Negotiating Histories Dialectically in Interaction

How can a dialectical perspective help us to negotiate interactions, given individual attitudes and
personal and cultural histories?  How can we balance the past and present in our everyday intercultural interactions?

First, it is important to recognize that we all bring our own histories (some known, some hidden) to interactions.  We can try and evaluate the role that history plays for those with whom we interact.  Second, we should understand the role that histories play in our identities, in what we bring to the interaction.

One of my friends told me that there are three things that white people should never say to her: "I don't notice your black." "You're not like the others."  and "I know how you feel."  In her opinion, each of these denies or rejects a part of her identity that is deeply rooted in history.

Sometimes it is unwise to ask people where they are "really from."  Such questions assume that they cannot be from where they said they were from, due to racial characteristics or other apparent features.  Recognizing a persons history and its link to his or her identity in communication is the first step towards establishing intercultural relationships.  It is also important to be aware of your own historical blinders and assumptions.

Sometimes the past-present dialectic operates along with the disadvantage-privilege dialectic.  We need to think dialectically about history and social class.  Our own recognition about how class differences have influenced our families is very much affected by the past and by the conditions members experienced that might explain whom they married, why they lived where they did, What languages they do and do not speak, and what culture they identify with.

Two dialectical tensions emerge here:(1) Between privilege and disadvantage and (2) between personal and social.  Both of these dialectics affect our view of the past, present and future.  As we attempt to understand ourselves and our situations (as well as those of others) we recognized that we are where we are for a variety of reasons.  Embedded in our backgrounds are dialectical tensions between privilege and disadvantage and the ways in which these factors were established in the past and the present.

Then there is the dialectical tension between seeing ourselves as unique persons and members of particular social classes.  These factors affect both the present and the future.  Who we think we are today is very much influenced by how we view the past, how we live, and what culture we believe to be our own.