I just ran into this two word phrase today. I guess I’ve been under a rock or something. According to Wikipedia Cultural Proficiency refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, particularly in the context of human resources, non-profit organizations, and government agencies whose employees work with persons from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds.
So, essentially, it is treating people who are different from you differently. Isn’t that called discrimination?
In society’s efforts to create a level playing field and equality for everyone, regardless of race, gender, etc.etc. we seem to have thrown the gear shift into reverse.
Ask me the race and culture of any of the 28 people who work for me and I will have to actually think about it. They are all people. They are all equal. I don’t see race. I don’t see culture. I do see gender differences, especially the female gender with long silky legs. (OK, I admit it, I am a straight man.)
Most people will not believe this, but I was thinking about this at my desk the other day, and I could not for the life of me remember the race of one of my key people. True story, I swear, I had to get up and walk down the hall and look into her office. She was black! Who knew? That my friends, is equality. That is a level playing field, when we do not see race or anything else. We are one team working together toward one goal, which is getting to Friday.
Turns out of the 28 people who work for me only three are white Non-Hispanics. The rest are a mixed bag of American Blacks, Cubans, Haitians, Central Americans of all colors and one Californian.
If we treat people different based on their race, gender, etc., we are not creating a level playing field and in my book, we are discriminating.
Which brings me to the root of my message today. Cultural Proficiency is a big bucket of crap.
No need to thank me. This message provided free of charge.
Some Blogging Guy
Cultural proficiency may be a bunch of crap but it permeates our society from top (president and legislature) to bottom – affirmative action for everyone except caucasians of European descent who happen to have been born in the USA. In the cases of politicians, it is buying votes – selfish as well as lining their own pockets (still selfish). In the case of top business people, it is currying favor with the politicians who can grant monitary advantage to these business people in the form of restrictive laws to favor them as a monopoly – again selfish. In the case of the rest of us, it is like we never left high school – do what the “in crowd” does. Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the house, said it best, “If you want to get along, go along”.
More years ago than I will say, my wife worked with a black girl who said that the reason black folks have so many kids was so that black folks could take over the country. Sorry for being so politically incorrect.
The above is human nature. period. Being altruistic will kill you. As I have said in previous posts, check out Ayn Rand’s “Virtue of Selfishness” for more background. Of course, Machiavelli was a pragmatist who wrote about it and was eventually imprisoned by his society. When you have an answer to this sort of thing, please post it immediately
I am familiar with the “Virtue of Selfishness”. Had three philosophy classes that covered it in my undergraduate studies. No one can be totally altruistic, as there is always a self interest at work whether one believes it or not.
Jesus said “Treat others the way you would want to be treated”. That is actually a selfish action right there. But it puts good into the universe.
Only the Creator of the universes has the ability to be altruistic, but we can at least try to mirror Him in some little ways.
SBG
Never had any courses covering “The Virtue of Selfishness”, but I did read the book. Being altruistic simply vanquishes yourself for the benefit of others. They win, you lose and you lose yourself. Good for them, evil for you. That’s why altruism will kill you. Good being defined as something that benefits yourself, your family, and your species (yes, I know you are human, too.
) All of the three criteria must be met. Evil is just the opposite, i.e. bad for you AND the species. Being selfish should benefit you, your family, and the rest of the human race. This is good. Anything that does not do this is, by definition, evil.
The best analogy was in the book, i.e. an imaginary indestructible robot would not know the difference between good and evil for the simple reason that nothing could hurt it.