National identity is meticulously constructed through different intricate elements of social behaviours pertaining to the construction of society within a nation; but one can not fully grasp its meaning without gaining a contextual notion of what identity is first. I believe identity is a socially constructed distinction that individuals employ in differentiating self to the others, therefore at a basic level, “national identity is the awareness of difference, a feeling and recognition of ‘we’ and ‘they’” (Lee, 2000: 29). Furthermore, Stuart Hall, one of the most notable scholars in the field consider identities as a sub-product of our society rather than a binding force, whereby he suggests ‘if such society hold together at all, it is not …show more content…
However through migration came the waves of immigrants, usually people of different backgrounds and skin colours, migrating and settling down in the West. Though through Hall’s construction of ‘the west’, almost any non-westen cultures are deemed inferior therefore are easy to become the subject of racism. On the other hand, Race and national identity are a sensitive and yet interrelated topic, and by that reason racism has always been controversial yet profoundly significant within the realm of nationalism. Etienne Balibar claims that there are two forms of racism pertaining to nationalism, namely internal racism and external racism, and he considers the former as ‘directed against a population regarded as a minority with the national space’ (Balibar, 1991: 38) and the latter as ‘considered as an extreme form of xenophobia’ (Balibar, 1991: …show more content…
One of the argument Billig made in comparison to national identity is through the example of flags, and they are manifested on a sub-conscious level, so much so that ‘it is embedded in routines of life and is hardly registered in the flow of daily attention’ (Billig, 1995: 38). Billig also identifies and stresses upon the underlying differences between national identity and nationalism, as he deems nationalism “‘as something dangerously emotional and irrational, it is conceived as a problem or a condition, which is surplus to the world of nations, and such irrationality is projected on to ‘others’” (Billig, 1995: 38). Thus, national identity is a structural part of
Paul Haggis’ film Crash (2004), demonstrates how people can adopt a dominant and subordinate role concurrently, this is illustrated through the character Jean Cabot. When people look at Jean they see an affluent White female. As a result of the way a person looks their actions are scrutinized due to social construction. Jean is White, so people assume that she leads a charmed life. Although, Jean’s racial identity and class allows her to be a member of the dominant group, her gender she does not have as much power as White males; Jean builds her life around the racial identity that is assigned to her and participates in the social construction that plagues American communities.
A baby boy is born in a clinic within an impoverished village in Thailand. The mother, who had no immediate family and was unwed, deceased during childbirth, leaving her son an orphan. The baby was placed in foster care and soon adopted by an American couple. The couple then raises the boy in their home as their own. He grows up in a suburban neighborhood, learns English, attends public school, lives within an entirely American culture, and embraces it. He is aware that he comes from a different familial background and is of a different nationality than his parents, but he has made the choice to identify himself with the ethnicity that he has grown to love. He believes that his ethnic identity entirely up to him. A Thai boy choosing the ethnicity of an American child as his own goes against the widespread belief that ethnicity is in our DNA, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, he is setting the example. Being able to make a meaningful choice in your ethnic identity is something everyone should be allowed to do, no matter the situation. Nobody should be expected or forced to believe in an ethnicity determined by their race or heritage because everyone has their own beliefs. Your personal notions give you the power to decide who you want to be, just like the Thai boy. Ethnicity is the choice everyone can make to be the individual they want to be and the origin of a person’s ethnicity is not inherent or defined by race, it comes from personal beliefs.
I classify my race, ethnicity, and culture as a white, Irish-Italian- American, woman. My mother was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and my paternal grandparents are from Sicily, Italy. I imagine being first generation Irish and second generation Italian helps me relate with my ethnicity.
According to Steinberg (1996) many believe that biculturalism is more successful than the other four. With biculturalism minority youth have access to the norms of the majority and minority culture depending on the situation.
When we think about our identity we often think about the way we look. Such features as hair color, eye color, skin tone, height and weight come to mind. Whilst these features are part of our identity, there are many more complex factors that make us who we are. Whilst psychological issues are paramount to the formation of our identity, I will be addressing the nature of our identity in relation to socio-cultural factors (Austin, 2002, p.9). During the course of this essay I will be discussing the term of Identity and some of the axes of identity, including Race, Class and Gender. It is important to understand some of the significant issues of identity so that we have more of an understanding of who and what we are, which in turn may help us to begin to better understand others.
In Stuart Hall’s “Ethnicity: Identity and Difference,” he claims that identity is a volatile social process through which one comes to see the self. Hall argues that identity is not a thing rather a process “…that happens over time, that is never absolutely stable, that is subject to the play of history, and the play of difference.” These factors are constantly entering the individual in a never-ending cycle, re-establishing and affirming who one is.
