October 2003

Broadening the Definition of "Us"

by Jan Michels, WSBA Executive Director

In its new Long-Range Strategic Plan, the Board of Governors changed goal number 9 from promoting "diversity and equality in the courts, legal profession, and the bar" to promoting "diversity, equality, and cultural competence in the courts, legal profession, and the bar" (emphasis added). The point is that it's not enough not to be prejudiced or to point to numbers of nonmajority persons in law firms, on the board, or on committees to demonstrate diversity and equality. Representation in numbers does not necessarily mean inclusion, respect, or equality.

There is a continuum of cultural competence that begins at one end with outright vile hatred of "other," progresses to neutrality—"I don't care if they are yellow, blue, or polkadotted" (significant is the use of the term "they," still implying separation)—and reaches, at the other end, a definition of "us" that embraces nonmajorities.

Michael Shermer, a classic skeptic and critic of human nature, in a brief article in the September Scientific American, "The Domesticated Savage: Science reveals a way to rise above our nature," describes how in 35 generations researchers were able to transform the silver fox from a wild, aggressive creature into a playful, tail-wagging, hand-licking peaceful one. Shermer's analogy is that humans can also become more peaceful by easing intergroup aggression. Clinically, as humans have become more sedentary and populations more dense, natural pressures acted to promote within-group cooperation and to reduce within-group aggression. Using the silver-fox analogy, where selective breeding and controlled environmental conditions caused the evolutionary silver fox to consider humans their in-group, Shermer argues that if we continue to expand the circle of those we consider members of our in-group, intergroup conflicts will dissipate.

Being culturally competent enables us to include others in our in-group. It calls on us to understand and become familiar with the path someone else has walked, opening our personal experience to it. It means proactively broadening our definition of "us" to include persons whose paths have been economically repressed, racially ridiculed, ethnically targeted or taunted, and are physically less like "us." Artificial barriers between groups can be an effort to retain a sense of superiority (an insidious, hurtful bias) but can also be based simply on unfamiliarity.

Forty years ago, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, where he envisioned equal rights and equal opportunities for African-Americans. His words are true for all oppressed peoples of the world. We will never achieve peace, security, or equal rights and opportunities by defining a group of people as "other" or "them." The dichotomy serves only to establish privilege for one group and oppression for the other. Cultural competence means rising above the need to draw artificial lines between self and others, and broadening the definition of "us." Broadening this definition is different from the old "melting pot"—requiring "others" to be like "us"—rather, it embraces and becomes familiar with the richness of differences.

True cultural competence entails finding familiarity and comfort with otherwise out-group persons and categories of persons. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa achieved cultural competence by immersing themselves in other cultures. But here in Washington, in everyday encounters, and especially in the law, where lawyers' representation of clients and causes multiplies their exposure to "other," we can move ourselves beyond "not prejudiced" to true cultural competence. Some ways of building cultural competence are:

Take a moment to ask a Native American about her ancestors or tribal membership.
Learn by asking how to pronounce a name that's new to your ear or tongue.
Tell someone that it offends to hear a strong, competent woman referred to as a "chick" or a "girl."
Watch the language for dividing words like "them," "those persons," and other cliché-slurs.
Listen to a nonmajority's description of life without interjecting self-values or judgments.

Those who are culturally competent are able to function comfortably with other cultures. Hallmarks of an organization's (such as the WSBA) cultural competence are that its members value diversity, can self-assess their cultural awareness, are sensitive to other cultures' dynamics, have institutionalized cultural dynamics, and have adapted their own culture to broader cultural diversity. These new values should be evident in our attitudes, structures, language, policies, and services. Genuinely wanting to understand less-familiar lives and lifestyles will build cultural competence. Incorporating the life experience—ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and physical characteristics—of other nonmajorities into "us" is cultural competence—the broadening of "us."

To learn more about cultural competence, consider visiting http://cecp.air.org/cultural/q_integrated.htm.

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