Effect of Cultural Heritage on a Person

How cultural heritage can affect a person’s experiences, and perception of the world.

What is a stereotype? A stereotype is a generalized belief, widely held but fixed and oversimplified, about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. As an example, a common stereotype of Canadians is that they live in igloos. Based on cultural stereotypes, many people cannot get jobs because of ideas and or prejudice held against them, or they may get discriminated against or get tormented.

“We slaughter one another in our words and attitudes. We slaughter one another in the stereotypes and mistrust that linger in our heads, and the words of hate we spew from our lips.

-- Nelson Mandela

How Does Cultural Heritage Affect a Person's Perspective

Stereotypes make cultural heritage affect experiences, it can also affect a person’s perspective. People from a certain and different area of the world look at the country they live in a different way because of differences in traditions, heritage, religions and much more. I, for one, have a different perspective than, let’s say, some of my friends who grew up in Canada. I was born in Saudi Arabia and I did a lot of growing up there. We moved to Canada when I was starting elementary school and we traveled back and forth between Canada, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (me being an Egyptian and all).

Although I moved to Ontario, I still did a lot of growing up in the middle east, so that changed how I saw things. In Saudi Arabia, at the time I was growing up there, women were not allowed to drive. Women also dressed very conservatively, while the men sometimes did but were not obliged to. I get it, Saudi Arabia is a very religious country, but growing up I thought it was normal for women to not have the same rights as men. In Egypt, women had a little more freedom but it was still “listen to your husband” and “women shouldn’t do this and that”. I lived with the fact that just because I was a woman, I was not going to be given the same equal rights and opportunities as men.

When I moved to Canada, women around me did not dress as conservatively and they all drove and had generally more freedom. I was so used to women being less significant than men that when I came to Ontario, I was overwhelmed. But don’t get me wrong, Canada still struggles with gender equality, but that will be discussed in another blog.

How Does Cultural Heritage Affect a Person's Experiences

How does cultural heritage affect experiences? As I said above, based on cultural stereotypes, many people cannot get jobs because of ideas and or prejudice held against them, or they may get discriminated against. The point being that many people fight long and hard for their rights, only to be stereotyped after getting such rights. For example, Black people have fought for their rights, yet many of them die because of police brutality and the prejudice the police hold against them, and the LGBTQ+ community have fought for their equal rights, yet people stereotype them, use them as insults, use their slurs and much more. Basically every community and group will be stereotype except cis-genered white males.

In a nutshell, cultural heritage affects experiences because of stereotypes. Culture can also influence a person’s perspective because of traditions and customs. Finally stereotypes can be malicious depending on when and how they are used and towards whom.

Tune in for the next blog :)