Cultural relativism is the principle regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself. We use the phrase "Don't judge a person until you've walked in their shoes" often in our society; but do we really practice what we preach? The people of our society seem to lack the ability to empathize with others in different situations, and often judge quickly and think negatively of them. We do not understand the oppression that one group of people has to withstand, and we say things like "why can't you just let it go?" or "why is that so important, people are killed all over the world, and you don't see me complaining about it." Our society may say that they practice cultural relativism, but they do not live up to their word. A prime example of the American society of not practicing it would be people against the Black Lives Matter movement. This is important to many people of the black culture, because of how the people of the culture feel its people are being treated, constantly. We see people, mainly from white culture, saying things like "rallying is not going to do anything, so what is the point?" when they do not understand the everyday life as an African-American. In the book Things Fall Apart, white people are coming over trying to change the ways of the people of these tribes because they don't understand who they are, and what their culture is. They start to tell them that their gods are false, and they need to be converted into Christians. I feel that Chinua Achebe, the author, wrote this to put into perspective for people on other parts of the world to grasp what was really going on. He points out the absence of cultural relativity back then, which brings it to modern day readers that there is still an absence in our society. Yes, we have improved on our tolerance, but we still judge because it is hard to understand someone else's situation when you have never been in it. Can we as a society grow to really practice this? Will people ever get it? The only thing we can do now is take this, and improve ourselves, and learn to not judge a person until we can fully understand what they have to go through.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Who are you to judge?
Cultural relativism is the principle regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself. We use the phrase "Don't judge a person until you've walked in their shoes" often in our society; but do we really practice what we preach? The people of our society seem to lack the ability to empathize with others in different situations, and often judge quickly and think negatively of them. We do not understand the oppression that one group of people has to withstand, and we say things like "why can't you just let it go?" or "why is that so important, people are killed all over the world, and you don't see me complaining about it." Our society may say that they practice cultural relativism, but they do not live up to their word. A prime example of the American society of not practicing it would be people against the Black Lives Matter movement. This is important to many people of the black culture, because of how the people of the culture feel its people are being treated, constantly. We see people, mainly from white culture, saying things like "rallying is not going to do anything, so what is the point?" when they do not understand the everyday life as an African-American. In the book Things Fall Apart, white people are coming over trying to change the ways of the people of these tribes because they don't understand who they are, and what their culture is. They start to tell them that their gods are false, and they need to be converted into Christians. I feel that Chinua Achebe, the author, wrote this to put into perspective for people on other parts of the world to grasp what was really going on. He points out the absence of cultural relativity back then, which brings it to modern day readers that there is still an absence in our society. Yes, we have improved on our tolerance, but we still judge because it is hard to understand someone else's situation when you have never been in it. Can we as a society grow to really practice this? Will people ever get it? The only thing we can do now is take this, and improve ourselves, and learn to not judge a person until we can fully understand what they have to go through.
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