Personal Identity Research Paper Racially, ethnically, and culturally, I classify myself 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 makes me relate more with my ethnicity. My maternal grandfather impacted my development of my ethnic and cultural identity. He instilled a pride and an understanding of my Irish roots. Specifically, he brought me over to Belfast to learn and experience the culture. At the time, the hostility between the Protestants and Catholics was evident. People were living under the threats of terrorism, bombing, propaganda graffiti, and under a police state. In addition, I witnessed families torn apart because a mother was one religion and the father was another. Yet, I developed a love for the country, its people, and heritage. In the same manner, my paternal grandmother taught me about my Italian heritage. She would cook specialties from Sicily and tell …show more content…
Growing up the only girl with six brothers I experienced gender discrimination. I was treated differently and more unfairly than my brothers. As an adult, I was subjected to sexual jokes, harassment, and innuendo. People have implied I could not do things because of my gender. This impacted me negatively by preventing me from attempting certain things in life. I interviewed my nephew, Jeremy, for my Personal Identity paper. I come from a very large family including; six brothers, sister in laws, and fifteen nieces and nephews. My brother, Joe, married an African-American women (Sandra) and had two sons; however, they look nothing alike. Jeremy, the oldest, looks African-American and Anthony, the youngest, looks white. I chose to interview Jeremy for my paper because I wonder how being the only black child in a large white family impacted his
One of Beverly Tatum's major topics of discussion is racial identity. Racial identity is the meaning each of us has constructed or is constructing about what it means to be a white person or a person of color in a race-conscious society. (Tatum, pp Xvii) She talks about how many parents hesitate to talk to their children about racism because of embarrassment and the awkwardness of the subject. I agree with her when she says that parents don't want to talk about racism when they don't see a problem. They don't want to create fear or racism where none may exist. It is touchy subject because if not gone about right, you can perhaps steer someone the wrong way. Another theory she has on racial identity is that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. (tatum pp18) 'The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflects back to us.'; (Tatum pp21) What she means by this is that what other people tell us we are like is what we believe. If you are told you are stupid enough you might start to question your intelligence. When people are searching for their identity normally the questions 'who am I now?'; 'Who was I before?'; and 'who will I become'; are the first that come to mind. When a person starts to answer these questions their answers will influence their beliefs, type of work, where they may live, partners, as well as morals. She also mentions an experiment where she asked her students to describe themselves in sixty seconds. Most used descriptive words like friendly, shy, intelligent, but students of color usually state there racial or ethnic group, while white students rarely, if ever mention that they are white. Women usually mention that they are female while males usually don't think to say that they are males. The same situation appeared to take place when the topic of religious beliefs came up. The Jewish students mentioned being Je...
My cultural identity consists of being a 22-year-old white female who identifies as White, heterosexual, Christian-Lutheran, able-bodied and a member of the lower-middle class. Through these identities, there are certain roles that I distinguish with like being a student, daughter, sister, and friend. Socioeconomic
My maternal grandfather impacted my development of my ethnic and cultural identity. He instilled a pride and an understanding of my Irish roots. Specifically, he brought me over to Belfast to learn and experience the culture. At the time, the hostility between the Protestants and Catholics was clear. People were living under the threats of terrorism, bombing, propaganda graffiti, and in a police state. In addition, I saw families torn apart because a mother was one religion and the father another. I learned firsthand about religious intolerance.
My cultural identity, is Haitian American. My parents come from a country of beautiful landscape and valleys of the hidden treasures of knowledge, diverse people, and rustic towns. My parents walked up steep plateaus for water, laid in grassy plains for peace, and dive into the sea for cooling in Haiti’s humid heat. Although, I come from a culture of deep history, the first country to gain independence in the result of a successful slave rebellion, my parents knew the plague of suffering Haiti’s battle with will not recover through the poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy. As Haiti fought through its demons, my parents fought to provide plentiful opportunity for their family and immigrated to the United States of America.
I have many nationalities, among these are Irish. Scottish, german, Belgian, Norwegian, Swedish and Native American. History is important, especially when it comes to your family. If we ask a family member about our roots, we can learn about ourselves. By asking many of my family members, I have learned many things about me and my family.
The view of identity seems to be defined by facial features and social constructed views. Depending on the recent look of someone it may just be more then just color but also background. In this essay I will explain how I relate to some recent views based on philosophers I may agree and disagree with in order to describe my identity. Identity is much more then just being labeled as a race, it can be based on much more.
