Group Identity Paper

Group identity is a major element that helps embrace members of a particular group and bring them together on things such as their ideologies, religion, language, and a variety of other characteristics (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, n.d.). Through the readings and personal experiences with individuals of similar and different cultures than myself, I have come to believe that group identity has played a major role in countering deculturalization through the years.

When I think of this idea, I cannot help but go back to my science background and think of the goal of all living things, which is to survive and reproduce (Walsh, 2008). I think that this idea can be applied to group identity and the role it plays in maintaining a particular groups’ culture. A group can be viewed as a living thing and as such, its goal is to survive and reproduce in a way that maintains its culture and identity. Without a desire to maintain that group identity, deculturalization would become successful and we would no longer have the cultures that make up our world today. I think that because we still have a mass variety of cultures in the world, it goes to show how powerful group identity has been in combating deculturalization.

Although I do believe that group identity does play an integral role in preventing the loss of individual cultures through globalization or “Americanization”, I think that it does affect equity in our education systems.

This is most evident in the 1700-1800s, when diaspora and immigration of various different groups, including African, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino Americans occurred most frequently into North America. This integration of persons with different cultures and ethnicities lead to the segregation of these individuals most commonly in our education systems. These individuals were subjected to substandard educational facilities with unqualified teachers where they were educated in the ways and culture of the white man (Spring, 2010 p.

41-106).

I would like to think that I have had little participation in hegemony in the past. I think that my parents did a good job raising me to know and understand that I am no better than others regardless of their culture and ethnicity. I say little participation, because I think that everyone has that feeling of superiority over others based on their social class, which according to Gabrenya (2003), includes things such as income level, type of employment, and level of parent involvement. I think that these feelings of superiority naturally manifest when attempting to integrate into different social groups, specifically in the school setting. Peer pressure, for instance, creates that pressure to do things or feel a certain way towards others based on things such as these characteristics that make up one’s social class. I would be lying if I said that I never participated in such activities in attempts to be apart of a different social group in school, which unfortunately makes me guilty of hegemony.