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KRISTEN A. NORMAN-MAJOR AND SUSAN T. GOODEN
Cultural competency is a characteristic of good government. It promotes effective delivery of services to a comprehensive and inclusive public. Governmental organizations are “indispensible to a secure and civilized life” (Goodsell 2004, 11). As the essays in this edited volume illuminate, cultural competency is fundamental to good government. It is not enough for our bureaucratic institutions to offer effective and accessible services to a few; it is our responsibility to offer these services to all. Is offering culturally competent services easy or convenient? Of course not. But neither ease nor convenience outweighs the core responsibilities of public administration. Our U.S. Postal Service delivers mail daily to all residences, which is neither easy nor convenient. However, it is fundamental to an inclusive and comprehensive mail delivery system.
Administrative mastery is a hallmark of good government (Mead 2004, 215) and is a public service value of American public administration. In defining public administration, it is important to look at both words—public and administration. Definitions of public consistently include language similar to the following:
• of, pertaining to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole
• done, made, or acting, for the community as a whole
• open to all persons
• pertaining or devoted to the welfare or well being of the community
• the people constituting a community, state, or nation. (Dictionary.com 2011)
Definitions of administer and administration include verbs such as manage, supervise, and perform. Public administration is both action-oriented and results-driven. Thus, by definition, in carrying out their work public administrators must serve all members of the community, not just selected parts, small groups, or particular individuals. The reality of this service to the whole is the need to recognize the diverse makeup of the population and the differing needs of the communities served. While the United States has a long history of including people from many cultures, races, income levels, religions, education levels, and abilities, the public sector has not always recognized the differing needs of communities and instead tried to get the population to fit into programs designed as one-size-fits-all. This lack of recognition of cultural differences often leads to development and implementation of ineffective, inefficient, and inequitable public services. Instead of serving the community as a whole or being open to all persons, programs and policies that lack recognition of cultural difference often leave part of the public out of public service.
Fundamentally, culturally competent public administration includes a “respect for, and understanding of diverse ethnic and cultural groups, their histories, traditions and value systems in the provision and delivery of services” (Bush 2000, 177). Within public administration, cultural competency has an important relationship to the implementation of representative bureaucracy, which calls upon governmental agencies to operate as representative political institutions of the public at large. As Bailey correctly notes, “to achieve active representation, more government employees will need to become culturally competent when carrying out their responsibilities” (Bailey 2005, 173).
WHAT THE UNITED STATES REALLY LOOKS LIKE
While some attention has been paid to the need to recognize difference, traditionally discussions of diversity have focused on issues of race, ethnicity, or gender. However, if the public sector is to serve the community as whole, public administrators must recognize that differences go much deeper than these three categories. Not only has the population of the United States become more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and country of origin, with growing “minority” populations in many areas, but also there is an increasing recognition of the need to pay attention to other differences that have always existed but have not always been recognized in the development and implementation of public policies. Slowly, the public sector is recognizing the need to move away from a dominant one-size-fits-all model of administration toward one that takes differing cultures, demographics, and perspectives into consideration. The chapters in this book are designed to further that process by examining an array of diversity areas.
RACE AND ETHNICITY
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2009 the U.S. population consisted of 307,006,550 people. The breakdown of this total by race and ethnicity is estimated as follows (U.S. Census Bureau 2010):
| White, non-Hispanic | 65.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 15.8% |
| Black | 12.9% |
| Asian | 4.9% |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 1.0% |
| Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |
While the groups traditionally considered to be minorities in the United States still make up less than 50 percent of the population, their percentages are growing. Between 2000 and 2009, the black population increased by 11 percent, American Indian by 18.3 percent, Asian by 32.3 percent, Native Hawaiian by 25 percent, and Hispanic by 37.1 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2011).
In looking at these figures, it is important to understand how the Census Bureau defines race and ethnicity. According to the instructions for the 2010 census,
the racial categories included in the census form generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country, and are not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically or genetically. In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian and White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish may be of any race. (U.S. Census Bureau 2009, 4)
Thus, for Census Bureau purposes, census data often blur the lines between race and ethnicity. Also important to consider is that ethnicity or country of origin is not separated out in the broad categories. That is, Asians include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indians, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and several other groups that have origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. Hispanics and Latinos include people with heritage in Mexico, Central America, South America, and Spain. Blacks include African Americans, Africans, and Haitians, and whites include those of European, Middle Eastern, and North African descent (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Thus, the broad categories used in the census include people who may come from the regions defined by each category but also who may have very different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
GENDER
According to 2009 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States is almost evenly split between males and females with a 50.7 percent female population (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). These figures assume a simple male/female gender distinction and do not account for trans gender or other individuals who may not identify as simply male or female. Identification of gender, whether male, female, or other, is important in many areas of public administration, including labor and antidiscrimination laws and delivery of public health and social services.
