Monday, September 24, 2007
Topic 1: Identity-Culture Clash
We are identified by many things: our accent, language, nickname, favourite band, dress style, likes and dislikes, the team we support, our ethnic group, country of origin, family background and history, school, religion, or political beliefs. Official documents like birth certificates, travel passes and passports authenticate our public identity, giving us certain rights, denying us others. Because we identify ourselves with certain cultural groups (and are identified by others in terms of our membership in certain groups), we may experience "culture clash," or conflict resulting from our cultural identities. For this blog assignment, I want you to discuss one of the following : 1. Desbribe a time when your identity/membership in a cultural group created a problem for you. Did you face discrimination, resistance, or ridicule? Why? It's not enough to describe the problem: try to help us (and you) understand the underlying issues. 2. Describe a time when someone else's identity/membership in a cultural group caused you to act in a certain way. Did you discriminate, respect, or ridicule someone? Why? Again, analyze the underlying issues. Please post by Saturday, Sep. 29, at 3:00 p.m.
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One time I was playing in a band that covered a lot of Southern rock type music. We were playing in this bar and things were going as well as the could. We were having plenty of cheers as we played big southern hits and we thought we were pleasing the entire crowd. However that was not the case, during one of our breaks we were approached by to African American males. They accused us of being races towards black people, and celebrating a history they hated and thought was terrible. We truly had no reaction to the situation. To us we were just playing music that was popular in our area. We had no intention of affending anyone, everything was suppose to be in good fun. The two men didn't seem to by our story. The entire conflict however did'nt last very long because security was tight and took them away from us. The problem I have with the situation is I think that the men were to quick to judge us. They said we were talking about an evil past but we were just playing the only thing we knew and loved. I am proud of my history and proud to know I have grown up in Georgia. I am not proud of how things were during the time of slavery. But just the same I think that was a long time ago and we shouldn't let the past get the best of our future. And any race should never be to quick to judge another.
-Nbier
Just after the April 16th tragedy happened at tech, the asians at our school were harrassed a lot. Since the shooter was korean, from my high school, and lived very close by, a lot of the asians were ridiculed. Personally, I'm not korean but sometimes it's hard to tell between the different races of asians, especially since I'm mixed. Anyway, I was thrown into the category of "dangerous asians." A lot of people assumed I knew the shooter and associated myself with him and his family. Honestly, I never knew him and he graduated before I went to the high school. I think it's terrible how discrimination is determined by the actions of one individual but apparently asians at my school and in my community had to be blamed.
This I think in a way is similar to the September 11th tragedy. Although most of the terrorists were one race, I knew that it was the actions of one group that caused so much pain for the other innocent people. I've heard of "random searches" in airports... of just arabics and middle easterners and I know the airport is trying to be cautious but they shouldn't discriminate as well.
When I was younger every year I would always show sheep at the Virginia State Fair for 2 weeks. During the weekdays everything was fine and the exhibitors were free to do what ever we wanted during times we weren't showing but during the weekends especially at night the police would ask us to leave early and go to our hotels before it got dark. When I was younger I never questioned why we were supposed to leave early but as I got older I began to wonder why. When one of my parents friends told me I was shocked. Gangs would come onto the fair grounds and look for exhibitors and would harass and torment them calling them names and throwing things and create a big ruckus. Apparently many of the African American gangs associated farmers and stocks men with the south and would target them. Every year there was usually at least one gun fight and the cops eventually sent out armed cops to patrol the fair grounds to try to keep order.
Apparently the gangs thought that all the showsman were from the south and held a confederate attitude, which was not true at all. The exhibitors come from all around the state and I have never met a single one who was racist they all are friendly people who are fun to be around, yet many of the gang members associated farmers as raciest and would target us. I think it is a shame that they felt that way but changing an entire groups opinion is a lot harder than changing a single persons opinion.
I grew up in the Methodist Church with a positive view on life. There were many people that had a major impact on my attitude and personal beliefs. I was lucky to have a strong group of individuals, like scoutmasters, ministers, teachers, neighbors, and other friends, that shared common views. I can’t think of any one person that stood out among the others. But I can say that as a community my church congregation had a positive influence on my life, that has shaped my character and my beliefs, and I respect them for that. Every signal person causes everyone to act a certain way, how is it possible to single out one event or personality in a lifetime of interactions?
Growing up in Richmond, Va, one very red state on the political maps, proved to be very hard for me. I arrived at my political opinions from my own knowledge and my own thoughts, however I do happen to share the same beliefs as my parents. This has always make it hard becuase I never exactly fit in with the same political views as my most of my peers at my high school. I often felt left out becuase there were special activies which a large part of my friends participated in, but these events often tied in politics along with it, often leaving me out. If anything I was descriminated because of the way I felt towards war, etc. I have always been one to listen to everyone's opinion, and to never interrupt, however very few people will listen to something that clashes their own personal beliefs and not interrupt, unlike me. I feel like this kind of discrimination happens everyday, and if everyone was more open minded, better decision making would evolve there would be less disagreements and wars.
A lot of people can not tell just by looking at me, but I am of iranian heritage.(I know it is a suprise, everyone thinks I am mexican)After the events of September 11th pretty much all people of middle eastern decent were viewed as the "bad guys". At this time I was in seventh grade which was already a tough year for all preteens. As children do they immediatly want to place the blame and harrass others. So because I was from a middle eastern background I immediatly caught rude remarks right off the bat. At first I was extremely upset about catching crap for something that I had no part in, just for being born with middle eastern blood. After awhile I realized that the remarks I was getting was no less then the remark I was handing back. Eventually it all became one big joke as things started to blow over. All in all I was not really affected by it cause I see myself as strong individual, but I can see how discrimination is a huge subject with people in America.
I never really had to deal with descrimination on an exterior level, however, I have been judged unfairly due to some of my attitudes. One such example would be the last two years of my high school wrestling career. I was incredible determined and dedicated, but I still was a small little white kid who wasnt particularly strong. People tende to judge me based on my appearance rather than my stats. 100 wins later, people started to take notice, and I developed another identity.
I guess a time when I have judged someone based on appearance was when I first came to college, I automatically assumed things about my roomate without ever meeting him (that he was foreign, that he was intelligent, etc.) it turned out that most of these accusations were false, and once I got to know him, I got a greater understanding of judging and how unfair it really is
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