I am proud to be who I am. I love everything about my culture. Music, food. and religion are all important aspects in my cultural. My parents and family members are huge role models to me of helping me understand my background. Although I do try my best to represent who I am as a Palestinian I do face many external and internal problems in my culture. The main idea of this is to explain my cultural identity and how it has affected my life.
Identity can be described as the way we view ourselves; the way that we distinguish ourselves from others while also comparing our similarities. In other words identity is what makes someone unique and average at the same time. To start off with I was born and raised in Jamaica for 6 years with my parents, but due to the fact that my parents were offered an opportunity to attend school in America they dove for a chance of a better life. My first home was in Jefferson, Missouri where it seemed like it snowed every day. White sheets of snow would cover every inch of the city, no stone or rock was left without an inch of snow. The city was so beautiful to me because it would always light up in front of my eyes. The people there was so nice that
Thanks to the way my parents were raised, living with them is very pleasing. My parents were taught to take good care of their children which I am very thankful for. My grandparents also taught me how to be kind. Their kindness has rubbed off on me and without them, I may not have been as kind as I am now. My grandparents knew how to make many different things from the Russian cuisine and taught me how to do it as well. My grandparents would encourage me to cook with them and from that, I have gained courage to try many other recipes. Now, I know how to cook many different dishes and desserts. Without my grandparents’ teachings, I would not be the person I am
My personal cultural identity is a lot different compared to the society I am surrounded by. I am considered an outsider in my society. I am an outsider living in a constantly changing environment where there are many different kinds of people and many different cultural identities. In my culture we know how to respect people and their belongings, know how to work hard, use what we have while being thankful for it at the same time, and last we know how to stay true to ourselves in this very fast pace world of ours. I am a cowboy.
My culture identity, as I know it as is African American. My culture can be seen in food, literature, religion, language, the community, family structure, the individual, music, dance, art, and could be summed up as the symbolic level. Symbolic, because faith plays a major role in our daily lives through song, prayer, praise and worship. When I’m happy I rely on my faith, same as when I’m sad, for I know things will get better as they have before.
Heterogeneous cultural groups have evolved into distinct racial groups that individuals misrecognize as natural instead of a social construction. Historically, people did not primarily identify according to race, but rather ethnic group, language, and kinship. Ethnicity is the identification with an ethnic group based on language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship or race. Race is phenotypically dissimilar groups in some sort of long-term unequal power and/or economic relationship where the dominant group justifies its position through some kind of legitimating ideology. Although, race has no biological reality, it is culturally real and operates as a principal identity at local and national levels. The United
Who am I? Wrestling with identity— our history, our culture, our language— is central to being human, and there’s no better way to come to grips with questions of identity than through the crossing of borders. The transcendence of borders reveals the fluid nature of identity, it challenges absurd notions of rigid nationalities, and highlights our common humanity. It is no coincidence, then, that my experience as an immigrant has shaped my academic journey and pushed me to pursue graduate studies.
“Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be” (Card). This quote from Ender’s Game gives the reader the impression that identity is just something they can wear and that they will become the identity that the impersonate. A definition of identity from the Oxford English Dictionary states, “The fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Identity). This old definition entails that a person’s identity is just who they are. It is also heard that people say anybody can be anything they want to be. These two ideas put together create a definition of identity that means a person’s identity can be whatever they choose it to be. However, a person's true identity cannot simply be worn as a mask, so this definition cannot be true and must be changed. A person's true
The philosophical problem of personal identity pertains to questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being persons. There is no single question that will sum up the problem, but rather a multitude of questions that are loosely connected to each other. Within this essay, the four most prominent problems will be explained and addressed. One of the most familiar is the question of “Who am I?” This regards to what makes one a unique individual. Another familiar question is, “What is it to be a person?” This concerns the necessary criteria for something to count as a person as opposed to a non-person. There is also the problem of persistence, relating to personal identity over time. An example of this would be to glance upon an old photograph of a childhood class, point and say, “That's me.” The questions arises of, “What makes you that one instead of one of the others?” The last problem to be explained is the one of evidence. How do we find out who is who? There are two separate sources of evidence used often in philosophy: first-person memory, pertaining to one remembering an action or event and therefore being the person who did such, and physical continuity, where if the one who performed the action or witnessed the event looks like you, then it is you.