Culture, Ethnicity, Race and Minority Group :)

Assalamualaikum. Hai! 

So now, we are going to talk about multicultural counseling, finally. Hehe. So, before we go deeper into what multicultural counseling is all about, I believe it is good for us to have a clear definition on culture, ethnicity, race and minority group. 

So, what is culture?

Credit to: http://bilingualkidsrock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Aspects-of-Culture-Beyond-Language-infograph-869x1024.jpg

Fairchild (1970) defined culture as "all behavioral pattern socially acquired and socially transmitted by means of symbols, including customs, techniques, beliefs, institutions and material objects".

Haviland (1975) defines culture as "a set of shared assumptions where people can predict each other's actions in a given circumstances and react accordingly".

According to Merriam-Webster (2006), culture is "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group".

Encyclopedia Britannia (2006) on the other hand defines culture as an "integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour that is both a result of and integral to the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. Culture thus consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of arts, rituals, ceremonies, and symbols... ."

Hmm, maybe that is why whenever we are asked what culture is, we tend to associate it with sets of ideas and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies or even food. Yummy! 

Next, what is ethnicity?

McGoldrick, Pearce and Giordano (1982) described ethnicity as a sense of commonality that is more than a race, religion, national, or geographic origin. 

Another way to look at ethnicity is a perceived common ancestry even though there is much cultural diversity within each of these groups. 

Ethnicity is also being defined by having a shared language, religion, nationality, history or other cultural factors. 

Then, what race is?

Race commonly defined physically which tend to include genetic grouping and a biological underpinning. There is often more diversity within a racial group than between racial groups, 

To have a more understanding about race and ethnicity, do watch the following video. 

And last but not least, what is minority group?

Corey, Corey and Callanan (1988) defined a minority group as people who have been discriminated against or subjected to unequal treatment.

Lee, Blando, Mizelle,and Oraczo (2007) believe that using this definition, minority group would also include women, gays and lesbian, the elderly and person with disabilities because all these groups have also been subjected to unequal treatment. 

References:

1. Lee, W.M.L, Blando, J. A., Mizelle, N. D. and Oraczo, G. L. (2007) Introduction to Multicultural Counseling for Helping Professionals. USA: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

2. Pederson, P. B. and Carey, J. C. (2003) Multicultural Counseling in Schools, A Practical Handbook (2nd Ed). USA; Pearson Education, Inc.

3. Khanacademymedicine. (2014, April 26). Demographic structure of society- race and ethnicity. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WIiConeatM