In episode 21 of Art of Citizenry Podcast, Manpreet Kaur Kalra unpacks Cultural Humility—a lifelong practice of unlearning, deep listening, and rethinking how we engage with difference. Cultural Humility challenges the colonial mindset that knowledge alone is enough to understand another’s lived experience. Instead, it asks us to center the voices of those most impacted, acknowledge power structures, and embrace the discomfort of not knowing. Having grounded Manpreet’s work in social impact, advocacy, and sustainable development for years now, this episode provides listeners with an in-depth understanding of cultural humility and how it can be applied to various areas of cross-cultural engagement and work. Sharing her own personal experiences with social entrepreneurship, this episode challenges us to rethink our approaches. This episode asks us to listen before acting, acknowledge our own biases, and recognize that power and privilege shape the way we navigate the world.
A Note From Manpreet
I really appreciate you being here, and joining me in this conversation. This episode holds a special place in my heart, it is an episode I have been wanting to do since I started the podcast almost five years ago. If you have listened to some of the early episodes of this podcast or attended any of my keynotes or workshops, you know that cultural humility as a framework has grounded my work for years now. I incorporate it into almost every one of my talks because it offers a perspective that challenges the worldview that knowledge transcends (or does not require) lived experience – in other words, it challenges the false notion that you can simply learn enough about another culture to truly understand it.
What do you mean when you talk about “cultural humility”?
Cultural humility pushes us to challenge our assumptions and prejudices. It encourages us to put aside our judgments about a community or culture, instead approaching others from a place of vulnerability, wanting to learn instead of lead.
The issue I often see is placing an oversimplified understanding of someone’s unique experiences upon them out of an over-eagerness to find common ground. This results in the single story of how others are defined. Cultural humility is not just about individual experiences, it is also a process of active self-reflection and unpacking of the power dynamics we each encounter. It challenges us to understand how historical systems of oppression (e.g. colonialism) continue to marginalize communities today.
References
Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia, Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (May 1998), p. 117. – The seminal paper published by Dr. Melanie Tervalon and Dr. Jann Murray-Garcia as a critique of cultural competency training, which was widely used in medical education at the time. This paper established cultural humility as a guiding framework in healthcare.
“Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices," is a 30-minute documentary by San Francisco State professor Vivian Chávez, that mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, and images of community, nature and dance to explain what Cultural Humility is and why we need it. The film describes a set of principles that guide the thinking, behavior and actions of individuals and institutions influencing interpersonal relationships as well as systems change. These principles are:
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