CHAPTER 1
Cultural competency
Discussion
In the work world, employees demonstrate competencies in several areas relating to their job position and are measured based on competency standards developed by the organization. Competencies and skills in some aspects are dissimilar. Skills can be improved through training. Employees receiving lower ratings are asked to attend training in hopes of improving the rating on the next scheduled performance review.
Competencies speak to innate talent or ability that a person may have to perform a skill for another or for themselves. Some people have the talent for conflict resolution. While other people should avoid working in a customer complaint center or as a hostage negotiator at all cost.
From the policing perspective, we view competencies through job tasks and trainability. Trainers, adult education practitioners strive to improve upon and strengthen the skills, knowledge, and abilities a person brings to the policing environment.
Taking it one step further, trainability is an attribute employers look for when reviewing piles of résumés and interviewing job candidates.
Cultural competency is a performance, organizational, and job standard; it is not an employment criteria.
Cultural competency encompasses three assessment guidelines, i.e. knowledge, skills and abilities. Let's look deeper and interrogate the literature to see if researchers (Sperry, 2012; O'Neill, 2016) agree on how to define cultural competency and even further, how they suggest cultural competency should occur.
Cultural competency means that a person has the knowledge, understanding and skills to embrace diversity and to work with people from diverse backgrounds. It implies that discrimination is not tolerated, that people are accepted and valued because of their differences, instead of being seen as inferior or superior.
We can describe cultural competency through three key attributes, understanding, acceptance and value. The definition incorporates essentials for effective policing and spotlights why policing can also be ineffective when people disregard these essentials.
This does not seem complicated. Why are we engaged in this discussion? It is complicated because conscious and unconscious, or implicit and explicit bias can affect our thinking about how we perceive others and make relating to people who are different problematic. We are all guilty and have possibly displayed one of these behaviors at some point in our life. Whittaker (2011) reminds us that we have the "proclivity to stereotype."
Acknowledging the need and importance of three key attributes or behaviors in policing the community can mean the difference between calm and chaos. A culturally competent person remains open-minded, accepting, values diversity even in the midst of confusion.
I would like to ask one question. Is cultural blindness the same as cultural competency? Cultural blindness is a step; however, even though blindness to racial, religious, or value differences suggests that a person acknowledges, understands and values diversity, blindness anesthetizes a person to the reality that the needs a particular community may be experiencing or awaiting to change may be different than other communities.
Writers (Bonilla-Silva, 1998; Leeca, et al, 1998) suggest that cultural blindness may parallel institutional and/or cultural racism. Lecca, et al explain that the culturally blind "ignore cultural strengths, blame the victim for his or her problems, and encourage assimilation".
I call cultural blindness, systemic antitheocentric disregard (S.A.D).
Cultural blindness is prevalent in the literature when speaking about equal quality education to students regardless of race and dedicating funding to lower performing schools. However, looking more specifically at policing, cultural blindness might influence how we provide service to the elderly, to members of the LGBT community, and to low income residents, irrespective of race, in densely populated neighborhoods.
Two questions; first, have you noticed prior to this point, I have not defined culture? Every person needs to interact with another person at some time; every person interprets reality differently. Every person behaves differently and displays behavior based on learned values and norms taken away from the family structure. By understanding this integration of an individual interpretation of reality along with how a person behaves or interprets someone else's behavior you have a clear definition of culture.
Second question, if we want a complete definition and therefore a thorough understanding of cultural differences so we can claim cultural competency, what makes me (the author) different from you (the reader)?
Cultural competence requires that we understand how a combination of variables might influence our accepting, understanding and valuing differences.
a. "Age
b. Beliefs
c. Gender
d. Gender identity
e. National origin
f. Religion (faith)
g. Sexual orientation
h. Socioeconomic status"
As the researcher I understand and want to interpret the list in the context of my current conversation. Cultural competency is the dependent variable we are studying. Demographic characteristics such as age, beliefs, etc. are independent variables. Independent variables influence the ability to accept, understand and value differences. Researchers conducting this study hypothesized to what extent demographics (independent variables that are subject to change, e.g. age, belief, faith, language, experience, socioeconomic status) influence achievement of cultural competency. Within the context of our review and for their connection to police-community relations, I emphasize the relevancy and influence of age, belief, socioeconomic status, faith, gender, gender identity, language spoken through national origin and experience. Therefore, based on the likelihood of change in some characteristics (independent variables), cultural competency is more likely or less likely to occur.
We include race and ethnicity to more meticulously define differences in how people identify with the values and norms they practice or have practiced through generational descent. However, I caution you against generalizing behavior of a group based on the behavior of one. Generalizations invite trouble, confusion, and hostility.
There are numerous phrases researchers and authors...
