Race And National Identity

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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

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