Cultural and Ethnic Identity
In our lifetimes, humans inevitably spend a great deal of effort trying to create an identity for ourselves. At a young age, most of us were taught to believe everyone is different in their own way. While that may hold true is some cases, it does not explain the essence of diversity. Some people enjoy learning with others, while some individuals prefer study quietly, and some prefer to play golf over soccer. However, where did these differences come from? Whether we attach ourselves to something external, or possess something that is of intangible nature, we are influenced by culture and/or ethnic background. These two phenomenon make up the majority of what we choose to identify with today. Since the day of
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As a developing child, children they tend to unconsciously reflect cultural influence of their parents until they are old enough to question what they were taught. When they reach the age of adolescence, many teens have been exposed to different cultures or subcultures. Thus, having a higher chance of rejecting the one they grew up with, or altering it to say the least. Some psychologists associate this type of behavior as an identity crisis. Also known as moratorium status, a child may be skeptical or confused about what was taught by his/her parents and may begin to experiment with new ideas. For example, Joe was sent to China for the summer to visit his uncle in the Military. Coming from an American individualistic culture, Joe was initially seen as a selfish and arrogant teenager by his Chinese counterparts. As time progressed, Joe began to …show more content…
Does ethnicity matter? It certainly does when dealing with Self Identity. Not to be confused with merely one’s physical characteristics such as race, ethnicity is the gene pool or ancestry one comes from. Ethnicity is significant because it goes hand in hand with an individual’s culture. For example, someone of Japanese descent may have a preference for fish because of the geographical location of Japan. Since Japan is by the ocean, fish and other seafood are of abundance. Whereas the Swiss diet consist of butter-based foods or margarine due to the cold climate and high altitudes. Another example of ethic influence is religious affiliation. Each ethnic group has their own language, beliefs, and common practices. For example, Individuals of Arab ethnicity are largely of Islamic faith while having Arabic as their native language. Additionally, creating strong ties to one’s ethnic group can reinforce who we are and can potentially influence behavior as well. One example of this is the work ethic of the Samoan people. Samoan’s work often with their hands and perform hours or manual labor on a daily basis. Their high standard of hard work is passed to each generation without sacrificing any core ideals. As a result, it attributes to the high number of Samoan NFL and NCAA football
Every individual in society and in a community is unique in their own ways, and their diversity shows up in many ways. Some of these ways include: religion, race, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and so on. Everyone’s backgrounds are different, and this is what creates diversity in people. Even though everyone might not be the same, only by uniting everyone can we create the big picture. It’s like a puzzle—even though people are different, we can come together to create a big picture that couldn’t be created by puzzle pieces of the same shape. To me, diversity symbolizes the unique backgrounds that we come from. Every individual in their communities and in their society are influenced by their background—and this can come from various reasons. If someone comes from a different socioeconomic background, or lifestyle, their thought processes and their view of life might be much more different than mine. Their reaction to a certain situation can be much more different than mine, and it is important for me to see all these viewpoints in order to be a more informed member of my community. Everyone is diverse in their expression, style, and
Reading Chapter four of Ethnic Studies Issues and Approaches, by Philip Q. Yang, one receives a profound understanding of ethnic stratification. First of all, Yang describes ethnic stratification as a “institutionalized ethnic inequality” (61). This definition means the system of ethnic/social rules allowing certain ethnic groups to have access to more wealth and resources, which is unfair to the minority groups. There is a division between majority and minority groups, this is based on who is given more power, wealth and resources not because of a larger number of an ethnicity group. According to Yang, White people are the majority in the United States, but they are called majority for their share of wealth/power unlike the minority group.
Paul Haggis’ film Crash (2004), demonstrates how people can adopt a dominant and subordinate role concurrently, this is illustrated through the character Jean Cabot. When people look at Jean they see an affluent White female. As a result of the way a person looks their actions are scrutinized due to social construction. Jean is White, so people assume that she leads a charmed life. Although, Jean’s racial identity and class allows her to be a member of the dominant group, her gender she does not have as much power as White males; Jean builds her life around the racial identity that is assigned to her and participates in the social construction that plagues American communities.
In today’s society there are many words that are used or said without giving it complete thought. For example, the word “identity” is something to which I have never really given much thought or even considered how I identify myself.
Race has no biological meaning. There is only one human race; there are no subspecies, no single defining characteristic, traits, or even gene, separates one “race” from another. Instead of being a biological concept, race is a social construct, and a relatively modern one at that. It was created to give light-skinned Europeans an advantage by making the white race superior and all others inferior. Throughout its history, the concept of race has served this purpose well.