It is important for people of color to not fall short in the hands of the society. The society will bribe and influence people of color to assimilate to the American culture to avoid any sort of confrontation with thei individualism. Society will try to use force to separate people from working towards one another through economics. People of color were told at a young age, in school, or the by the media, that the only way to survive was by remaining silent and do what the society wants. Many people of color want to make changes on how the society is structured but, they feared for the outcome of it. As hooks states, “On a very basic level, changes in the cost of house had a frieghtening impact on college-educated young people of all ethinicities
Society is defined as people who live in a specific geographic territory, interact with one another, and share many elements of common culture. Within a society there are many components that make up that society. There is crime, culture, social class, gender, marriage and the family, religion, education, medicine and health care, the political order, etc. However, race and ethnicity has a great and powerful influence in society, and has for many years. On the reverse side, society also influences the different races and ethnicities of people. Race is defined as “a group of people who have been singled out on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics” (Curry, Jiobu, Schwirian 209). Ethnicity is defined as “common cultural characteristics
In common sense thought, race is simply a fact: humans are not all alike, there are whites, blacks and yellows, maybe reds and browns too, and these different kinds are races, and that's just a feature of the way the world is. However, recent work on the concept of "race" shows that "race" and "race"-talk can be understood by analogy to what Foucault suggests about psychiatry and mental illness coming into being together: (1) it is now beginning to appear than "race" and racism came into existence together as well. It is racism that has made talk of race something that we can take seriously. A statement attributing intelligence or laziness to a person on the basis of her/ his skin color, can only be judged true if there are resources in the vocabulary for associating personality traits with skin colors. The major resource providing this association is the concept of race.
In a time rife with class, gender, and racial tensions, it can be easy to lose sight of just how much progress has been made in these relations in recent years. Only ninety-four years ago, women were granted the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. It was only fifty-two years ago that the 1964 Civil Rights Act guaranteed equal rights, such as the right to vote, to black Americans. In particular, perceptions of racial identity have evolved drastically. Throughout time, people’s perception of racial identity has changed as racism developed due to the economic potential of a morally corrupt system, then evolved as the moral implications of slavery were viewed to outweigh the economic benefits, and finally has shifted to a new type of racial identity and racism based on national identity.
Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s arguments from “Racial Formations” are about how race is socially constructed and is shown in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as, media, school, politics, history, family and economy create society’s structure of race. In Caucasia, media, family and school are forces that create race by stating how one should conform to social norms for different racial groups.
Print. The. national identity, n. OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. The Web.
As a united society with great leaders and innovators, much has been accomplished by the 21st century. One issue that continues to linger around seems to be the non existing equality on different races and ethnicities. Through many forms of communication, the media continues to remind our society of what was once in the past, expressing no progress in human impartiality in their work. The media has repeatedly overtime classified certain behaviors and associated them with specific races, which unconsciously constructs expectations by individuals of one race to another. This creates the significance to view negatively upon different races and ethnicities, and plays a crucial role in shaping the way we recognize race and ethnicity as part of
Arguably neither are satisfactory in providing a complete explanation so it is necessary to combine both approaches for increased explanatory power. Conner (1994) offers a primordialist view of identity as evolving from history and myth of a common homeland, or ‘a group of people who believe they are ancestrally related” (cite) This belief arises from psychological and emotional attachments developed through a mutual culture, language or religion. This idea that identity is manifested from a group that believe they are ancestrally related arises from the inability of many primordialist claims to depict an actual origin or trace back their roots with certainty. This leads to the rise of myths of common ancestry or homeland. Other primordialists believe that identity is innate, or a ‘given’, prescribed by birth through blood ties or kinship bonds, while it can also be attained though mutual culture, religion, and language. (cite) This biological and psychological attachment form the ethnic core and is the basis of nation identity These views of identity through the primordialist lens is that it is fixed once given, which also acts to strengthen the primordial bond between the organic community. This also suggests that ethnic identity forms the core for national identity, and cannot be separated. This means that
Scholars of the European Union (EU) have a strong interest in the concept of European Union identity (Cram, 2009). The ‘European union’ identity can be identified nowadays, although there are still conflicts between national identities and a shared European identity which can be illustrated by the data from Eurobarameter and other sources. Most people perceive themselves as Europeans, as Anderson (1991) state, there is no contradictory between Europe and nation-state, ‘country first, but Europe, too’ is the main feeling of the public. However, some people don’t consider themselves as European which result from a strong attachment to the national culture. Even though, the tendency of the convergence of diverse national identity cannot be resisted (Cram, 2009). Migration of population within Europe and the implementation of Europe policy accelerate the progress of formation of the shared identity. This article is going to focus on two reasons why people are willing to define themselves as European by showing how their national identities interact with the European identity, mainly in two countries UK and Poland .The first reason is the issue of Euro, which can be regarded as a tangible symbol of a shared identity and can be perceived easily. The second reason is the collective memory shared among countries and entire Europe.