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Role of culture in identity formation
Role of culture in identity formation
Role of culture in identity formation
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According to Eric Lott (Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrels), blackface both in minstrel show and later in movies “spread misconceptions and stereotypes, and was used as a tool to define what constituted ‘blackness’”. One of the impact of The Birth of a Nation was the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Those stereotypes were composed of a negative portrayal of African-Americans, represented as “idiotic, classless, child-like, unsophisticated, ignorant, violent, sexually aggressive, depraved and morally bankrupt characters” (The impact of negative stereotypes and representations of African-American in the media and African-American incarceration, by Tamara Thérèse Johson) and archetypes popular in the days of slavery and of the minstrel show became even more popular with the new medium of cinema that spread those visions to a larger audience (beginning right in the early 1900's). Donald Bogle describes five archetypes usually used to depict African-American characters, legacy of blackface and minstrel shows, in films. These archetypes consisted of the
As an American, and a human service professional, my primary job is to address the hypocrisy and moral corruption and confliction of those individuals and systems who solely convey America’s constitutional banner, but neglects its moral practicality. Americans think that by making everyone equal, constitutively and legislatively, we would effortlessly develop a moral society. Morality assumes that people have advantages over others such physical wellness, as skin-pigmentation, sexual identification, autonomy from mental illness and it dictates that we do not take advantage of those who are disadvantaged. Systems and society at large should not use our differences to justify the unjustifiable: inhumanly treatment and exclusion of other humans.
Many people may believe that the level of development in society is fast approaching a golden era, where a majority of conflicts will be resolved as a result of the growing awareness of societal problems and the assertiveness of people around the world. Unfortunately, due to the growing gaps between societal ideals and reality, society continues to be swamped with numerous social, political, and economic issues that negatively impact a significant number of people and their communities today. These issues arise due to a variety of factors, sometimes beyond society’s control, which results in great confusion about what is right and wrong, and if there is anything possible at all to resolve these conflicts. Specifically in the United States,
What is otherness? In the context of readings like Mark Greene’s How America’s Culture of Shame is a Killer for Young Boys and Barbara Mellix’s From the Outside, in, otherness marks the difference in gender, race, and social class. The insiders are those that are in power politically, socially and religiously. Likewise, it implies there are those without representation, without power. Whether you are part or outside the groups, they create a sense of unity and community.
The collision of cultures dictates how well a country is able to preserve and provide for a multitude of people that require a delicate balance. The American culture is a prime example of diversity on one side, and the miss handling of diversity on the other side. Very much like that of the Persians, who during their re-stabilization and the implementation on how best to enforce stability within their country’s existing culture was by embracing “the power of customs” while being aware of the dangers associated with over-sharing, in hopes of cutting off the “instability of human happiness and fortune” in an effort to provide the “power of freedom” for anyone to immigrate to the United States. Upon all the challenges on this new nation, that
When I reached America, I started to remember my childhood. I was the youngest of 4 children. I had a sister and two brothers. We were all crammed into a small hut. We all slept on one blanket on the floors made of cow poop.
The influence of individuality and conformity on freedomin society. Are choices, actions, and thoughts influenced by rules or reasons? Is our freedom based on conformity or individuality?In society there is individuality and there is conformity. These two aspects are considered as two sides of the same coin in which one cannot be without the other. These contradictions are what makes society function and develop.
If we take a look at the different cultures in the world, we will see that the idea of what is ethically acceptable is vastly different. When the United Nations signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they had attempted to provide the world with a guideline of how we should ethically treat people. In many cases this declaration did not succeed and different cultures have their own ethical guidelines which go against this declaration. These culture specific ethics are defined as cultural relativism (Brusseau, 2012). Cultural relativism is the belief that ethics are not the result of universal reason; they are solely based on the individual cultures history (Brusseau, 2012).
In today’s society, following trends and hashtags are our main focuses. Whatever we see on T.V or read in magazines, we tend to copy or mimic it in our everyday lives. There are many conflicting things that America promotes. Advertisements promote skinny women wearing lots of makeup, and many movies promote finding a romantic love life. Wealth is not usually promoted by mass media conglomerates; however, everyday Americans strive to live the “good life”.
An American politician Barbara Jordan has once said,“ We,as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” Jordan’s word shows people shouldn’t treat the other differently because they are not like you. .Allen the writer of “American Flag Stands for Tolerance” writes about how people had no right to judge what the “other” is doing or thinking of the meaning of our flag. Sometimes we just need to be blind about what the other is doing or thinking. Lynda Barry the author of “Sanctuary” had shown how the society is acting blindly to what thing is happening in the school.
On a broad scale social structures are systems in place with smaller institutions that hold similar relationship and social patterns. Family is one of the five main important institutions. Family fits into social structures because family groups have been recorded through time, have the same social patterns, and it then continues to work by meeting the needs of the group. The length of family groupings has been recorded throughout time, because to mate and reproduce is human instinct. A family binds together to meet the needs of the individuals.
Imagine if you will, coming home from a long day at work, you turn on the television and start watching the news. Upon your observance, you notice the headlines of the night: equality for African Americans, Women’s rights, and imprudent activists who devote hours of time for protests towards political and social causes. Environmentalists are warning viewers of the long-term effect of pollution on the earth, and of course, the ever-popular culture war between the alt-left liberals and alt-right conservatives. The information brings about confusion and fear as you cannot seem to fathom the horrors of the world, yet simultaneously you are embracing the opportunity for change and equality.
As Nancy Bonvillain states “Children are socialized into their gender identity from the earliest age, beginning immediately after birth.” (Bonvillain, 2013, p. 111) Males and females in American culture learn masculine and feminine gender roles from their parents and society. When mothers and fathers find out the birth of their child they begin planning. When expecting a boy, the parents usually buy certain outfits that are blue, have tools, dinosaurs, trucks, etc., on them that are related to the male gender.
When discussing human nature, we often debate whether humans are inherently good or evil. Yet what we don’t consider is if human nature exists at all. When asked about what human nature is, many of us would cite different sets of characteristics that vary depending on our upbringing, environment and culture. There are some concepts, such as rationality, ability or predisposition to use language, formation of complex social structures and self-consciousness that pop up again and again, but are these ‘universals’ enough to be used to define the entire population of Homo sapiens? And are these characteristics unique enough, that when used to characterize the human population, no other close evolutionary relatives will come to be defined as human
Ethnocentrism and its prevalence in U.S culture Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric judge other groups in relation to their own ethnic group or culture. I think The United States likes to refer to themselves as the “big mixing pot” of cultures. I would agree, we do have a wide range of different cultures, but that does not mean that we do not “evaluate and judge other cultures based on how they compare to our own cultural norms.” I think us as Americans feel this way, because we are too scared to change what we have learned and known since birth.
