Hello, to all and welcome back! In today’s blog I will be diving into the concept of cultural tolerance and mutual respect. I’m sure everyone knows what cultural tolerance means but in case you don’t it is a, “formula of civilized coexistence of all participants in social relations with their diverse opinions, convictions, beliefs, point of view and other characteristics” (Agius and Ambrosewicz, 2003). Tolerance in all aspects is vital as it helps people establish love and living civilly together. It is a stepping stone to acceptance of the unknown. Without tolerance there would be many more wars going on in the world. I only have one issue with it. The term “tolerance” brings about an uneasy feeling of not to be liked but purely tolerated. An example of this problem, Canada who has framed itself as a tolerant society has actually encompassed its meaning of “tolerance” as having the “Other” on the outside of the in (Hogarth and Fletcher, 2018). Meaning the “other” are still marginalized in the Canadian society. The term tolerance in multiculturalism discourse and all other discourses talking about diversity needs to be removed and solely in its place should be acceptance. We should not just be tolerating new religions and cultures, but accepting them. In a diverse society we live in today, you can run into any type of person, these different religions and cultures will not just cease to exist anymore but, most likely continue to grow like the growing population in this world. Why not start now?
Some ways to practice tolerance acceptance
Try to empathize, try and see things from their perspective
Ask for an explanation to get a better understanding of someone’s views
Ignore your differences
Value difference, keep an open mind
Accept uncertainty, think more about answers than questions
Learn about different cultures
Analyze your own intolerant feelings; recognize and challenge them
This brings me to the next concept of mutual respect. This notion allows people to work past small differences with rarely any fuss, although without it, those small differences become a major problem. I will be sharing with you a story about a women named Farida and her neighborhood party to better illustrate the concept:
We had the most wonderful neighborhood. We had a really small street[…] So we had maybe twelve houses on our immediate street. We had, um, and all our neighbors were really diverse, from Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyanese, Pakistan. We did a street party. We said, “We’re just going to do a full day street party. Everybody’s going to cook.” Without me knowing, one of the neighbors has just asked me casually, “Where do you buy your meat from?” And I said, I told them where I bought my meat. That neighbor had taken it upon themselves- they were Haitian- they took it upon themselves to tell all the other neighbors, except one decided not to, and that was fully within their right. They asked, “OK, how do you cook your meat? If it’s cooked with pork, is that OK?” We said, “No. we’re really particular if something’s fried.” You know, we just explained our details. And I had no expectations. But the day of the party, everybody on the street had made halal food. And I was so humbled by that. I thanked them. I’m, like, that was so considerate of them. They went out of their way to pick up the meat and even, like, I mean, it was a street party. There’s alcohol. But my husband and I had to go out for a couple hours, and we were going to come back and join the party. The few hours we were gone, they all drank, and they didn’t pick up the alcohol when we were there. And I was so moved by that. I told them, we came back, and I said, “Look, we really appreciated it, [what] you guys are doing, but we don’t want to ruin your party. If this is how you’re enjoying yourself, we’re OK with that. You know, if you feel like, if you guys want to drink, it’s an open street party. By all means go ahead. I don’t want to infringe on your customs.” So then it was fine. We ate halal meat, and there was booze (Selby, Barras and Beaman, 2018).
As you can see with acceptance and mutual respect harmonious living of differing cultures is possible, even achievable. Even though all her neighbors were from different backgrounds, she did not put emphasis on their differences. Through mutual respect, they were all about to share a meal together and create relationships. All that is required is flexibility and an appreciation for the crossing of boundaries between identities in social situations.
References
Lifey. (2014, April 12). Learning cultural tolerance and appreciation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwjvEo7W3HU
Agius, E., & Ambrosewicz, J. (2003). Towards a Culture of Tolerance and Peace. Retrieved from http://www.ibcr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Towards-a-culture-of-tolerance-and-peace-1.pdf
Hogarth, K., & Fletcher, W. L. (2018). A space for race : Decoding racism, multiculturalism, and post-colonialism in the quest for belonging in canada and beyond. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.wlu.ca
Griffin, T. (2019, September 20). How to Be Tolerant of Others. Retrieved from https://www.wikihow.com/Be-Tolerant-of-Others).
Selby, J. A., Beaman, L. G., & Barras, A. (2018). Beyond accommodation: everyday narratives of Muslim Canadians. UBC Press.
Knowledge into Kindness 