Analysis Of An American Sitcom To Identify Culturally Safe Or Unsafe Space

Cultural capability and cultural safety

The report aims to analyze a particular video clip to see whether it has demonstrated a culturally safe or unsafe space.

Cultural capability refers to the ability of an individual or group to identify the differences in culture while interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. It is the skills, knowledge and behavior an individual possess that are required to respect other cultures while delivering any service, planning for their improving or communicating with them. Those with cultural capabilities are able to create a culturally ‘safe space’ at the workplace or any other place for the people belonging to different cultures (Holley & Steiner, 2005).  Cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence or CQ, are all sets of cultural capabilities that some people possess and some do not (Groen et al., 2015). These capabilities contribute majorly towards creating a safe space for people of other cultures.

The report aims to describe, summarize and analyze an instance of an unsafe space, which resulted from the lack of cultural capabilities. After analyzing, the report will provide recommendations that could improve the situation and make it more welcoming and respectful for everyone irrespective of culture.

The report will chiefly describe and analyze the situation shown in the video clip chosen, which is Episode 5, Season 10 of Seinfeld, an American sitcom released in 1993 (YouTube.com, 2018). The report will discuss a few selected scenes from the video that depict culturally unsafe practices or behaviors.

As mentioned above, the video clip is from the 1993 American sitcom Seinfeld. The first season of the show was aired in the year 1989 and it ran for nine years until 1998. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld (who also happens to be the lead character) are the creators of the show, which portrays the daily lives of the people living in Manhattan.  The scene in discussion, which aired on December 9, 1993, involves Jerry Seinfeld, his ex-girlfriend Elaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Winona (played by Kimberly Guerrero) (IMDb.com, 2018). Jerry is seen entering Elaine’s apartment with a surprise gift for her to make up for a fault of his in the previous scene. As he enters, he finds Winona and other of Elaine’s friends sitting there. They also eagerly await the revelation of the gift brought by Jerry but the revelation turns out to be shocking. Jerry brings the ‘Cigar Store Indian’, which literally upsets Winona, as she is a Native American. When Winona leaves the room being disturbed by the incident, Elaine explains Jerry about his mistake.

Description and analysis of an unsafe space

In another scene, when Winona asks for her ‘Al Roker TV Guide’ from Jerry, he says that he has already given to someone else as he thought it was a gift from her. He indirectly calls her an ‘Indian giver’, an offensive term used for Native Americans and annoys her further.

Table 1 Observations made from the scene

Run time of the chosen scenes	Communication factors	Cultural Inclusion/ exclusion	Gestures and behaviours	Cultural capabilities
0:00-1:34	–  Jerry has no sense about communicating with people from Native American culture as he demonstrates extremely insensitive behaviour towards the Native people – Elaine demonstrates bad communication skills as she is unable to apologize properly to Winona after Jerry indirectly insults are Native American origin	– Winona is made to feel culturally excluded as Jerry makes derogatory and funny remarks about the Indians	– The behaviour demonstrated by Jerry was extremely insensitive because it was an insult to the culture of the Native Americans – Added to that, while Winona was leaving after feeling bad, Jerry made gestures with the statue that further derogated Winona’s culture	– Jerry demonstrated a total absence of cultural capability that includes cultural awareness and intelligence. He makes says and makes many stereotypical statements and gestures regarding Native Americans that clearly demonstrates his lack of cultural awareness and CQ.
3:58-4:45	– Jerry tries hard not to hurt Winona again but clearly seems to lack interpersonal skills as he again upsets her by almost using inappropriate word like the ‘Indian giver’	– Here again Winona is made to feel excluded as Jerry stereotypes her asking about the TV Guide back as something that Indians generally do	– It is implied that Jerry likes Winona and wants her to like him too but his behaviour and gestures when he talks about her act of asking back the TV Guide is derogatory	– In this case also, Jerry demonstrates an extreme lack of cultural awareness as he stereotypes Winona’s asking him to give back the TV Guide as an Indian trait – The scene depicts the problems that arise when people fail to understand the cultural nuances and presume things beforehand.

Li, Mobley and Kelly (2013), state that cultural safety should be in the priority list of every individual who come across situations where they have to interact or work with culturally different people. Cultural safety can only be ensured when people have cultural capabilities that could reflect in their behavior, communication and gesture. Cultural inability leads to culture shock that people often face in a culturally different environment (Flanja, 2009). In the chosen video, the lead character lacks cultural capability as could be seen from his interaction with Winona, a Native American.

