Illustration by TingYu Chang
Cultural awareness is someone’s understanding of the difference between themselves and people from different countries or cultural backgrounds.
In the age of technology, where a vast amount of information is at our fingertips, we are connected more than ever. With all the accessibility that we have to one another, it is more common to interact with different cultures outside of our own. In order to better understand one another, it is vital that we educate ourselves on other cultures.
The U.S.’s Relationship With Culture
The U.S. is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse countries in the world. In 2020, the United States Census documented that 54% of the population identified as white non-Hispanic. This is nearly a 10% drop from 2010, when the number was 61%.
The U.S. is becoming more and more diverse. This is especially prevalent at RIT, which has an estimated amount of nearly 2,000 international students.
With all the different cultures in the United States, you would expect the citizens to be more culturally aware. This is not the case most of the time.
Many people in the U.S. are unaware of what happens outside of their country. A study conducted by The Washington Post in 2016, showed that most people in the U.S. pay little attention to areas like Africa or Central Asia.
Nickesia Gordon, an associate professor at RIT’s School of Communication, weighed in on why some people in the U.S. don’t feel the need to pay attention to other countries.
“I think from a cultural perspective, there isn’t really an incentive for some people to want to learn about the rest of the world,” Gordon said.
“I think from a cultural perspective, there isn’t really an incentive for some people to want to…