Cultural Literacy Reflection Paper
My culture is a personal guide within me that I use to know my lifestyle choices or make choices of what activities to do, value, ignore, and decide on what is right and wrong. A variety of influences is what defines my personal beliefs, quality of life, and lifestyle choices. I was raised in a family-oriented culture where “respect the elder and love your family above all” is like a policy. I value giving to others, especially the poor, as my most significant responsibility because I tend to get my joy by visiting the sick at hospitals or sharing meals with homeless families. I like listening to reggae music that usually tends to omit the “g” off the finish of lyrics (muddin’, gettin’, pullin’, etc…), hill climbing at mist zones is part of me as I always have a passion of becoming athletic and compete with world-class heroes in hill climbing. I value the quality of my life that I chose from the body modification culture… piercings and tattoos are the way of life I decided to add in my body as a way of looking different from every ordinary person. My religious beliefs and moral principles match to many of the world’s religions, and generally, my morals came from my family as well. I was brought up as a true Christian. Still, I do not follow the teachings of a single church as I sometimes find myself being a liberal Christian by supporting the beliefs of several religions such as Islamic to Buddhism.
Canada has a long history of mistreating Indigenous people by attempting to take their culture away and treating them like were second class citizens. Indigenous people face discrimination in Canada; they have been considered uncivilized people and savages for their lifestyle and traditions. Historically, people did not see Indigenous people as “Canadian”; instead, they saw them as uneducated savage beings and turned them into their ideal classification of a “Canadian.” These situations can be reflected back to Canadian history. Canada and its relationship with indigenous people have been shaped by historical events such as the Indian Act, residential schooling, and the Sixties Scoop. The Indian Act had control over governance and education, and it was illegal for Indigenous people to practice their religious ceremonies or even be able to do cultural dancing. Indigenous people lost their status if they graduated from university or achieved a professional designation as a doctor or a lawyer, or if they married outside of the indigenous population. Indigenous peoples’ rights were slowly being stripped away from them; because of this act, they were not allowed to do simple things such as getting a lawyer. Many of the Indigenous people were not allowed to purchase any land claims, which caused a drastic change in their way of living. The Indian Act allowed for events such as residential schooling and the sixties scoop to occur. These still affect Canadian society today because people are not learning about these situations that happened in Canadian history.
The film “The Skin We’re In” denotes a particularly Canadian commitment to the “African Canadian culture and history” development, which began in the US, however, which portrays a set of discrimination acts and inconveniences confronted by every African individual living in white-dominated societies. The film shows the extent to which race plays a role in how the police treat people of color. Desmond Cole shows that the police have treated black men and women very poorly, and they have stereotyped them like criminals even without collecting evidence or without conducting any investigation. The film has shown how carding is used by the police to target black men, and it is a clear violation of privacy and human rights. How I see anti-black racism being enacted in our community is through various policies and practices which are in our institutions. Black men and women are at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing essential services from public institutions such as hospitals because many of the healthcare facilities and workers have attitudes and beliefs that reinforce discrimination against black Canadians. The lack of access to essential services in the community due to anti-black racism negatively affects the welfare of black Canadians, and this, in turn, reduces the overall well-being of the whole community.