Social Identity Theory: Positionality, And Cultural Differences

Positionality refers to one’s social location or position within an intersecting web of socially constructed hierarchical groups, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and physical abilities. Different experiences, understanding, and knowledge of oneself and the world are gained, accessed, and produced based on one’s positionality (Sorrells). Standpoint theory emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as a feminist critical theory about relations between the production of knowledge and practices of power (Harding, 2004). Ethnocentrism is a broad term which may apply to any social group and it mixes neatly with the social identity theory concept of in-group favoritism and refers to the way people identify themselves as

56). Communication through these cultural differences consist of the way we walk, our gestures, speech, touch, and eye contact patterns. In my 37 years of experience, I have noticed that Pentecostal women always wear long skirts or dressed and never cut their hair while most Catholics I know have shorter hair and do not feel obligated to wear a skirt or dress. My foreign doctor has a different speech than my doctor who was born in West Virginia. These differences can separate cultural spaces. However, when these differences are combined together, they make a hybrid cultural space. An example of a hybrid cultural space may be a Starbucks or McDonalds whobamere people come together for the same

Discourses of a color-blind society collide with representations of diversity that depict images of one person from each “racial” group (Sorrells). The way I view the world may not be the same as everyone else’s view. I see the human race as one race. I do not believe in stereotypes or segregation of any type. While time passes, society evolves. One day all generations will be beautifully blended and enriched with the best of each culture. This hybrid culture may be the best means of survival at some point in