I have a dream...

[J D]

It can be a factor that affects one's culture, insofar as it determines (to an extent) which people and which kind of people one is exposed to or socialized with.  My basic point is that culture is not determined only by, or even mostly by place, but by PEOPLE.  People are the only ones who transmit cultural values, beliefs, and norms.  Places do not.  People can travel to other places, and yet their culture may remain unchanged and they will transmit that culture, at least in part, to their children.  One cannot simply assume that because one is born in a different place than one's parents that they will belong to a completely different culture than they, or that their culture will be identical to that of all their neighbors.  Such an assumption, especially in a diverse community, is usually the product of ignorance, hubris, or both.

[J D]

Also, you might want to provide a beter citation for a commonly accepted definition of culture (although admittedly, this one is pretty good as far as definitions go) than the glossary to some business consulting firm whose homepage no longer exists.  This definition was implicitly referring more to culture as it is used in a corporate sense, rather than to the way the word is employed by anthropologists (although again, there is some overlap).

[angmill08]

One thing I noticed growing up, even before I had any political views whatsoever, was just how extraordinarily easy it was for a white person to get accused of racism. A mere facial expression or a neutral-sounding statement can be used to paint you as a bigot.

Wow... where did you grow up? I grew up in a predominantly white suburban area, outside a majority minority city and the word "racism" was rarely used. When I was in maybe 5th grade, a white boy in my class called a black boy the "n-word" and I remember telling the white kid he shouldn't use that word, and he said, "why?" I remember not knowing what to say but telling him it was "rude." This was in the mid 1980s.

I also remember once I was in high school, learning about feminism, I realized that while it was easy to call some action or situation sexist, it was very hard to get anyone to actually believe you. When I was in college I complained about a grade I got, because I was convinced the professor had favored male students. It was very hard to gather any objective evidence on this to "prove" that my grade was related to sexism on the part of the professor.

[ImVinny!]

well, let me tell you. I believe what that person says about where s/he grew up. I grew up in the Gary. IN area, VERY diverse and everything, and white people got accused of racism all the time just for looking at black people funny. Also, the sexist thing, yes, I think in some areas it is easier for people to believe you. Where I live I believe this is also the case.

[angmill08]

well, let me tell you. I believe what that person says about where s/he grew up. I grew up in the Gary. IN area, VERY diverse and everything, and white people got accused of racism all the time just for looking at black people funny.

I'm amazed, because this is just so different from my experience, both growing up in a very white area and then living in a majority black area. The only place I've been where there seemed to be a heightened sense of "racism conciousness" was in college, where there was a very small but vocal black community. Everywhere else, I notice that normal people go out of their way to avoid talking about race. I say "normal" because the only times I've heard people fling around the "you're racist!" talk outside of college are a couple of instances with spare-changers or crackheads who want money and when I've refused they've called me racist. But I generally don't take anything someone like that says too seriously.

[ImVinny!]

Yes, we all have different experiences, and it is interesting to hear what other's have experienced in life, that is the point of diversity, imo.

[ThePerfectSoldier]

I am not bent on being defensive. Your culture has a lot to do about where you are raised.

It does, but I think it probably has as much if not more to do with how one was raised and especially with who did the raising.  Culture, according to the vast majority of anthropologists, is all about shared values and norms.  Places do not impart values and norms; people do.  You still haven't given your definition of what exactly you mean by culture.  Unless and until you do, further discussion is meaningless, as it is very likely we will merely be arguing around or over each other's ideas, because we are probably assigning different meanings to the same word.

There is one huge reason why Cuban is not usually considered a culture.

Considered by whom?  UNESCO?  A specific anthropological theory or anthropologist?  Just you?  I think most Cubans, if not most Latinos/as or Hispanics, would strongly disagree with you or whomever it is that you are citing.  And unless you happen to have a least a master's (or better yet, a doctorate) in anthropology, and/or have completed an ethnography in or on Cuba or Cubans, you will forgive me if I am uninclined to merely take your word on something like this.  Either show me the word of someone who is more credible, or show me some credentials before you start talking about some fuzzy entity or entities who do "not usually consider[]" Cuban a culture.

It is too big of an area, and there are many cultures inside of it. It would be the same as saying the American culture. There really is no American culture in the sense of culture. There are some norms, but it is not actually considered to be a culture.

Once again, the criterion you have mentioned falls flat.  You could say much the same thing about France, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, and in fact, about most places (and their associated peoples) on Earth.  The presence of sub-cultures doesn't disporve the existence of a larger supra-culture to which those sub-cultures belong.  And the fact that there may be some regional variations in customs (things like language and vocabulary, food, dress, etc.; I think this might be what you were referring to) doesn't necessarily mean that the population doesn't share a basic cultural consensus consisting of common, shared norms and values.  All these nations have strong regional variation, probably far more vairation than can be found in Cuba (which by the way, is big for an island, but pretty small as far as population or land area is concerned when talking about countries or nations generally).  Would you also like to deny the existence of these cultures?

I just wanted to weigh in on this discussion.  My family is from Nigeria, a country with a GREAT deal of ethnic groups.  I'm from one of the major ones, the Yoruba.  The Yoruba and the Ibo ethnic groups speak a different language, and often have been at odds.  Tribalism for Nigerians abroad is less of an issue comparative to in Nigeria itself - many of my friends in the Nigerian community are Ibo.  HOWEVER - the Yoruba and Ibo are VERY alike, and share many of the same values and cultural concepts, even being at odds like they are and speaking a different language.  We Yoruba are MUCH less different from the Ibo than we are from an entirely different country - even other African countries.  What JD is saying is completely correct - while there are often distinct subcultures within a country, the comparative difference between these and their difference with other countries is extremely small.