Cultural Groups, Broad Differences

Being a multiculturally oriented clinical interviewer involves an orientation toward diversity that is open, af?rming, and appropriately curious. The following information on cultural groups provides barely enough information to whet the appetite and acknowledge basic potential cultural differences among clients. The old adage “The map is not the territory” is especially pertinent here, as these descriptions are meant to simply orient the interviewer. The actual cultural landscape will be unique to the individual and will most likely look quite different from the following map.

THE BIG FOUR In the introduction to Growing up Latino , Ilan Stavans writes: Today, at the center of the con?ict is the Hispanic, the man, woman, or child who speaks Castilian Spanish as his or her mother tongue, or whose ancestors did so. We in the United States often perceive Hispanics as a monolithic or amorphous group. They have divided loyalties, we say, and live between two cultures and two languages. But this is a narrow definition, a ?gment that Americans have created to ?ll our need to make these diverse peoples into a single one that we can then understand.

Multicultural and Diversity Issues 375Stavans was writing about Hispanics, but he could have inserted any of the larger or smaller minority groups in the United States and been equally accurate. Our groupings are huge, with an astonishing amount of diversity within each one. The same can be said for what is often referred to as White culture, or the dominant culture. We would be hard pressed to de?ne White . Would we include Italian Americans? Would we include Jewish Americans? Does the word Anglo communicate more accurately than White? Even if we said “persons of Western European descent,” it would not be clear as to who would be in and who would be out. In what century must the descendence begin to ?t this category? With apologies for these obvious gross generalizations, we make divisions to compare and contrast very broad differences between cultures. For example, we use the word White to refer to the dominant Caucasian culture in the United States. However, we readily acknowledge that our generalities are so broad as to be of limited usefulness. We hope this section stimulates your desire to develop your cultural competency.