To most people ethnicity is shown by values, lifestyles, customs, and rituals that are personal to an individual ethnic group or religion. The feeling of belonging to a certain group is a basic need for mankind. In a sense, ethnicity can be separated into two particular categories, a unique social structure and culture heritage passed down from one generation to the next.
Antonio, a 19 year old Mexican-American originally from Dallas, Texas, is the son of undocumented parents who came to the United States to achieve the American Dream. His parents instilled in him that the White majority were a superior ethnicity and encouraged him to speak and act White in order to achieve the same life White American’s have. Because he received a full-ride scholarship, Antonio moved in Minnesota to attend college. Due to two emotional incidents during his freshman year, he is now considering therapy. These included being called a “sell out” by White peers because he was he was trying to act and sound White and having a professor write on a A-quality paper that he “did well for a Latino.” Antonio now questions his parent’s
I classify my race, ethnicity, and culture as a white, Irish-Italian- American, woman. My mother was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and my paternal grandparents are from Sicily, Italy. I imagine being first generation Irish and second generation Italian helps me relate with my ethnicity.
Ethnic identity is the sum total of group member feelings about those values, symbols, and common histories that identify them as a distinct group (Smith 1991). Development of ethnic identity is important because it helps one to come to terms with their ethnic membership as a prominent reference group and significant part of an individuals overall identity. Ethnic reference group refers to an individuals psychological relatedness to groups (Smith 1991). These reference groups help adolescents sense, reflect and see things from the point of their ethnic groups in which they actively participate or seek to participate.
When we talk about the different dimensions of diversity, we find that the term “biological vs. social definition”. “Biological” is defined as facts. It is obviously known that among every single person, there are going to be numerous differences for example, gender, eye color, hair color, and skin type, among numerous other differences. The “social” aspect is defined by what society allows and that fact determines
Humans seem to have an innate desire to belong, to be a part of a community of people that are similar to them in at least some way. From that desire, individuals craft specific identities and ways of living to place themselves within certain communities and separate from others. Identity can be made up partially by choice—the way people style their hair, how they talk, what materials they use, who they hang out with—but part of identity is also related to things that cannot be chosen, such as a person’s ethnicity or social class. But at what point do these disparate facets coalesce into a singular identity? Through his use of culturally specific materials, Rashid Johnson’s Rumble (2011) suggests certain historical and personal connotations
The article, “RACE AND ETHNICITY- CHANGING SYMBOL IS OF DOMINANCE AND HIERARCHY IN THE UNITED STATES” by Karen I. Blu is an exceptional work that clearly expounds on the racial and ethnic groups especially in America. Racial and ethnic groupings are gradually becoming popular in the public arena, in which people are shifting their focus on classifying other people on the basis of racial groupings to rather classifying them on the basis of ethnicity. Moreover, race grouping is slowly submerging into ethnic grouping with Black activism being the role player in this (Blu, 1979). The following is a summary of the aforementioned article in how it relates to racial and ethnic groups and response regarding its views.
According to Omi and Winant, the term race can be defined as “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies.” From their framework of racial formation and concept of racial projects, Omi and Winant asserts that race is a matter of social structure and cultural representation that has been intertwined to shape the nature of racism. Racism has been seen since the events of early English colonization of the indigenous people and the racialization of African Americans through slavery, all in which the United States is molded upon as a nation. Thus, this social structure of domination has caused European colonials and American revolutionists to create racialized representations, policies, and structures in order to oppress indigenous and black populations in their respective eras.
People identify themselves by their colour, culture, language or religion. The identity goes back to generations and it doesn’t start or change within the individual. It is an evolutionary process where each person brings upon some changes. This is best described in Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use';, where three characters, a mother and two daughters, are portrayed differently, each with its different qualities and philosophies on life that are often seen in generations.
Having a strong foundation is something that has been passed down from our ancestors post slavery, which was used to help my family form their ethnic identity as African Americans. Ethnicity refers to a social group’s distinct sense of belongingness as a result of common culture and descent (Organista, Marin, & Chun, 2010). This influenced my family to raise me with awareness of family structure, old fashion southern culture, and valuable beliefs that molded me into the woman that I am today. Along with my family’s ethnic identity, I also have my own self -identity, which is my identity as a mother and a student. However, my family’s ethnic identity along with my own self-identity was not always seen as socially excepted or