Essay On Cultural Identity

My cultural ancestry comes from a Cuban and Mexican decent. I have chosen to write about my Cuban side because I can relate to them more than I could with my Mexican side. I was raised around my Cuban family and would occasionally see my Mexican side due to them living so far away. I have spent a lot more time associating with Cubans and have adapted to more of their habits.

All my life people have always questioned my ethnicity. My mom says it makes me mysterious and intriguing. She says, "You look like you could be born in any part of the world". Any time I 'm in a crowd the question always comes up, "what 's your ethnicity?", "are you mixed with anything?”. I look at them and smile thinking in my head of course you just asked that. I give a big sigh and say "I 'm white and Pakistani". Some look at me with great confusion and ask, "What is that?" I hit them with a huge eye roll and I have to explain where Pakistan is located in Asia. I really think some people did not take World Geography because they 're still so lost. They usually just blurt with "oh, so you 're middle eastern?" It boggles my mind that

What is my cultural identity? Personally, I don’t think I am completely assured on what my cultural identity is, but I can do my best on explaining it. However, I won’t get started on that yet, first I’ll explain the occasion of me learning about my identity. At almost the beginning of the year, it was announced in our English class that we would be doing an essay on our cultural identities. When my teacher announced this I thought to myself, “What in the world is a cultural identity, or even my cultural identity?” In these months, we have gotten to learn the definition of culture, and what it means to us, individually., I believe that culture means a group of people that share the same customs, way of life, and beliefs. Also, over these last couple of months we have been reading texts all about people knowing and understanding their cultural identities, meanwhile I still didn’t understand my own. All I know is that I was born on February 11, 2002, I like movies and music, and my mom is from Chile and my Dad is from Virginia. Now that didn’t feel like enough for me to write on, but then I started thinking about all of the cultural differences that my parents have had raising me as a person, and how those have all combined to make me. In my short 15 years of life, the culture clashes have sometimes affected me on my thoughts and opinions, which I’ll talk about later on. As well as how movies and music have affected my perspectives and opinions.

There is a Mexican man that enters with the rest of his family. They eat beans, rice, flour tortillas and etc. The family does there every day routine, the dad wakes up at six- thirty to go to work in his truck. The children go to school and the mother stays at home. The things a person does in their all has a reason which goes all back to culture. Culture is what makes up everyone different from one another. Texts such as “What is Cultural Identity?”, “Where Worlds Collide” and “Two ways to Belong” supports that depending on one’s culture it effects one perspective on the world and others.

The Helms White Racial Identity Development Model identifies six racial identity statuses (Sue & Sue, 2016). These statuses include contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion/emersion, and autonomy. Each of these statuses identifies characteristics that individuals in these statuses have. I traveled through theses statuses and believe I am currently in the immersion/emersion status. During different points in the model, I learned about race and myself that allowed me to move through each status, and currently working towards entering autonomy.

This paper will identify the ethnic identifications within individuals. Ethnicity is part of everyone’s identity development. Individuals may have one ethnicity or multiple, depending on their current location, homelands, generations, religion, environment, language/dialect, physical appearance, and more. A cultural individual is considered ethnic either by being first, second, or third generation. According to Phinney (1989), there are four stages of ethnic identity development: diffuse, foreclosed, moratorium, and achieved. They describe when an individual explores or does not explore their own ethnicity, and accepting clarification and understanding of ethnicity. An individual can be placed within these stages throughout their developing lives. It is important to recognize these stages within an individual to better apprehend their identity and where they perceive their own identity in their position.

Does someone's cultural identity affect how they look at the world an other people? Cultural identity affects how someone looks at the world and how they look at others. The culture that someone creates for themselves determines how they look at the world and someone. Your childhood, lessons you learn throughout your life, and your cultural heritage all effect your culture and how you look at people and the world. There is also some people that are not affected by their culture only affected by their childhood and lessons that they grew up with in other words there not affected by their parent's culture heritage their affected by their culture they made for themselves. Culture affects everyone and the extent of the effect determines how

Having cultural capital enhances status and power within individuals. How do marginal students experience internalized frustrations by their lack of status and power? Similarly, how do their identities adapt when they lack cultural capital influences and are faced with imposter syndrome?

