Running head: CULTURAL IMMERSION

Cultural Immersion
Diane Daley
Wilmington University

CULTURAL IMMERSION

2
CULTURAL IMMERSION

There are three main ethnicities that Center for Family Services provides services for.
They are White/Caucasian, African American and Hispanic. With help from a new friend,
Chiquita, I met at my internship site. I have decided to choose African American as the culture I
wanted to learn more about. For the immersion experiences I have chosen to watch the film
documentary Roots as an indirect immersion and I had a personal interview with Chiquita Foat
for a direct immersion. I will also be assessing Center for family Services cultural competency
along with the NOHS Ethical Standards.
History of African American Culture
According to an article in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (2016) African Americans are the second largest minority group. Most African
Americans are descendants from southern plantation slaves from the Colonial Period. Many men
and women were taken from countries in West Africa and forced into slavery. Millions of
Africans were taken from their homes, many by their own chieftains, in exchange for economic
goods.
Slavery
Slavery has been a part of many different countries and cultures since before the
beginning of civilization. The largest event in African American culture is the Transatlantic Slave
Trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade was during the 16th and lasted until the 19th century
consisted of three continents working together. Ships were imported to Africa from European
countries and then sent to the Americas. Although slavery has made many people lose their
heritage and culture, the African culture brought to America is what we see today. The African

CULTURAL IMMERSION

American culture consists of oral traditions, religion, music, foods that were passed down from
generations.
INDIRECT IMMERSION
Roots
Roots is a mini-series documentary that is based on the novel of the same name, written
by Alex Haley. Roots (Chomsky, 2011, Episode one) is the story is about the life of Kunta Kinte
and his family. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte is his ancestor from over seven generations. I
will focus on Episode 1, which shows the cultural traditions of the Mandinka Tribe of The
Gambia, West Africa.
Kunta Kinte was born in 1750 to his parents, Binta and Omoro Kinte. The first tradition I
noticed is that authority in the Mandinka Tribe is male dominated. It was Omoros role as a
father to decide the name and had eight days to do so. Omoro sought the opinion an approval of
the tribal leader before naming his son. Although the tribal elder tells him that it is his problem
only.
Rite of Passage
The second custom noticed was Kunta Kintes rite of passage: manhood training to
become a Mandinka Warrior. At the age of fifteen, Kunta and the other adolescent males of the
tribe are ready to become men. The boys fathers put a sack over their head and lead the boys out
of their hut to the tribal elders. The elders then take the boys to a secluded area. The young men
then meet the wrestler. Kunta is taught an important lesson from the wrestler. The lesson is
about the bravery and courage of a warthog. The final stage of manhood training is complete
with a circumcision.

CULTURAL IMMERSION

Another cultural aspect is when Kunta returns to his village as a man, his mother
informs him that he can no longer live in the same hut as his family. His father has built him a
hut of his own in another area of the village. Kuntas first action as a man, is when he dismisses
his mother having any authority over him. However, the next day his grandmother comes to his
hut and beats him with a large stick saying I will always be your grandmother and you will obey
me showing that elderly women have authority in the village as well men.
Kunta goes to find a large log in order to make a gift for his younger brother to appease
his mother. While searching for the log, he is captured and forced onto the slave ship for a four
month voyage to the New World. Kunta is convinced that the other Mandinka Warriors and Allah
will save him and the other prisoners. Kunta is even more discouraged when he discovers that
many of the prisoners are from other tribes and they do not speak the same language. Many
African tribes and countries were part of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

DIRECT IMMERSION
Interview with Chiquita Foat
Chiquita Foat is an African American woman, age undisclosed. She is the Senior
Substance Abuse Counselor for the Substance Abuse Treatment Program, for Center for Family
Services. She is also a Substance Abuse Counselor for Twin Oaks Integrated. She has worked as
a Counselor for over twenty years. Chiquita is friendly, well liked and respected among the
agency. She introduces herself to her clients as Chiquita, just like the banana. She has many
endearing nicknames for the other counselors in the office. I often hear her calling for
Grasshopper and Lady bug in the hallway.

