Understanding Our Differences

I have recently been honored to be named one of Fifty Influential Business Leaders of Color by the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber and Get Konnected!, a social impact venture whose mission is to curate meaningful business and social connections, enrich professional development, facilitate business and career opportunities, and forge positive cross-cultural relationships. Having attended a few conversations on this topic, including the efforts of the Suzuki Association of the Americas to address the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, I have been thinking about my own experiences.

I grew up on the East Coast, so my family did not have a strong nor large Japanese community with which to be involved. We spoke English at home, and my siblings and I were all good students. My mother's family traveled and lived in different countries, and in my adulthood I have experienced a similar situation.

The Suzuki School of Newton is a culturally diverse community. We have many nationalities and ethnicities represented. But yet we hear about cultural bias and microaggressions. That is, we sometimes do not realize the cultural differences that underlie a person's behavior nor the cultural influence that creates a viewpoint on the role of a person in society. To further complicate our diverse American life, children are often driven to want to fit in. They want to speak American English without an obvious accent, and they wear clothes similar to their friends. There is the tug and pull of wanting to excel in school--which means to stand out--and the desire to blend in.

The Suzuki approach to learning comes with a strong consciousness of the importance of an individual contributing to society. Dr. Suzuki encouraged all students to make beautiful music to share with others. Spreading beauty and expressing one's emotions through the music was a way to reawaken creativity and life in a traumatized post-World War II Japan. As a Japanese American, I have experienced the Japanese culture of raising one's children to be part of a greater whole in society. At the same time, being American born, the values of individualism and independence are strongly ingrained. I lived in France for ten years, and I saw in French culture a strong defence of civil liberties (especially free speech) and a wider social responsibility to all individuals, such as having national health insurance. The French will share their opinion most vocally, but they will also defend the right to have basic assurances like retirement pensions.

I am interested in these conversations. We as teachers are working at being more sensitive to cultural differences and building an inclusive environment. What is your story? What may we have misunderstood? How can we make our environment better?

Sachiko Isihara
Executive Director

This month, Sachiko was named one of the 50 Most Influential Business People of Color by the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber. For more information and to view the full list, you can visit their website.