White Men: Time to Discover Your Cultural Blind Spots | Michael Welp | TEDxBend

White men rarely, if ever, are required to examine their own culture. In this timely and provocative talk, Welp speaks to his own experience becoming conscious of his white male culture, bias, and privilege as key tools to effective partnership across difference.

Michael Welp, PhD. is a co-founder of White Men as Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP). For 20 years, Welp has led pioneering workshops engaging white male leaders to create cultures of full inclusion. He focuses on how to engage white men to become more passionate advocates for inclusion and how they can partner better with people of color and white women. Welp has facilitated interracial team building with over a dozen South African corporations in his work with Outward Bound. His research on how white men learn about diversity led to founding WMFDP. Welp is the author of the recently published book, Four Days To Change: 12 Radical Habits to Overcome Bias and Thrive in a Diverse World.

[r.h.f.]

i'd like to add that when he says 'white male culture, ' he means 'white american male culture.' I'm a white man but I'm from the Czech Republic, and there is not very much culturally that I have in common with white men in America.

[sharkwolf]

I love the term "White culture" each European country has 8ts own distinct culture, and within the countries each region has it's own sub culture. I'm sure in America a white guy from new York has a different way of seeing the world than a white guy from Dakota

[ryanmazdaLAX]

There is no one white culture. I live in the Netherlands, most of us are white, our culture is vastly different to russians or albanians where most people are also white.

[Khorne_of_the_Hill]

Just hang out with people from different cultures; it's pretty easy to realize you have your own culture when you're surrounded by somebody else's lol

[jamespostlewate]

No balls... In love, infatuated with the trendy cultural marxism. Blinded with the indefensible "critical race theory" and the manufacture of racial crisis.

[miladhomayoun]

Ok, I have to disagree.
I am a man from Afghanistan..
I was born in Afghanistan, raised and been living here all my life, I am not a white man and have not been around one. In the mean time I see most of what he described as “white man culture” in myself.
I leave my emotions out of the way when dealing with something, I am at my most efficient and sharpest when I am alone, I would NEVER ask for directions if I am lost, while being aware that it is wrong and I don’t know why I do it, but still do it.. So I am more than sure it is not about culture of a white man, but I have no idea where it came from...

[Bellg]

white men huh? not diverse enough for you? or did he mean ALL white men of scotish, english, dutch, german, swiss, french, swedish, norwegian, russian, polish decent? seems like a bit of a generalization don't ya think... the self hate is unreal

[careymxsmith-thomas]

It's clear from most of these comments, that there is still a lot of work to do.

[samanthastiegler]

He’s literally saying all “white” people think the same and act the same which is definitely not true. “White” American does not have the same as culture as German, Russian, Hungary etc... culture. Just like African Americans don’t have the same culture as African culture or Malaysian culture etc... just because u have the same skin complexion don’t make u think the same and act the same.

[davidjayakaran]

As the saying goes, "If you want to know what it feels like to get wet, you don't ask a fish". These cultural blind spots are frequently misconstrued as racism... which exacerbates the problem. Also, every culture has its blind spots.

[shamaripatton-webb]

“The word ‘privilege’ is a hard word for us as white men because we don’t feel privileged.”

“There are things we haven’t had to navigate or negotiate or think about that other groups have.”

All the comments on this video prove what he is saying about privilege. It’s as if discussing a group of people’s common behaviors observed in different regions of the world is in some way an attack on them. And what’s even more incredible is how dismissive everyone watching this is. One of the very things he discussed!

Cultural growth can never begin until people stop trying to explain why they are different from the whole, and start challenging causation of barriers still in existence in today’s world. We all have so many opportunities to take a step back and ponder our perception.

This speaker is highly underrated. His self awareness is absolutely incredible. Hats off to him. I would love to probe his thoughts.

[johnatwell]

Diversity is not always a good thing. I am a white male, I am not priviledged.I do not model any of the the things this guy says is white male culture. He is just spouting tired old stereotypes. I have done the work and I just don't see it... I suspect it is because it isn't there.

[jarrodstowe]

As a white master, and I dont just mean over other races but also within the white race, I played this video on out my windows on the 100th floor, across the vast lands I dominate.

How magical.

[ZeroToPatrick]

Doctor Welp is educated far beyond his intelligence

[EugeniusTay]

If some of you actually listened to what he was saying, the only problem you'd have is the part of what he's saying that you identify with. None of us like changing. None of us wanna feel wrong. But if you're wrong, you're wrong. Is it wrong to be your white selves? Absolutely not. Is the system that was created to benefit you wrong? Absolutely. Should you listen to the issues of people, that don't look like you, that are affected by this system? Yes. I served this country, and fought for the constitution, knowing damn well that the constitution wasn't written with me in mind. The line that said "all men are created equal" didn't mean me. That was when we were considered 3/5 human. Understanding that may lead some of you to understand that our reality has been different from yours from the start. Once you get that, and realize we just wanna be treated the same way the world treats you, maybe you wouldn't be so mad. But who am I, right?

[julialong]

This sounds more to me like white American culture.... I'm not knocking it, i just feel like these descriptors are more specific to that particular culture and not necessarily all white people of all nationalities. Just a thought

[michael.]

His comment is right on about that his view of the world is wrong, it's just incomplete. That could be said of all of us.

[JohnJohnson-hlfv]

Diversity? I like who I like, and if you don't like it, I really don't give a damn.

[jonmitchell]

Ok I don't get the other comments on here. I agree with everything that was said as a white Male myself. I personally believe I have been able to step out of the box of what my culture is many times with a simple resolution that I think all people of all backgrounds should at least attempt to do and that is try putting yourself in others shoes. If you don't understand where they're coming from then ask questions. You can never learn and improve your understanding of things if you don't ask. Doesn't mean that you are a different person just that you are a more informed one. I think all people should watch this and just think about why others feel the way they do.

[deewoods]

What he called different experience we know as struggle