also some insights into the causes. This is an excellent, short read, a real eye-opener. I highly recommend it, especially for Educators or Social service providers.