While Kent may be a statistically diverse area, its cultures remain considerably isolated among each other, and Paul Singh believes it’s time to end that trend.
It started with a charity drive, Singh said, where he and his friend, Gurinder Grewal, worked to find blankets in the Sikh community to donate over the holidays. The drive raised 120 blankets in 10 days, which, for being the first charity from the community, was a resounding success.
The success of the drive, and coordinating with Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission was a different experience for Singh who has largely worked within the Sikh community. Reaching out to charities gave Singh another idea, to try and reach out across community lines that are so often compartmentalized migrant communities in Kent.
Kent might be known for its cultural diversity, but despite the city and school claims of multiculturalism, it can be hard to find integration among ethnic groups.
At least that’s what Singh believes, and he’s taking on the effort of bridging those cultural gaps.
“We are diverse statistically,” he said. “When we look at within the community, we do have our diversity too, just like the diversity within Christianity. With the normal community we do have diverse groups as well.”
Singh said that the issue isn’t a disinterest or dislike among groups, but simply language and custom barriers that make it hard to communicate or feel invited to events.
Kent School District board member Maya Vengadasalam agrees with Singh that while Kent has a lot of multicultural events, there’s less cross-cultural communication outside of the events.
“Yes, we have the International Festival, but we need dialogue and understanding that goes beyond celebrations,” Vengadasalam said.
“How can we create a more integrated self in Kent?” Singh asked.
Singh is starting an organization for Kent Sikhs that will encourage more activism and activity in Kent. The Sikhs of Kent’s goal is to reach across community borders and try to encourage more multicultural interaction in a city with very sharply defined community borders.
His wife, Shavinderjit, brought the differences between communities into focus when she related a story while driving her daughter and classmates to school.
Picking up her daughter after missing a bus, Shavinderjit offered a ride to the rest of the students in her car. The rest of the Sikh students accepted, but a Burmese youth declined. After some coaxing, he accepted a ride to school.
“Because of the way he felt, he did not ask for help,” Singh said, “he felt isolated, not ready to step out and ask for help.”
It’s an example of how, without meaning to, cultures become insular, Singh said. Instead of making friends across cultural lines in Kent, many of the its varied cultures stay insular and work within their comfort zones.
And there are a host of reasons for not reaching out, Singh said. It can be as simple as a culture having prior prejudices or simply being afraid of accidentally doing or saying something offensive.
“We don’t want to offend somebody, we don’t want to feel alienated, we don’t want to feel embarrassed by doing something stupid and not knowing what’s going on,” Singh said.
With so many differences in language and custom, it’s easy to feel intimidated. And when moving to a new area it’s easy to feel protective, Singh said. So he feels compelled to help change the status quo through the Sikhs of Kent.
He has two main ideas for helping cultures overcome their barriers. The first is creating a kind of cultural fact card that would help people quickly understand the dos and dont’s of a temple or community they’re visiting. The other would have communities appoint a kind of ambassador that people interested in the culture could reach out to, to provide more understanding.
Singh is attending his first Buddhist gathering in the coming weeks, having been invited by an acquaintance to the Kent temple. He’s excited for the chance to learn about another culture in the area and hopes to help build relations between the Sikhs and Buddhists in the region.
“It’s going to take,” Singh said, “someone reaching out from the inside out.”
Got a multicultural story you want Ross to know about? Contact him at rcoyle@kentreporter.com or on Twitter @rosscoylemedia.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