As discussed in the above sections, cultural capability means the ability to behave, act or communicate in a way that respects another culture. In the video, Jerry initially had no idea that Winona was a Native American and makes fun of her culture through the Cigar Store Indian by using derogatory words like “let’s bury the hatchet” “ We smoke ‘um peace pipe”. He also demonstrates total absence of cultural capability by showing gestures like moving the statue back and forth and humming Indian chant such as hey-yah, ho-ah. This is a good instance of what Spencer-Oatey and Franklin (2012) explain about cultural capability. According to the authors, medical professionals are given training on handling people of different cultures to increase their capability. However, cultural capability, they further add, is not attained only by training, self-awareness is also important that Jerry lacks.  

In the views of Quappe and Cantatore (2005), cultural awareness does not mean learning about other cultures through media outlets or other invalid sources and creating a preconceived notion. Cultural awareness, they state, involves critical research and examination about other cultures. The knowledge demonstrated by Jerry about the Native Americans clearly comes from the things he has heard from his adults and seen on TV. Therefore, he actually does not possess any awareness about the Native American culture.  

Culture awareness increases cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence increases when one has more exposure to other cultures. As Crowne (2013) notes, “Cultural exposure has an impact on the cultural intelligence of the people because of the growing international interactions”. Relating it to the situation of Jerry and to those who came out with this idea, they seem to have no cultural exposure. In addition, back in the 1990s, there was least opportunity for people to be exposed to other cultures because globalization was yet to spread (Forsyth, 2015). It is but interesting to note that the makers of the show had least idea about the history and culture of their own land, which led to such insensitive display of cultural diversity.

Recommendations

After thoroughly examining the particular scenes in the video, it is clear that the cross-cultural scenario depicted needs to be amended.

At first, it is recommended that Jerry should study more about the history of Native Americans and their cultures so that he does not always upset his love interest who also happens to be Indian. It was very amateur on part of the makers as well to show that Jerry did not know about Winona’s cultural affinity since he is so much interested in her. They should make sure that they do not portray the Indians as war tribes chanting hey-yah ho-ah.

Second, in the later scene when Jerry almost calls Winona an ‘Indian giver’, it is very demeaning and hurting for the native people. Instead of showing this, they should demonstrate the way Jerry turns into a culturally sensitive person from being acquainted with a Native American.

Third, the phrase “Indian giver” had originated out of misunderstanding and hence, it should not have been given such prominence. The scene could have been scripted in a way that ultimately reveals the actual truth behind the misunderstood phrase.

To conclude, it should be reiterated that the social setting depicted in the American sitcom Seinfeld is a culturally unsafe space. It was found from the analysis that the characters in the show had no cultural capability especially the lead character, Jerry Seinfeld. Further, the analysis also revealed that due to lack of cultural awareness, the makers failed to incorporate scenes or situations that could make the Native American character feel included culturally. The report hence, suggested some recommendations that could help improve the situation and make the social setting, a culturally safe space.

References:

Crowne, K. A. (2013). Cultural exposure, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence: An exploratory study. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), 5-22.

Flanja, D. (2009). Culture shock in intercultural communication. Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai. Studia Europaea, 54(4), 107.

Forsyth, B. (2015). Cultural Intelligence and Global Leadership. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 12(2).

Groen, Y., Fuermaier, A. B. M., Den Heijer, A. E., Tucha, O., & Althaus, M. (2015). The empathy and systemizing quotient: The psychometric properties of the Dutch version and a review of the cross-cultural stability. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(9), 2848-2864.

Holley, L. C., & Steiner, S. (2005). Safe space: Student perspectives on classroom environment. Journal of Social Work Education, 41(1), 49-64.

IMDb.com. (2018). “Seinfeld” The Cigar Store Indian (TV Episode 1993). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697677/

Li, M., Mobley, W. H., & Kelly, A. (2013). When do global leaders learn best to develop cultural intelligence? An investigation of the moderating role of experiential learning style. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(1), 32-50.

Quappe, S., & Cantatore, G. (2005). What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it. Retrieved July, 17, 2008.

Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2012). What is culture. A compilation of quotations. GlobalPAD Core Concepts, 1-22.

YouTube.com. (2018). Seinfeld — Native American (Full Scene). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpGfyp6MxkM