In today's society, culture is a part of our identity. It's our heritage, our norms, tradition, values, and even survival methods. Culture is the approach of how we have a sense of belonging and how we share similarities. It's passed down from generation to generation. It details how we are all similar but portrays certain differences. Culture is not only what we share, but it is also our preferences. These preferences include beliefs, and spirituality. Belief is one identity that I value. With culture, there are several ways to identify to a group of people and belief is one way I relate.

I am an African American Christian female. I started my religious walk at a very young age. This was very common in my community. My community was predominantly African American, and it was enriched with culture, values, and tradition. It was a tradition for us to attend church on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. It was our culture to worship together, pray with each other, support the community with giving back. We embraced each other and always celebrated each other. We loved our culture, but we welcomed the diversity that was present around us. Growing up, because I was an African American female, it was always assumed that my religion would not have been anything other than Christianity. This was even portrayed in movies, Tv shows, and shared stories. Although I did not find offense to this projection; however, I did recognize the social construct. It was an understanding growing up that the way the African American culture embraced their religion by attending church and communing together.

My cultural beliefs are still prominent today. My culture values were learned and shared. Because of how I was raised, I know how to pray when I wake up and go to bed, I know what worship is and who to worship. I can attest to my culture directed my behavior, ideas, and daily routines. I viewed the dynamic of culture as a positive thing. In contrast to "Culture as deficit" I believe the categorization of culture is the safest structure we have to identify. The categories race, sex, and ethnicity has been historically controversial, but culture is the safe route to categories. Although reading speaks on culture as another way to show power (Park,Y. 2005). I believe culture is the rational way to respond to people of differences without looking at one specific truth such as the color of their skin or their socioeconomic status. By social workers looking at the culture instead of just the individual, I believe it allows them to look at the bigger and brighter picture. Different cultures have different transgressions. I believe the writer is indicating that "Culture" is another way to stigmatize. My question would be, if culture is not a better way to understand a group of people or individual, then what other way should social workers magnify the acceptance of difference?