Culturally Inclusive Environments

00:05 In terms of academia. Another important concept and we can replace one part with a different word, but that's culturally inclusive learning environment.

00:16 We also need culturally inclusive work environments, and in every space that we exist in, it needs to be culturally inclusive.

00:23 And I talked about in other segments about what that means and why that's important, because we want to give everybody the space to exist in their skin, however they want to and to live in peace.

00:37 So what is the culturally inclusive environment? It's an environment where all people in that environment feel welcome.

00:44 They feel supported socially, intellectually, academically, however it is, in every space, we feel not only supported, but also feel like we have a fighting chance to achieve the next level of whatever success is to each individual.

01:01 And that's regardless of our identity, regardless of our ability, or preferences, or cultural beliefs and practices.

01:09 Thinking about it across the spectrum.

01:12 It needs to be not only inclusive, but also welcoming.

01:16 It also needs to when we think about inclusion, we need to think about acceptance, and embracing those differences in terms of culture.

01:26 There's a misconception to that I want to bring up here when we talk about culture.

01:30 Culture is not just for people of color.

01:33 There are cultures, among all races, ethnicities.

01:37 White people do have culture, believe it or not, and some people may have never heard that, but because I do this work, I know that some White people feel like they don't have culture, or that this doesn't apply.

01:48 This applies to every single human, because we all have traditions, regardless of race, ethnicity.

01:55 And then when we think about culture, broadly, as I mentioned, when we talked about some of the cultural intelligence work, culture exists within organizations, right.

02:04 So there are multiple departments and each department there's a culture.

02:09 So, if someone who let's say, I'm new to working in IT, for whatever reason, maybe someone wants to hire me in IT because they want a healthcare perspective, because that's the Department of IT they work with.

02:23 Well, then, guess what, not only do I have to embrace their culture, they also need to embrace mine from a healthcare perspective, and in particular from a nursing and nurse practitioner perspective.

02:35 So, just an example of what that could look like outside of a general environment, or healthcare space, or academic space, you can think about culture broadly, every time you think about it.

02:48 Revisiting I just talked about cultural intelligence, and that is the skill and confidence to function effectively in a multicultural environment or multicultural situation or interaction.

02:59 And remember, there are four different points to that.

03:03 So I need to be motivated.

03:05 How can I create a culturally inclusive environment if I'm not motivated to learn more about other cultures.

03:11 If I'm not motivated, not only to learn more, but to participate in a multicultural environment or interaction, and to learn more, gain more knowledge, not only by reading, because reading stuff will give us a general concept of what people's cultures are but having conversations with people, and not assuming that everybody within a certain culture has the same belief systems, or traditions, or practices, or attitudes.

03:42 So, it's so important, not only to do the research, but also to have conversations and person to person interactions.