Sue’s Worldview Model
Promoting cultural competence is a crucial step toward improving communication between the members of the global community. Indeed, culture clashes, misconceptions, and misunderstandings affect the quality of communication to a considerable degree, reducing the opportunities for developing a compromise and identifying a viable solution. To handle the issue and encourage intercultural dialogue, Derald Wing Sue suggested a framework for determining one’s chances for engaging in a multicultural dialogue. The tool created by Sue evaluates one’s openness toward new and challenging ideas by defining the degree of one’s control over one’s life and position in life (Mio, Barker, & Rodriquez, 2015).
On the one hand, the tool designed by Sue provides extensive opportunities for determining one’s propensity toward accepting change. The degree of control over one’s worldview and beliefs defines one’s ability to embrace new concepts and, thus, develop multicultural competence. On the other hand, the framework implies using only two dimensions as the tools for evaluating one’s chances to engage in a cross-cultural dialogue. It could be argued that other dimensions apart from control over the choices made during the communication process need to be incorporated into the analysis. For instance, the characteristics such as the ability to use the available media as a means of building a conversation as opposed to shielding oneself from new information must be regarded as an important skill and a crucial characteristic. indeed, in the era of rapid technological advancement, negotiation must be deemed as part and parcel of the global communication process, and it is imperative to be able to utilize the existing technological tools as the devices for enhancing cooperation a reaching a compromise (Mio et al., 2015).
African Americans Conversing with White Americans
Interactions between African Americans and White Americans have been characterized by a considerable strain (Mio et al., 2015). The specified phenomenon can be explained by the years of systemic oppression that the African American population has been experiencing (Mio et al., 2015). The phenomenon of racism has not been yet eradicated from modern American society (Mio et al., 2015). While impressive efforts are taken, the legacy of slavery and colonialism remains part and parcel of the modern American society, which affects communication between its members significantly (Mio et al., 2015).
Therefore, certain rules are followed during communication between African Americans and White Americans. The issue of race is deemed as controversial and, therefore, is not addressed typically (Mio et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is crucial to understand that colorblindness as an approach toward communicating with the representatives of different cultures, African American is one of them, is not a sensible strategy to follow. The reason for refusing to use colorblindness as a communication principle is that the specified concept prevents one from identifying opponents’ communication needs and, therefore, using a compromise as a means to reach an agreement (Mio et al., 2015).
Because of the legacy of the White culture and the power that it has had on the African American community, the relationships between White and African Americans are rather complicated. Nevertheless, the adoption of communication techniques based on negotiation and compromise is bound to make the process of bringing the two cultures together considerably easier. As a result, the process of intercultural knowledge sharing and emotional bond between the members of African American and White American communities are bound to become more consistent and significantly stronger. Consequently, the threat of a conflict or miscommunication will be reduced to a considerable extent.
Reference
Mio, J., Barker, L., & Rodriquez, M.D. (2015). Multicultural psychology: Understanding our diverse communities (4th ed.) New York: Oxford University Press.