Culture Blind: Effie James pens book on healing divided communities

MANSFIELD — Effie James Jr. wants us to get back to a place where we can respectfully disagree. 

Like many Americans, the Mansfield man has watched the country appear to become more and more divided in recent years.

These observations prompted the local educator, business owner, playwright and Richland Source columnist to pen his first book, “Culture Blind: Cultural Healing We All Need but Cannot See.”

‘At the end of the day, it’s really about people understanding that we can all respect one another,” he said. 

“We all deserve to be respected and we all deserve to be heard. Regardless of who we are, what color we are, what we believe — we can still get along. I feel like we’re losing space for respectfully disagreeing with one another and being able to move on from that. That’s my motivation for this book.”

The book combines James’ research with his own experiences as an educator. James is a graduate of Mansfield Senior High School and currently works as Mansfield City Schools’ GEAR UP coordinator. 

In 2019, he launched his consulting firm James 1 Inc. The organization provides training in cultural awareness, diversity and inclusion and reaching the unreachable student at schools and businesses throughout Ohio. 

We sat down with James to talk more about his book. Below is a transcript of that conversation, lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Richland Source: Tell us a little bit about the book and what inspired you to write it.

Effie: It’s really tied to some of the work that I do. I’ve been really fortunate to be able to speak with a lot of school districts and some businesses about cultural awareness. So it really inspired me after doing some of that work with James 1 Inc. to write about some of the issues that I think are causing some cultural division, not only in America, but locally.

This book is mostly about ways to bring us together as people. It kind of shines a light on some of the things that I don’t think people look at much. It’s really about bringing light to cultural awareness and some biases that we feel — the things that cause division that we may not look at.

I try to bring home in the book that a lot of things that really divide us as people are things that really unite us as people. It’s our humanity that makes us strong and it’s our citizenship sometimes that divides us sometimes.

So the book is really about cultures being able to come together and seeing each other for who we are and how strong we can be together, if we stop looking at each other from the outside and really give ourselves a chance to get to know each other, regardless of our culture, skin, age, gender, whatever the differences may be.

It took me a while to kind of put it all together where it made some sense to me. But I think it’s a collection of a lot of the things that I talk about in my work and my personal experiences. 

There’s some times where you feel like, ‘Man, are we ever gonna get past some of this division? This racial, political division? But I’m hoping this book can give some people some hope and say, ‘Yes, there is a path past this division.’

Richland Source: So what is that path?

Effie James: I think it takes really looking past what’s on the outside. That’s the key. The title of the book is ‘Culture Blind.’ It’s because we do have to look past what we see. We have to look past what we think of what people believe, what they look like, how they speak, what their religion is or whatever it is, in order to really get past these divisional lines and be able to get along better. 

I have no delusions that this world is going to be a place where everyone gets along, and everybody walks around and holds hands. What motivated me to write the book is, I feel like we’re getting to a space where you hardly can have disagreements anymore without disagreements becoming catastrophic. Friendships are ended for good sometimes because of disagreements. We have companies and agencies being built on division. I just feel like that’s not right.

I feel like there should be a space for disagreement without division. You should be able to believe what you believe. I should be able to believe what I believe. We should be able to respect one another, but respectfully disagree and that’s okay. Then you and I could go over and have a coffee afterwards, you know? 

Richland Source: How long have you been working on the book?

Effie James: I’ve probably been working on this book, off and on, for the better part of four years. That has been leaving it for six, eight months at a time and then coming back and writing a chapter or half a chapter maybe. Then getting inspired and writing a little bit here and there. So I haven’t been consistently writing. But as I get inspired, I write and then, just recently, within this past year, I got motivated to pull it all together. And I had to cut some things and add some things. I was motivated through prayer and motivation, I felt like now was the time to bring it out.

Richland Source: Your book has a chapter about healing a culture of violence. That’s not necessarily something that I would expect in a book about cultural awareness. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that fits in?

Effie James: The book is about various cultures and cultural healing. The culture of violence in this country is a separate culture. In my book, I talk about how we can try to heal this culture. I actually got motivated to write that chapter, as Mansfield was going through our period of violence.

This nation was built (on violence) and we have a history of violence. So you can call that a cultural violence. What I talk about in the book, as it pertains to the culture of violence, is how normalized the violence in this country has become. I think people have become numb to it.

There’s a part in that chapter where it talks about how ‘thoughts and prayers’ has become a normal part of our vocabulary. That’s a cultural thing. How many people have gone up to a microphone and said, ‘Thoughts and prayers?’ Or how many social media posts have you read that said ‘thoughts and prayers?’ That’s cultural.

When I think about the culture of violence in this country, it is its own separate subculture. We have to deal with that. It’s part of who we are, it’s a fabric of who we are. And if it’s going to be a fabric of who we are, we have to address it, and understand ways of how to cope with it and in certain ways, how to not just deal with it, but how to limit it in our communities.

