Twenty-Fifth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

To be one’s authentic self, one has to be culturally competent for human beings were wired to be de facto culturally competent. Since society is de facto multicultural, there is the need for individuals to be culturally competent in order to navigate the multiple cultures in society. Monoculturalism is a myth that only propagates what I call negative “isms”, such as sexism, racism, classism, ableism, etc. In order to mitigate these negative isms, it is important to cultivate societies and communities that cherish and insist on promoting positive isms such as feminism, multiculturalism, antiracism, etc. When individuals are their authentic selves, are human first, they are likely to be culturally competent and multicultural since humans are social beings. I argue that in order to mitigate negative isms such as racism, sexism, ableism, classism, etc., we need not just address issues at the theoretical level; we need to practice/live positive isms in our real-life interactions with individuals, thus have our theoretical works, research, publications be informed by our lives in pursuit of praxis at its best. To affirm one’s humanity one has to be their authentic and their truly culturally competent self! To truly affirm diversity, we must perceive all voices as legitimate roads to an inclusive world. We need each other in this continuously ever shrinking world, a world that pines for the affirmation of diversity. In order to be each other’s keepers, we need to be truly culturally competent and assert our multicultural selves.