We Should NOT Be Judged For Our Identity

A cultural identity explores and explains how our place of upbringing, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and family dynamics among other factors creates our identity as a person. Even facts such as what activities we took part in as a child can be part of cultural identity. During the process of writing my second paper for my English class in my first semester of college, my professor asks this question several times; “Who are you?” This exercise I believe she is trying to use to show that people are multifaceted beings; meaning there are different aspect of individual’s life that shape them into who they are. It is not just based on one particular aspect of their life that define them. Ethnically, I identify myself as a Yoruba girl (an ethnic group in the western part of Nigeria). Writing this self-identity paper has engaged me into thinking about the factors that are woven together to define my identity and how and where they each play their role. Culture, in addition to family traditions is one of the factors that define my self-identity as well as affect my self-identity.

Individual’s race shapes their identity because race is there problem in society today. Black african americans are still not treated equal to whites in american. Race is There is still discrimination in the shadows of our society, within job or even first appearance. With a Black african race your identity is hard to make without someone doubting your intelligence or capability. Furthermore, racial profiling and stereotypes portrays how race shapes an individual’s identity.

Cultural Identity is “The definition of groups or individuals (by themselves or others) in terms of cultural or subcultural categories (including ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and gender)” (Oxford Reference). Everyone has cultural identity even though some are unaware of theirs because their habits and traditions might be seen as normal to the person and they might not make the connection that it is a cultural tradition or connected to their cultural identity. Some people are very aware of their cultural identity and have conflict within their identity because the cultures may not coincide. Frida Kahlo’s Self Portrait: On the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States and Pat Mora’s “Legal Alien” both show cultural conflict through symbolism, conflict, and purpose.

For this reason, I feel you shouldn’t have to say, “I’m Black” or “I’m White”. It makes mixed people feel like they are not accepted or fit in anywhere, yet you forget that’s how you’ve been treated like that for many years. You never let us be mixed or biracial, making us feel that we can’t be different.Today, in society, they say different is good; but then turn around and talk about it like it’s weird. This why I feel you shouldn’t have to live by your

When I entered the Dynamic of Racism and Oppression class I was the individual who had blinders on. I did not have a full understanding of what racism was, which in itself is shocking to me as I thought I had. What made me really stop and think was this class opened my eyes to the fact that I did not know my own identity. I have heard individual say “I’m black”, “I am of African decent”, “I’m Latino”, “I’m Canadian”, and “I’m white”. These are common statements of how individuals view their race and identity. I have even placed my identity in one of those categories, I’m white. I was unaware and unsure of what it meant to have a culture, which many individuals claim everyday. Some individuals know their identity, others do not, I was one

Understanding this will help one realize how they are. In the article, ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ Obama mentions a girl name Joyce from college who was part Italian, part French and part Native American and states her struggle with people trying to label her. “I’m not Black… I’m multiracial… Why should I have to choose between them? …They’re the ones who are telling me I can’t be who I am.” (Smith, 2008) In this quote, Joyce tells that she is multiracial, meaning she is accepting all roots. When she says that people are trying to tell her she can’t be who she is, she is not agreeing to make others comfortable. However there are also people that do not want to accept their roots, specifically their genetics. In the previous article, ‘DNA rewrites history for African-Americans,’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not want to embrace the fact that he was 50% white and 50% black. ““I’ll never see my family tree in quite the same way,” Gates says on the PBS show program, “I have the blues. Can I still have the blues?”” (Willing, 2006) After discovering his true heritage, Gates did not want to accept his ‘new’ identity, but instead rejects it, unlike Joyce. When he denies his identity it only hurts him because he does not recognize his entire

Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood, questions racial labeling of all sorts. What is the difference between race, ethnicity and culture? Appiah reevaluates people’s ways of thinking, which encourages his readers to think outside of the norms to analyze what their definition of race is. He argues that if one rejects the existence of racism, which is the idea that there are distinctions of our species, then that person cannot adhere to the fact that there are hereditary differentiations such as superior or inferior ethnicities. That individual insinuates that we are equal in all racial related aspects, but that is not the case in our current environment.