CULTURAL IMMERSION

I would describe her personality as sunny and bubbly. She described it as being loud
and obnoxious. She is quite loud and not shy, but not in an obnoxious way at all. She was the
very first person to make me feel welcomed at my internship site. When I told her about this
assignment, Chiquita cheerfully volunteered to be my interviewee and offered to let me borrow
her copy of Roots to use for the indirect portion of my research.
Chiquita and I had our interview on Tuesday November 1st, 2016. Our conversation
consisted of the interview questions I downloaded from Blackboard. According to Chiquita, she
identifies herself as a cocoa colored African American woman. She was born and raised in
Savannah Georgia. She has lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey for the last ten years. She stated
being brought up in the south, I was raised in a very religious household and my parents
constantly reminded us about slavery (Foat, 2016).
Origins
Chiquita described her history and origin as European, North Carolina, Georgia and New
Jersey. She moved to New Jersey because she felt there were better job opportunities than in the
south (Foat, 2016). I identify with my African American heritage, I recently found out that I am
also from and Indian Tribe. My family has always identified with African Americans and
accepted that (Foat, 2016).
Family
Family beliefs about child rearing and discipline was always Spare the rod and spoil the
child. She stated that her family has always been male dominated. She is also the only surviving
child out of four. She also stated that in her culture males hold the formal power, especially as
preachers. She was raised in a religious home with Christian values.

CULTURAL IMMERSION

Health
Chiquita said her family never focused on healthy eating and exercise. Family reunions
and gatherings were always filled with traditional southern foods. Her mother always used folk
remedies when they became ill. She hardly ever goes to the doctor now unless she is seriously in
need of medication.
Center for Family Services
The Center for Family Services has an Intercultural Competence Plan. The current plan
has been in place since January 2008 (Centerffs.org, 2016). The intercultural plan is aligned with
the organizations mission, vision and values. The Cultural Competency Plan is reviewed and
revised annually by the Continuous Quality Improvement Process. I was asked by my supervisor
this past week, if I would like to sit in and observe the next CQIP meeting as part of my learning
experience for my internship. My supervisor is on the CQIP Committee. If my schedule allows
it, I am interested in attending.
Center for Family Services is committed to establishing multi-cultural principles and
practices throughout its systems of services as it works toward the critical goal of developing
programs and services that are linguistically appropriate, culturally relevant, and sensitive. The
Intercultural competency recognizes that individuals may never truly be competent in a culture
that is not their own (Centerffs.org).
The components of the Cultural Competency Plan are based on the Ethical Standards for
Human Service Professionals outlined by the National Organization for Human Services. The
goals are Agency demographic data; Policies, procedures and governance; Services, programs
and environments; Human resource development and Quality monitoring and improvement.

CULTURAL IMMERSION

Agency Demographic Data

The agency collects demographic data on the service areas on an annual basis to
determine the information. All data is collected by identifying the composition of the agencies
service area including ethnicity, race and primary language spoken. The composition of staff,
clients served by the agency and its individual programs.

Policies, Procedures and Governance

It is Center for Family Services policy to have an intercultural competence committee to
report to the CQIP committee any matters that pertain to multi-cultural services and issues. It
also states in the plan that CFS must take into consideration any cultural and religious groups
when scheduling events and meetings.
Services, Programs and Environments
Center for Family Services is a culturally competent organization that offers services
that are culturally relevant, provided by staff that is trained with cultural competency skills
(Cenerffs.org). Center for Family Services has many affiliate agreements with other agencies.
Maintaining the agreements allows for referrals to be made for services to agencies that are faithbased or nontraditional.
Human Resource Development
The Human Resource department of Center for Family Services recruits new staff that
reflect the cultural diversity of the populations served. Including offering translators that are
available 24 hours a day. Bi-lingual is a requirement in the descriptions of many of the positions
offered for employment with the agency. Center for Family Services also provides ongoing

CULTURAL IMMERSION

intercultural training for all staff, and also conducts an ongoing assessment of the agency and
community strengths and weaknesses. Many trainings are available in other languages to assist
with any language barriers.

Quality Monitoring and Improvement

Center for Family Services ensures that cultural issues are addressed in policies, plans
and daily assessments. The information collected throughout the agency is used to incorporate
cultural competency to present to the CQIP committee. Monitoring and improvement are the
main concepts of the committee.

CULTURAL IMMERSION

9
REFERENCES

Centerffs. (n.d.). Retrieved November 01, 2016, from https://www.centerffs.org/Cultural

Competency Plan.

Chomsky, M. (Director). (2011). Roots 30th Anniversary Edition: Episode one [Motion picture
on DVD]. Warner Brothers.

Foat, C. (2016, November 1). [Personal interview].

National Organization for Human Services (2015). Ethical Standards for Human Service
Professionals. Retrieved October 19, 2016, from https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/
Ethical-standards-for-hs-proffesionals.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2016). Retrieved from
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/slaveroute/transatlantic-slave-trade/