Learning and Tolerating the Homeless Culture

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses a series of conversations the writer recently had with a homeless person. The paper explains how these interactions provided an opportunity for learning about someone else's culture, an opportunity to understand individual as well as cultural differences, an opportunity to enjoy shared experiences, and a chance to grasp the day-to-day exigencies of this individual's life. The paper further explores a number of themes - culture shock, stereotyping and various theoretical concepts. In conclusion, the paper shows that people who are different from ourselves may seem frightening at first glance, but their humanity becomes more and more undeniable the more we allow ourselves to understand and appreciate the cultures within which they operate.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, this writer conducted a series of sit-down interviews with a homeless person residing in the local community. Initially, the contact was strictly visual as the writer sought to gain a sense of the man and a sense of what his state of mind was. Not long thereafter, however, a verbal line of communication was opened - largely because I offered to buy him a cup of coffee and because I made it clear to him that his life story was of interest to me. During the course of our conversation at the local Starbucks, I became self-conscious and vaguely uncomfortable - not least of all because a number of people took to staring at the odd couple in their midst."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Budner, S. (1962). Intolerance of ambiguity as a personality variable. Journal of Personality, 30, 29-50.
• Cote, J.A., and Tansuhaj, P.S. (1989). Culture-bound assumptions in behavior intention models. Advances in Consumer Research, 16, 105-109.
• Cox, Jr., Taylor. (1993). Cultural Diversity in Organizations: Theory, Research & Practice. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers
• Eden, D. (1990). Industrialization as a self-fulfilling prophecy: The role of expectations in development. International Journal of Psychology, 25, 871-886
• Helms, J.E., and Giorgis, T.W. (1980). A comparison of the locus of control and anxiety level of African, Black American, and White American college students. Journal of College Student Personnel, 21(6): 503-509.

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• Persuasive Essay # 92515 : "Critique of "The Black Culture Industry"

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