Richland Source: We tend to think of culture as something to embrace, something we’re proud of. Do you think there are unhealthy cultures or cultural aspects like violence that we should get rid of, instead of accepting?

Effie James: Absolutely. Your culture should be something you should be proud of. But some aspects of culture we need to get rid of, violence is one of those. The normalization of violence is a cultural characteristic that we need to get rid of in our communities. But as I outline in this book, because violence is such an ingrained part of who we are as Americans, so many parts of how our nation came to be are because of violence and war.

It’s how we solved our problems. It’s how we gained our territory. So healing from that cultural violence that is kind of ingrained into us. But what I really try to outline in his book is how, as individual communities, we have to heal from that and get better at not accepting violence as part of our communities. We can do better with that.

Richland Source: I’d never heard the term ‘cultural healing’ before you reached out to me about this book.

Effie James: Normally it’s not used. But there is a healing that needs to take place in different aspects of culture. Cultural awareness is something that individual cultures can be proud of. But when my pride in my culture and your pride in your culture causes division between us, then a healing needs to take place. You can be proud of who you are and I can be proud of who I am, without us having to be divided. We can exist together, and be proud of who we are, without having to be divided in our stance. 

Richland Source: So cultural healing can be working through the unhealthy parts of my own culture, but also eliminating strife and conflict between different cultures?

Effie James: Absolutely. Just because I love my culture, it doesn’t mean I have to disregard,  hate or disrespect another culture. But it also doesn’t mean I have to agree with another culture. 

Healing means that even if I don’t agree with aspects or elements of another culture, it doesn’t mean I have to disrespect or hate another culture, it doesn’t mean that I have to degrade that culture in any way. It doesn’t mean there has to be this all-out war against other cultures. And I feel that happening in so many realms and I feel like it’s being normalized. People are going off into their different sectors. I feel like the sectors are growing, but they’re not getting any closer to one another. At this time in our history, we are approaching a level of division that I don’t know that we’ve seen before. 

In my book, I talk about different elements of culture. But I’ll also talk about my own experience with cultural awareness. I add in my own personal experiences, how those experiences can help people. I’m hoping that through my experiences, people can start conversations with people in a way that can help them think about cultural awareness in a different way.

Richland Source: Is there a part of this book that is extra special or extra personal for you?

Effie James: There is a part of it that talks about the effect of slavery on cultural awareness. You wouldn’t think the two have anything to do with one another. This book is written from my experience. As a Black man, I see things from a different perspective.

When I did my research for this book, it was interesting to see how there are things that can be hereditary, can be passed along through DNA. Just like eye color can be passed, so can trauma. I don’t get deep into the studies, but there are studies that show that things like trauma and depression can be passed along through genealogical lines. 

For some people, it can be harder to reach out and be open to crosscultural or multicultural relationships. That was a very difficult chapter for me to deal with because I don’t want who I am as a Black man to hold me back from anything. I don’t want that to be my story.

I’m certainly proud of being a Black man, but I don’t want that to be the reason I succeed or not. The opening passage of the book talks about how Martin Luther King’s goal was for us as Black people to be judged by the content of our character. That really resonates with me. That’s important to me.

That was a chapter that was tough for me, but I felt like it belonged in this book. It really addressed how difficult it can be for certain cultures because of things outside of their control when it comes to multicultural relationships and just getting past certain things.

Richland Source: What are some cultures that exist locally that, that maybe are struggling with healing or struggling with division that people might not think of? 

Effie James: The interesting thing about Mansfield is even though we’re not a big city, we experience all the things that big cities do when it comes to social things and political things. We have the racial social issues. We have the LGBTQ community, that is a culture. We have a strong religious cultural base in this community. I always put youth in the culture. A lot of times people attach race to culture and that’s not what this book is all about. There’s some racial things, but culture is about groups and so youth can be a culture as well. 

My book is written from my perspective as a Black male educator. I talk about teaching youth and what it looks like and the effect that can have on upcoming generations. 

I think the biggest motivation I had for writing this book now is the youth. When I watch a lot of our young people, I see a lot less segregation in terms of Black and white. I know it exists, but it’s not as prevalent as it was when I was young. I think their division comes about in different ways. I’m concerned about our youth and their safety. When I wrote the chapter about the culture of violence, that was particularly for our youth and understanding how we don’t have to normalize violence in our communities. Even though the book is written from a quasi-national perspective, it’s really about how you can only make a difference community by community. 

Richland Source: Is this the first book you’ve written? 

Effie James: Yes. It’s kind of scary because it’s my thoughts. It’s not based on any laws or tons and tons of research that I’ve done. It’s my experience. It’s my thoughts. It’s my view and my beliefs, so it’s personal. It’s not an autobiography, but it is my personal beliefs about cultural awareness and how I think we as a nation of small communities can heal and get better and do away with unnecessary divisions that exist in all realms.

Richland Source: Where can people purchase the book?

Effie James: If they can’t make it to the book signing, they can purchase the book on Amazon.com. I’m hoping we will be able to offer it in more bookstores. We’re working on that.