295 “have observed that minority groups share similar patterns of adjustment to cultural oppression” Since they have similar patterns the Racial/Cultural Identity Model was made and this model addressed things like conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspection, and integrative awareness (Sue & Sue, 296)”. Individuals go through these stages as they try to understand themselves compared to the dominate culture. Clinician’s seem to focus on the differences and forget about the similarities. For example, according to Alessandria, (2012), p. 58 “”much of the meaning and many rituals around food in her culture (Korean) and mine (Italian) were more similar than different”. This research was done by a professor that was studying eating disorders for Asian American

Thinking about the events that have brought me to where I am today, the most appropriate model of identity development for myself would be the White Racial Identity Development: A Descriptive Model developed by Sue and Sue (2016). This model consists of seven phases: Naivete, Conformity, Dissonance, Resistance and immersion, Introspective, Integrative awareness, and Commitment to antiracist action. I believe that I am now entering or transitioning into the Integrative awareness phase. At this point I have learned a lot about myself and thought a lot about what it means to be White and how my life has been impacted by being White. Through the questioning and learning in the previous phase, I have a much better understanding of how racism is still at play in our society today and how I can personally make changes in my own life and on a larger scale. I think in the career path I have chosen, I will have plenty opportunities to help advocate and be an ally to those that are different from me. I have become much more comfortable having conversations with people who are different from me and want to continue learning.

The following paper will discuss two of the major dimensions of my cultural identity, and analyze the way in which my identity holds privileges, or has exposed me to oppression. Being that I am white, I have lived a life of privilege simply because of the color of my skin. I have been afforded opportunities, and lived a life free from persecution due to my skin color. I have also lived a life that has been impacted by oppression because of my female identity. This unique position between privilege and oppression is where I live my life.

The developmental model that I will be using is Bennett’s developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS). Bennett’s model “…provides a framework for understanding individual development and awareness along a continuum from high ethnocentric to highly ethnorelative, and this framework can help us better understand some of the dynamics that might occur” (Bennett, 135). According to the model, there are two groups ethnocentric, which has three sub stages, and ethnorelative, which also has three sub stages. In the first category, ethnocentric, the three sub stages are denial, defense and minimization, while, the second category, ethnorelative, the three sub stages are acceptance, adaption and integration. “Denial is the inability to see cultural differences and is evident when individuals isolate or separate themselves in homogenous groups” (Bennett, 135). Defense is similar to denial; however, they are able to recognize cultural differences but have a negative outlook about other’s cultures (Bennett, 137). The last one in the ethnocentric category is minimization which when people can recognize and accept superficial cultural differences; however, they still view everyone as the same (Bennett, 138). The first one in the ethnorelative category is acceptance, which is when the individual is able to identify and appreciate one’s cultural differences such as values and behaviors (Bennett, 140). The next stage is adaption which is when individuals start to see “cultural

The purpose of this essay is to critically reflect on the new ideas I have learnt throughout this semester, ideas that has changed the way I understand the experiences of the Aboriginal and Torres strait islander people. The essay will also link my understanding of how cultural identity can influence health equity, using the CATSINaM’s definition of cultural safety.

Thus, cultural competence refers to the learned ability to function in a culture in a manner that is congruent with the values, beliefs, customs, mannerisms and language of the majority members of the culture (Padilla & Perez, 2003). When a person is recognized as an insider only then he or she has attained complete competence in the new culture. Social Identity theory emphasizes that overarching societal structures such as groups, organizations, cultures and individual’s identification with these collective units guide internal structures and processes (Padilla & Perez, 2003). This theory reinforces the idea that individual’s social cognitions are socially construed depending on their group or collective frames of reference, for instance, immigrants who feel and see themselves as negatively stigmatized because of their darker skin color or their different English accent may be less willing to acculturate, because these negative views will persist regardless of whether they are culturally competent in the dominant culture (Padilla & Perez, 2003). An extension of this is the social categorization theory that emphasizes

Cultural identity is the basis in which identification is used to express different aspects pertaining to identity and heritage. A person's cultural identity may be created by social organization, as well as traditions and customs within their lives. The two aspects that construct my cultural identity are the frequent chores I must complete every day in order to fulfill my behavioral expectations, and the youth group I attend weekly. These aspects are important to my family and me. Therefore, my identity has an immeasurable effect on my upbringing into this multi-cultural world I live in.