Although race doesn’t change many views about culture, in many cases, race does change many views about culture. Going back to “ Indian Father’s Plea,” Wind Wolf becomes ashamed of his culture because the father states ‘“But the boy’s mother lashed out: “ It is ok if you have to play with him at school, but we don’t allow those kind of people in our house!” when my wife asked why not, the other boy’s mother answered “because you are Indians and we are white, and I don’t want my kids growing up with your kind of people.”’ So Wind Wolf got his haircut and abandoned his traditions because the children and teacher humiliated him of

We all develop identity from the world around us. Society offers us a wide variety of roles to play, and we are rewarded if we play them as well as possible. We fail to realize that being teenagers, parents, workers, doctors, and etc. are just roles and assume that we are simply participating in a genuine life. No matter how much effort a person puts into his or her own image, in the end it’s all a fraud, psychologically speaking, because so much of our lives is unconscious. From all the things that appeal to us in the world, we create images of how we want to see ourselves. We try to make ourselves seen in the world so our images can be

Why does race determine one's identity? Most people in society believe there is a stereotype behind every race? Not just a stereotype, there are times when people are judged and mistreated just because of the race they belong to. Sometimes the history of the culture seems to “shape” who the person is . Others will think that the individual is the same as the others, not knowing who they really are. Just like Richard in the book “Black Boy”, he got mistreated by white people just for the fact that he was African American. Individuals have a right to determine who they are regardless to their race.

I have grown up my entire life on the metaphorical “fence.” Being a first generation American Indian, what I hear so often from the Indian community is, “but you’re not really Indian!” I’m tagged “whitewashed”, but at the same time I’m still “the brown girl”, never having deciphered to this day whether either is a stamp of approval or a term of derision. I never fully identified with the American culture, but was never able to fully embrace my Indian roots either.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines identity as “the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others” (MWD). In other words, the characteristics which makes a person unique is the identity that they associate with. Black, white, Indian or Latino; gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight; man, woman or transgender; young, middle aged or old; Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu; poor, middle class, or rich; these are just a sampling of the identities that an individual might use to describe themselves in a way to set themselves apart from others. However, what should happen if these identities and their respective connotations are thrown onto a person? What if these differences that many claim should be celebrated are now used to persecute and ostracize? No longer does the individual have a choice as to what identities they will use and how those identities will be represented in the world. America was founded as a result of a religious identity crisis in England yet at the same time the Founding Fathers used the identity of race as a way to persecute a large body of individuals.

Summary: In this article Walzer discusses what it means to be American and how that differs from other national identities. In most countries, identity is tied to the land and ethnicity. In America however, is different because the ethnicities within this country are diverse. Ethnicity is not tied to American national identity because of this. The national identity of “American” is constructed in a sense, and tied to the territory. Even the Sons and Daughters of the revolution, who were English, had to break away from their ethnic ties. The oligarchy and power system in England is what they fought against. The English Americans had to break away from this and those who refused to had to move. Loyalists were treated harshly for their beliefs regardless of their ethnicity.

Race is about how you use your nationality to represent yourself to the world. Social class is an aspect that gets many people confused when they associate this with other aspects and one that can change the way you live. Each aspect has a relation to one another that can be seen as positive or negative, also the relationships between the identities form the human. These elements of race, class and their affiliations with other aspects can help identify a person’s

I am not defined by my skin color .Race isn’t a biological category. It is defined by label, often based on the color of one’s skin or appearance. If I could change one thing about the world to make it a better place, I would stop racial and ethnic labeling. Throughout my life I have been asked to check out little boxes requiring me to choose which race I belonged to. But aren’t we all are human beings? We shall not be labeled like those we put on foods, clothes and cars where it helps us choose the better. My skin color might be white or black. I might be decadence from Asia, Africa, Irish, Jew or Latin America. But that does not make me “Black”,” White”, “Hispanic” or “Asian”. I am neither black nor white but I am me. Racial labeling has