A co-worker of mine recently took his family to Hawaii for a family vacation. Because my mom grew up on the island of Oahu and I myself enjoy visiting Hawaii, I asked him what island he visited. He said that he always visits the big island, and we got into a conversation about the traditions of the Hawaiian Islands and its culture.
As many of you know, Hawaii is rich in traditions and culture. My first experience visiting family in Oahu in the mid-1960s was, to say the least, a “learning experience.” It wasn’t because I didn’t already have a sense of what the islands were about, you see, it was because my parents decided that it would best for their three eldest to attend summer school while vacationing.
I was placed in what many of us would consider a public school while my two brothers attended a school that only those considered to have pure Hawaiian blood could attend. Lucky for them they were together – I was left to fend for myself entering a school as a total stranger (I know my parents fudged a little, but can you sense that I’m still harboring envious feelings after all these years?).
This, I feel, was my introduction to what is known today as “cultural diversity.” The schools may have been considered like any other in the United States but with more of a Hawaiian flare. As I spent more and more time that summer in my class I couldn’t stop the assimilation into the Hawaiian culture. I started talking pidgin and my mannerisms started mimicking those in my class.
Cultural diversity holds thousands of different ways in seeing the world and our place in it. It’s the foundation of the many unique sets of knowledge. Where you live plays a major role in how cultural diversity shapes your life. My parents raised me as an American first and a Filipino second, and although Ilocano – one of many Filipino dialects used in the Philippines today – was often spoken in my childhood home, my parents made sure we were deep into our school studies of English, math, science, and even religion. I was surrounded by American culture, traditions and values. I reflect on those times and realize that, even today, many of those that immigrate to the United States have been wrestling with this same paradox. How can you live in a country and expect to hold on to your own beliefs, values and traditions? Believe it or not, it’s this cultural diversity that makes our country great. The extension of different ideas and knowledge makes us better.
Twenty or even 30 years from now we’ll be challenged with problems not foreseen by anyone today. Diverse ideas and knowledge will be needed to solve these problems.
Just like my summer school days in Hawaii, we’re letting our own knowledge slip away because we choose to be like others around us. Michael Gavin, Associate Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, tells us that today approximately 7,000 languages are spoken. In time, as many as half of those languages will disappear. I don’t understand much of my parents’ native language, and cultural diversity isn’t only about language, but I do understand Filipino culture. Culture isn’t something you bottle – it belongs to people. Culture is ever changing. But today a small number of cultural groups are shaping American society. They help determine laws, education and even our economy. Gavin calls this an “imbalance of power,” and this imbalance is driving the loss of cultural diversity.
As I said, my parents raised me to be an American. They chose to separate my brothers and I from their language and sacrificed some of their knowledge. They sent us into the dominant society that surrounded our lives. But is that what we really need in today’s troubled world?
We need to recognize the imbalance around us – how un-level the playing field really is. But how can we level that playing field? It’s unfathomable to think we can change this all at once or at an accelerated rate. It will take small steps.
I believe that cultural diversity starts at home. Our elders can impart worldly knowledge of systems they grew up with for us to utilize within today’s society. Their knowledge can better prepare us and our children for the decisions of tomorrow. As everyone is aware, our children are our future leaders. These leaders can be doctors, scientist and mathematicians; they can be teachers, engineers, marine biologists, and could one day run our country.
But we have to embrace the cultural diversity that surrounds all of us. The foundation has to be laid for us to thrive and improve. How we lay that foundation is up to each and every one of us. Hawaii has its traditions and culture. What can you do to make sure your own cultural diversity lives and thrives in your future descendants and those of others?
Gavin once gave a lecture on the idea of “Know better. Do better” and how cultural diversity matters. It is incumbent upon all of us to not only know that we must remember cultural diversity, but to also do a better job of practicing and exercising what we have been taught to respect and admire in our everyday lives.
Gregory Baruso has lived in Federal Way for 15 years and has been a member of the city of Federal Way’s Diversity Commission for eight years and is currently serving as chair. He belongs to many state and local civic organizations, always looking for ways to help out his community.
