UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL DIFERENCES

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Officer Richard Neil (retired)
Community Diversity Part 2
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SPO3 7 ELEMENTS THAT MAKE PEOPLE DIFFERENT

• RACE
• VALUES
• CULTURE
• RELIGION
• HERITAGE
• SEXUAL ORIENTATION
• ETHNICITY

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RACE

• A local geographic or global human population,
  distinguished as a more or less distinct group by
  genetically transmitted physical characteristics
• A group of people united or classified together
  on the basis of common history, nationality, or
  geographic distribution

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Henry Louis Gates Jr.
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VALUES

• Values are the beliefs that dictate how we see
  and perceive the world
• Values are learned through
• Family
• Friends
• Church
• Peers
• Television, Radio, Newspapers
• Teachers

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CULTURE

• The knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors transmitted
  from one generation to the next
• Is learned
• Defines for us what is right and wrong
• Defines the rules of behavior
• Influences and shapes our world view

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CULTURE

• Customary beliefs of a racial, religious or
  social group
• Social forms of a racial, religious or social
  group
• Material traits of a racial, religious or social
  group
• Culture is learned and transmitted by family

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CULTURE

• Culture is fluid - constantly changing yet
  remains constant
• Culture is shared and effectively defines the
  boundaries of different groups
• Culture becomes part of the unconscious so that
  the characteristics of the
  culture become innate

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CULTURE

• Because culture is internalized so that learned
  behavior becomes natural and unconscious,
  individuals may

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CULTURE

• Respond favorably to behavior that is as
  predictable as ones own
• (or)
• Respond unfavorably to behavior that is peculiar
  or different and which may be seen as
  irresponsible, psychopathic, inferior or a result
  of improper upbringing

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AFRICA
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RELIGION

• Within cultures, there may exist many different
  religions.
• The values of religion will affect the
  perspective from which various sectors of a given
  society, race or population sees their
  environment and/or world view

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HERITAGE

• The characteristics, culture and traditions
  handed down from ones ancestors

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SEXUAL ORIENTATION

• This refers to a persons sexual identification
• A group of people involving all races and cultures

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FOUR COMPONENTS OF SEXUALITY

• Biological Sex A persons biological state of
  maleness or femaleness determined at birth
• Gender Identity Ones psychological sense of
  being male or female
• Sexual Orientation A persons emotional,
  physical and sexual attraction to individuals of
  a particular gender
• Social Sex Role Ones adherence to cultural
  norms for feminine and masculine behavior

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ETHNICITY

• Defined a group of people who share
  characteristics such as rituals, language,
  nationality, religion, in other words they share
  a common cultural heritage

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Identity is a component of ethnicity and a
frequent factor that influences law enforcement
interaction with public

• Can include lack of understanding of the
  practices of a specific ethnic group that could
  lead to undue friction between law enforcement
  and the public
• Community ethnic diversity is becoming more
  common in general and in the ranks of law
  enforcement specifically
• Officers must be cognizant of ethnic differences
  and sensibilities of such when interacting with
  the public and law enforcement colleagues
• Ethnic misconceptions, jokes, slurs, etc. can be
  very disruptive

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Takeshi Yoshihara

• U.S. Naval Academy Graduate, rose to the rank of
  Captain
• Not a good candidate no extra-curriculars
• Lived in a single room dwelling covered in tar
  paper, along with 7 siblings in Idaho
• Was prone to being sea sick and was nearly kicked
  out of the program
• Commander Joseph Taussig, USS Nevada
• Became the first Japanese-American graduate
  because he was honest

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Japanese American Internment Camps

• 1942 over 110,000 Japanese Americans relocated to
  War Relocation Camps from the west coast.
• Only 1,800 of the over 150,000 from Hawaii were
  interned.
• Of those interned 62 were American Citizens.
  About 80,000 were nisei.
• 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation
  which apologized for the
  internment on behalf
  of the U.S. government.

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• 1905, California's anti-miscegenation law
  outlawed marriages between Caucasians and
  Mongolians
• In October 1906, the San Francisco Board of
  Education separated the Japanese students from
  the Caucasian students.
• 1924 "Oriental Exclusion Law," which blocked
  Japanese immigrants from attaining citizenship in
  California.

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• Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, who
  administered the internment program, repeatedly
  told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap" and
  testified to Congress, I don't want any of them
  persons of Japanese ancestry here.
  They are a dangerous
  element.

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• There is no way to determine their loyalty... It
  makes no difference whether he is an American
  citizen, he is still a Japanese. American
  citizenship does not necessarily determine
  loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese
  all the time until he is wiped off the map.

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• Austin E. Anson, managing AG secretary - "We're
  charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for
  selfish reasons. We do. It's a question of
  whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast
  or the brown men. They came into this valley to
  work, and they stayed to take over... If all the
  Japs were removed tomorrow, we had never miss
  them in two weeks, because the white farmers can
  take over and produce everything the Jap grows.
  And we do not want them back when the war ends,
  either.

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• Los Angeles Times - "A viper is nonetheless a
  viper wherever the egg is hatched... So, a
  Japanese American born of Japanese parents,
  nurtured upon Japanese traditions, living in a
  transplanted Japanese atmosphere...
  notwithstanding his nominal brand of accidental
  citizenship almost inevitably and with the rarest
  exceptions grows up to be a Japanese, and not an
  American... while we are at war with their race.
  (cont.)

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• Thus, while it might cause injustice to a few to
  treat them all as potential enemies, I cannot
  escape the conclusion... that such treatment...
  should be accorded to
  each and all of them
  while we are at war
  with their race."

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• Internment of Japanese Americans, who provided
  critical agricultural labor on the West Coast,
  created a labor shortage.
• Which was exacerbated by the induction of many
  American laborers into the Armed Forces.
• This vacuum precipitated
  a mass immigration of
  Mexican workers known
  as the Bracero Program.

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• After the expiration of the initial agreement in
  1947, the program was continued in agriculture
  under a variety of laws and administrative
  agreements until its formal end in 1964.
• In the 1930s, during the
  Great Depression, over
  500,000 Mexican
  Americans were
  deported or pressured
  to leave, during the
  Mexican Repatriation.

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442nd Regimental Combat Team

• Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese
  Americans.
• The families of many of its soldiers were subject
  to internment.
• Famously rescued the "Lost
  Battalion- 800 casualties with
  121 dead to rescue 211.
• Fought with uncommon
  distinction in Italy, southern
  France, and Germany.

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442nd Regimental Combat Team

• The unit became the most highly decorated
  regiment in the history of U.S. Armed Forces.
• U.S. Army battle reports show the official
  casualty rate, combining KIA (killed) with MIA
  (missing) and WIA (wounded and removed from
  action) total was 93.

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The Purple Heart Battalion

• Members received 18,143 awards
• 9,486 Purple Hearts for 3,000 soldiers
• 7 Presidential Unit Citations (5 earned in one
  month)
• 52 Distinguished Service Crosses
• 560 Silver Stars with 28 second awards

• 22 Legion of Merits
• 15 Soldiers Medals
• 4,000 Bronze Stars with 1,200 second awards
• 21 Congressional Medals of Honor

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President Harry Truman

• You fought not only the enemy, but you fought
  prejudice and you have won.

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Officer Richard Neil (retired)
www.officerneil.com