African Americans Cultural competence

In addition, submit minimum 2 page paper in word format containing a: Personal introduction defining your ethno-cultural background being sure to point out aspects of what you consider to be unique to your cultural background. Also include a statement of your current understanding of cultural competency. Follow APA form & style guidelines. Submit this paper in the assignment area as well as on the week 1 discussion board.

The personal objectives of the author concerning cultural learning include the following: developing a positive attitude when communicating with other people, being self-aware of individual strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement when it comes to cultural bias. Lastly, the objective is to attain cultural knowledge and adaptation skills that enable this author to work anywhere and associate with people from different cultural backgrounds.

A personal introduction to the ethno cultural background

Ethno cultural background refers to well-defined characteristics, traits, features, and distinctions that can separate one community from the rest of the community. People try to identify with a set of these characteristics. This author belongs to the African American community. There are characteristics, features, and knowledge areas specific to the African American communities.

Cultural background

The African Americans believe in bonding, maintaining strong family ties, and being united in solidarity to solve some of the challenges that are faced by the communities. These unique aspects of the African American cultural identity separate this community from others.

While most African Americans are born and bred in the United States, this reality does not make them escape the historical ties associated with the entry of these people into the United States. There is a common belief that the ancestry of the African Americans, particularly the enslaved people from Africa and Caribbean islands, went through great troubles to ensure that they get entry into the United States, grow and multiply in population, fight the end of the slave trade and become part of the recognized communities that now form the United States of America. Being African American in a world that seems to be lukewarm to the rights requires that the African Americans get united to help resolve some of these challenges. Unity and bonding are the only way to make the world realize the need for equality of African American rights and the rights of all the people (Library of Congress, 2010).

The African Americans have strong family ties compared to other groups of people. The home's activities, development, taking care of the house, raising kids, education, etc., are done in the presence of support and attention of the rest of the family members. While the nuclear family is the preferred family structure which is the basis of the family, it is not the only one: the traditional family extends to uncles and aunties who sometimes used to live with the rest of the family members, and they participated in the raising of the children (Littlejohn-Blake & Darling, 1993). The communal cooperation of the African Americans was born out of the need to ensure unity in cooperating to provide a living for the families. As a result of poor economic conditions, you could find that apart from the fathers, even grandparents went to the factories to look for cash to provide a living for the families. This situation created strong family ties born out of the necessity to make a sustainable living for the community (Littlejohn-Blake & Darling, 1993).

Current Understanding of Cultural Competency

This author understands cultural competency as a set of unique comprehension, knowledge, and abilities that people may acquire overtime to understand other people's cultures and interact and live among people from different cultural backgrounds without creating any conflicts (Preemptive Love, 2020).

It also refers to the respectful, tolerant, and knowledgeable interaction with people from different cultures, persuasions, and countries with other motives, biases, and a whole different perspective on their view of the world. Getting cultural competency starts with first understanding own personal culture and never forgetting why people love it. In this case, it is about understanding what makes the African Americans proud, the activities that bring them together, and the heritage that has contributed to the community being traded as a distinct cultural group.

After one has understood other people's cultures, it now becomes necessary to understand the cultures of different communities to develop a positive attitude towards the culture and respect those differences instead of criticizing other cultures because one has a superiority regarding their cultures.

References

Library of Congress. (2010). Civil Rights Era (1950–1963) - the Civil Rights Act of 1964: a Long Struggle for Freedom | Exhibitions - Library of Congress. Loc.gov; Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era.html

Littlejohn-Blake, S. M., & Darling, C. A. (1993). Understanding the Strengths of African American Families. Journal of Black Studies, 23(4), 460–471. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784380

Preemptive Love. (2020, January 23). What Is Cultural Competence? And Why Is It Important? Preemptive Love. https://preemptivelove.org/blog/cultural-competence/