Strong Identity

Though it does not come up in everyday thought, cultural identity is an idea that all humans possess. Abridged, cultural identity can be simply explained as the sharing of a similar culture by people of various ethnicities. However, cultural identity is more complex than that, defined by an individual’s values, beliefs, and ideas of moral behavior influenced by their culture. Furthermore, cultural identity is ever changing from individual to individual. This means that although two individuals may be of the same ethnicity, differences in circumstances may cause variations between the individuals’ personal beliefs. As a result of interracial interactions, multiculturalism has grown during the twenty-first century.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with being patriotic, the US’s excessive ethnocentrism has led to problems with other countries.

Few people are going to openly admit to being prejudice against people of other races, gender, and religions. However that doesn’t stop many of us from having unintentional racist thoughts. In 1979, Henri Tajfel, a social psychologist, proposed that “the groups which people belonged to are an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.” This ideal of categorizing and subconsciously labeling ourselves is better known as “Social Identity Theory”. Tajfel continues by saying “In order to increase our self-image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong. For example, England is the best country in the world! We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to). For example, the Americans, French etc. are a bunch of losers! Therefore, we divided the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e. we put people into social groups). This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image.” We all unintentionally discriminate against others that are in the “out-group”, and by doing this we are excluding ourselves from certain religions, cultures, races, and even genders. This ideal of labeling ourselves can be traced back to childhood and factors such as where we

Loss of Identity and Culture One of the biggest issues anyone can face is to maintain a strong identity within the temptations and traditions from others. The famous novelist Frank Delaney’s image search for ‘ancestors’ is one of the preeminent; quoting that one must “understand and reconnect with our stories, the stories of the ancestors… to build our identities” (Frank Delaney). For one, to maintain a firm identity, you should not follow the path and traditions of one else because it can end up making a change to your own tradition and culture.

Over the course of human history, social clash has occurred as a result of many different factors which commonly encompasses the identity of the involved groups. The concept of group warfare is as old as mankind itself and has been a proven staple to the existence of structured society on Earth. As identity has remained a common component to group conflict on both macro and micro levels, post-modern society has made it apparent that social harmony can truly be achieved through breaking down preconceived prejudices, and looking forward to sharing identity in the form of sacred values. Atrocities on behalf of diversity intolerance have occurred in devastating forms as recently as the Nazi infiltration of the Jewish communities during the World

Source III is a quotation from Arthur Schopenhauer and he states that people whose self worth needs enhancing, will resort to their shared sense of belonging to their nation-state. Schopenhauer says when one is apart of a nation they are “ready and happy to defend all its faults”. This is a type of devotion an individual illustrates when they are prideful of its nation. For example, the Nazi party was under Hitler’s rule who did not have the most pleasant ideas when it came to diminishing the cultures he had no desire for. Hitler slaughtered multiple minority groups because he wanted to create his own master race which was called the Aryans. This race would consist of people who had a pure German ethnicity, blond hair, light skin, and blue

The question of identity is always a difficult one for those living in a culture or group, yet belonging to another. This difficulty frequently remains in the mind of most immigrants, especially the second generations who were born in a country other than their parents. Younger generations feel as if they are forced to change to fit the social standards despite previous culture or group. Furthermore those who wish to adopt a new identity of a group or culture haven't yet been fully accepted by original members due to their former identity.

Everyone has an identity which is shaped by both religious, racial, or cultural affiliations, and present day society. Amin Maalouf discusses this, calming the first group as being a “vertical” heritage and the latter being a “horizontal heritage.” Though he clearly states that “vertical” heritage, cultural and religion, are crucial, Maalouf believes that people are more influenced by society; their “horizontal” heritage. He argues the fact that we may have our different “vertical heritage,” but we depend on our “horizontal” one to live day to day.

Many circumstances oblige people to move from their native country to a foreign one. From this movement of migration have emerged many ethnic groups. An ethnic group is a restraint number of persons living in a larger society and sharing the same distinct cultural heritage. Some people tend to bury their habits and accommodate to the new way of life. However others hold on to their identity and try to identify their race and maintain it. This enriches societies and makes them multi-racial. Therefore, every ethnic group is essential to complete the mosaic. Although they are sometimes threatened, minorities must fight to preserve their principles. Why must they fight? Because racial identification has many positive impacts on the members.

In defining identity as well as building an identity, the other has often been sought to make comparisons and use contrasts in order to make definition. The concepts of the other and foreigner have helped communities to set their own boundaries. In conjunction with the setting of boundaries, stereotypes and prejudices emerge in the representation of the other in cultural hegemony. Especially in the representations of the other in the media, which is a means of public communication reaching a large audience, the formation or consolidation of prejudices is quite

Individuals hold an inward approach to the way the view other culture and ethnic groups in the world based on surrounding influences and experiences. The word used to describe such an individual is ethnocentrism, which is holding certain attitudes and behavior towards an out-group. These attitudes and behaviors tend to be biased and are in favor of those of the in-group, which comes to the expense of the out-group (Hewstone & Ward, 1985). Individuals whom hold ethnocentric characteristics often are found to hold collective relationships among other ingroup members, while negatively suppressing the out-group members. With those ideas in mind, ethnocentrism is viewed as being a negative quality, however ethnocentrism encourages, unanimity, survival, collaboration, conformity, potency, and allegiance.

When conflict arises the identities of the opposing groups can become a target for attack. Neal Ascherson, declares that ‘war can damage two different, though related, types of identity: a social identity belonging to people within their community, and a collective or group identity which has been constructed around “high art” , considered to constitute a national heritage.’ Benedict Anderson describes modern nationalism as an imagined community, where although each person may not know one another in a nation-state, they share a common identity that is

Cultural identity is a part of the psychological self-concept that expresses an individual or group’s worldview and perceived cultural affiliations. The first step in finding a societal fit is to establish a cultural identity; this can be on an individual level and group level. Who am I? And where do I belong? These questions start to form in the human mind from an early age; it drives humans to explore their worldviews and how and where they fit in the world. Rosenfeld (1971) argued it is a deep-seated primal process that has ensured our continual survival. By finding others that think and act similarly we are offered some protection (Erickson, as cited in Carducci 2015). Erickson (as cited in Carducci, 2015) and Maslow (as cited in Mcleod 2007) argued that the need to belong is a basic building block of human development. Whatever the reason, the consensus is that humans have an intrinsic need to find a like-minded cultural group to belong to; this chosen affiliation is their cultural identity. A person may identify with more than one cultural

Patriotism is defined as “love of and devotion toward one’s country, which includes its people and institutions” (LaMothe 2008). These these feelings of love, pride and loyalty are essential for groups because they establish solidarity and unity among members (Finell and Zogmaister 2015). However, within the patriotism literature, Erving Staub distinguishes between two types of patriotism: Blind and constructive. Blind patriotism “connotes uncritical loyalty and support for any action engaged in by one’s own group” (Finell and Zogmaister 2015). This kind of patriotism creates an ingroup-outgroup dynamic, in which people are only concerned with what occurs to their ingroup and do not really care about the outgroup. Blind patriotism means that people will without question support any action taken by their group (Spry and Hornsey 2007). In this kind of patriotism there is no regard for the harm that the actions taken by the person’s group might have on others.

How can the development of national identity lead to loyalty and conflict for an individual?