Culture is a way of life that guides our lives in almost all aspects of life. They guide human beings to develop perceptions, the way they judge things and the way they approach issues in the society. Though culture is a powerful tool in the society, it at times sparks violence and attempt to solve the same conflicts in unnoticeable ways. The culture of a people is more than the ethnic language, way of dressing and their way of working. Even though a given group of people may share a common language, race, and nationality other factors such as gender, spiritual affiliations and economic status may bring about differences in their ways of life. Cultures are determined by the society with respect to the changing scope of life so that they make meaning to human identities (Kachru, 1996).
Culture and conflict go hand in hand because of the nature of human interactions. In a society where racism is practiced, the people who are discriminated feel that life is meaningless and purposeless. Racism tends to impart perceptions to people that a group of people of a given colour are more superior to others. The perception has been intertwined in the cultures of different groups of people in the society thereby leading to conflicts of culture.
According to Lederach (1995), the culture we practice tend to shape the way we perceive things, the way we name and the way we govern, therefore calming conflicts. Whenever a conflict arises, culture is always a reason for its occurrence whether the influence is small or big. This is due to the fact that all the conflicts that affect our lives have affiliations in our cultures. More often, people who are looked down upon on basis of racism are judged on unfair grounds and their main task in life is to work towards achieving success and being segregated for not keeping their identities. I therefore agree with Albert Camus argument that racism brings absurdity.
References
Lederach, J. (1995). Conflict Transformation across Cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press
Kachru, B. (1996). Sociolinguistics and language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.