AGE
The age distribution of a population is important for the public sector in determining program needs, predicting the tax base, and looking at workforce development issues. According to 2009 data, 6.9 percent of the U.S. population is under five years old, 24.3 percent is under eighteen, and 12.9 percent is over sixty-five (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). These differences are particularly important in looking at dependency ratios, meaning the relationship between people ages fourteen to sixty-five who make up the labor force and those under fourteen and over sixty-five who are often dependent on programs funded through income taxes collected from those in the workforce.
Of particular concern to policy makers and the shape of public services in the United States is the aging of the baby boom population. While those over sixty-five years of age currently constitute about 13 percent of the population, it is predicted that this number will increase to 19 percent by 2030. As the population ages, the demands made upon government will change, with more pressure put on the budgets of programs that support the elderly, such as Social Security and Medicare.
ABILITY
Approximately 51 million people or 18 percent of the population are considered to have a disability, including 12 percent who are classified as severely disabled. Some 11 percent of children between the ages of six and fourteen and 72 percent of people eighty and older are considered disabled (Disabled in Action n.d.). Disabilities—conditions that prevent individuals from carrying out varying tasks—include vision and hearing impairments, cognitive limitations, mental or emotional illness that severely interferes with daily activities, and ambulatory limitations such as use of a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walker. Many individuals with both nonsevere and severe disabilities are employed. Census data from 2002 reported that 56 percent of people between twenty-one and sixty-four who have some type of disability had worked in the last year (Disabled in Action n.d.). The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 guarantees equal access and opportunities for those with disabilities on several fronts, including government services.
RELIGION
While the majority of the American population identifying itself as part of a religious tradition identifies as Christian, the numbers in other faiths are rising and the percentage of those identifying as Protestant may soon fall below 50 percent (Pew Forum 2008). According to a survey of 35,000 adults in the United States conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 78.4 percent identified as Christian, with 51.3 percent as Protestant, 23.9 percent as Catholic, 1.7 percent as Mormon, and the remainder as Jehovah’s Witness, Orthodox, or other Christian. In the same survey, 4.7 percent of the population identified with other religions, including Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Unitarianism, while 16.1 percent of the population was unaffiliated, including atheists and agnostics and those identifying as nothing in particular (Pew Forum 2008).
Despite the separation of church and state, religion affects the provision of public services. Debates regarding religion and public policy range from the inclusion of prayer in schools to provision of footbaths in public buildings for Muslim citizens to cleanse in before prayer. Issues also arise related to respect for religious preferences in the provision of public health services or food provided in public hospitals or schools that meets various religious practices. As these examples illustrate, public administrators are regularly faced with the development and implementation of policies that take religious preference and practice into account.
EDUCATION LEVEL
According to census data estimates, 80.4 percent of people over twenty-five are high school graduates and 24.4 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Often discussions of education focus on educational achievement gaps between white students and students of color. These differences are clearly illustrated by statistics on high school graduation and dropout rates. In 2009, 87.1 percent of whites, 84.1 percent of blacks, 88.2 percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders, and 66.9 percent of Hispanics had graduated from high school. In contrast, in 2008, 8.8 percent of white students, 12 percent of black students, and 22.3 percent of Hispanic students dropped out of high school. The highest dropout rate was for Hispanic males at 24.3 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2011). Similar differences across race and ethnicity can be found in the data on college graduates. As of 2009, 29.9 percent of whites, 19.3 percent of blacks, 52.3 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 13.2 percent of Hispanics held a bachelor’s or higher degree (U.S. Census Bureau 2011).
INCOME AND CLASS
Education level has a direct impact on income, and income in the United States is highly reflective of the education achievement data. In 2008 the median family income in the United States was $61,521 and 13.2 percent of the population lived below the poverty level, which was defined as $22,025 for a family of four (U.S. Census Bureau 2011). Median family income broken down by race and ethnicity is as follows:
| Whites | $65,000 |
| Blacks | $39,879 |
| Asian | $75,57... |
