Cultural Humility and the Human Connection
In “Close Encounters of the Human Kind” by Abraham Verghese he discusses his experience volunteering as a physician for the Katrina refugees in San Antonio. He describes the various encounters he had with the individuals who needed medical attention, and the way he described them seemed to somewhat lack empathy. It seemed, to me at least, that he was “neutral” about the suffering of his patients, until the last story he reflected about. I think the experience he had with this man shifted his perspective a little bit. The man was in his 70’s and needed medicine, he told Abraham about the floods and how “they treat refugees in other countries better than they treated us.” All Abraham could say was “I’m so sorry” and somehow that was all the old man needed to hear to overcome his feelings. Despite Abraham’s neutrality through all of this, he practices cultural humility in being open to listening to what the refugees had to say, and not being afraid to ask them what they had been through; for many, it was important to them that he asked such questions. I think one of the major aspects of the concept of cultural humility, at least from what I’ve heard, read and experienced, is our willingness to be open, and to be open to listening to the voices of others without any filter or barriers present. Furthermore, the “Cultural Humility” video provided many different perspectives and ideas of what cultural humility means. It was described in words such as, “love,” “being,” “opening,” “you,” “compassion,” and more. These are all words that translate to the overlying idea of non-judgment and love being the basis for how we interact with one another.
In the video, Jann Murray-Garcia and Melanie Tervalon discuss the multi-dimensionality of cultural humility, and how it encompasses the ideas of constant learning and self-reflection, recognizing and challenging power imbalances, and keeping institutions accountable for upholding the principles involved in cultural humility, rather than putting an emphasis on cultural competence (“Cultural Humility”). It became very crucial for them to identify and confront the unjust power structures especially as healthcare providers because they found that most of the time, families felt they “weren’t being taken care of in a respectful way” or in other words, these people were not being heard and understood from the perspective of their own heritage and history. It is imperative to address it in this kind of situation because it is important that we challenge those power imbalances so respect can be rightfully given especially in such circumstances as healthcare.
The event that prompted the founders to implement principles of cultural humility and we know from the “Cultural Humility” video that, “Rodney King (1965–2012) became a symbol of police brutality in 1991 when his severe beating by Los Angeles police was caught on camera and broadcasted around the world. The police were acquitted by a jury with no African Americans, leading to the most violent riot in US history.” They wanted to spread the idea of cultural humility to try to help move towards a world where people could be understood and respected more. In this tragedy, Rodney King’s identity and complexities as an individual were not treated with respect and were ultimately disregarded. Part of the first major component to cultural humility is how important it is for us all to understand how each of us is complicated and multi-dimensional. We all lead different lives, we all come from a different place, we all have different values, and despite all of those differences between us it is important that we then try to find common ground and get on a level where communication can exist in a civil way.
Paulo Freire and Myles Horton discuss the ideas of theory, practice, and knowledge and how they relate to education, the education system, and how those branch off to further affect political and social aspects as well. The relationship between the three is intertwined and a bit complicated but the way they communicated it seemed to make sense. Knowledge and practice go hand in hand, “without practice there’s no knowledge,” but when we bring in the idea of theory, “practice in itself is not its theory. It creates knowledge, but it is not its own theory,” (Paulo p. 98). How I see it, what I got from Freire and Horton’s words was that theory comes from a place of knowledge and the only way to test out that theory and challenge our knowledge is through practice or experience. This is what they say drives home the idea that education and the way teachers teach should not be just based on the knowledge and theory but how we put those aspects into practice in society and analyzing social conditions within the subject. They discuss how theory changes as reality changes, and the same goes for knowledge, we have to adjust and adapt to the changing world around us. I believe this is important because what teachers teach and the way they teach transfers to the minds of the students who are then supposed to be knowledgeable. But, if the way we teach is insufficient, knowledge in the real world is lost. This then translates to the bigger picture of having a voice in society, knowing what’s going on politically, and being able to comment and have a perspective on important issues of today. This insufficient education leads to a lot of “neutrality” and where there is neutrality there is a lot of opportunity for people to get pushed around and not taken seriously. They say, “I cannot fight for a freer society if at the same time I don’t respect the knowledge of the people,” and “it’s the neutrality…that works in favor of the dominant,” these both are examples of the ways they feel the education system is setting up the next generation for failure because they do not hold the knowledge to be able to stand up for themselves. Yes, they need to learn biology, history, English etc. but it is also crucial to place those in the social context so the students can be informed of the world around them.
From reading, listening to, and watching the video on cultural humility, I can clearly see and notice many actions and steps I can take in applying the principles of cultural humility in my everyday life and especially in my community partner experience. I am eager to continue to practice being open and welcome any chance to learn that I can get. Most of the time we don’t know the individuals around us, what their story is, who they are, why they are here, so I find it important to continue to search for connections with people, and learning about them. Additionally, I want to return that and provide any knowledge or help to those asking for it, being there for all. I think most importantly, I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I want to be one who fully embraces everyone or at least aims to give everyone a chance. Optimism, love, and openness to learning are three important values I take away from cultural humility, and ones that I look forward to working on in my self-practice as well as sharing with others in the world.
