Defining Ethnic and Cultural Backgrounds Without a Definition
Throughout history people have identified themselves with a particular ethnic group that would not typically be the ethnic group they are objectively defined within. For example, I have a neighbor who considers herself black and Puerto Rican. She has porcelain white skin, red hair, green eyes and dresses like anyone else I see on the street. She listens to many genres of music, mainly hip-hop and pop. I have a couple of friends that are identical twins, however one identifies himself as Scottish, the other, Irish. This difference in identity doesn’t appear to be biological or innate. They are both examples that lend themselves to a different way of thinking and are evidence that ethnicity may simply be our own creation. How do you ask someone what ethnic group they identify themselves with when in fact they have never defined themselves within that particular mode of thinking.
Ethnic group? I am a mutt. I’m a good old-fashioned white Caucasian female representing the cultures of everything from the Irish, the English, French, Canadian, French-Canadian, and a little Scottish. I’ve got traces of Blackfoot Indian somewhere within my lineage too. I don’t think I have ever differentiated myself ethnically. It seems to be a bastardization of what this country could truly be. Immigrants? Most of us are immigrants. We killed anyone who wasn’t. Anyone that survived ended up being the minority group in their own native country.
I suppose however for the purposes of this paper, I better define myself quickly. How can my way of thinking possibly fit within the confines of this assignment? It is assumptive of the fact that ethnicity exists. The truth is, while some of my family was jotting down the lineage, I was left looking at the whole of the species watching evolutionary differences between science and my catholic counterparts.
I do not believe I have a definitive ethnic culture. To define myself quickly in a capsule that barely captures the whole, I am a white person. Throughout my life, I have incorporated many cultures into my life, without realizing them as a different entity. Ethnic groups to me were as different as a recipe, with humans being the core product.
Discrimination occurs everywhere. When one defines an ethnic group through various features as our text does, it no longer allows for a difference within that ethnicity or culture. The truth is, our definitions of ethnic groups become a basis for discrimination. Racism is its own precipitator. We have created a difference by looking for it. You could say I am discriminated against by mainstream culture who for some reason isn’t open to the fact that I decided to grow dreads or because I decided not to define myself by traditional roles.
I don’t have a role defined by my gender. In early prehistory of human evolution, gender roles were important for survival. Nowadays gender roles are influenced by what we are taught. I suppose one may say that growing up I was taught that the woman cooked, cleaned, and took care of the children. As a parent I do what needs to be done, cooking cleaning and taking care of my child while working and going to school. It’s not because I am a female and noticed my mother doing those things, rather because they need to be done. In fact, my child’s father does a wonderful job at sharing responsibilities, because things need to be done.
Religion? The path is many; the truth is one. I was supposed to grow up catholic. I, however as a young child, believed that the dead man on the cross was a rather frightening site. I figured that perhaps if he decided to come back, he might not want to be reminded of such a traumatic event. Religion is as created as the ethnic groups they supposedly belong too. Some may define my religion as Unitarian. The truth is the concepts of my belief system come from all over the world.
Characteristics? What characteristics help anyone assimilate into American society? How about hope? How about a fundamental discovery into understanding not our differences but being witness to the similarities among us? How about compassion? How about not relating to separate groups but relating to one another as a whole? None of us have properly or successfully assimilated into American society. Our society is still filled with the fallacies and illusions of difference. We are still reaching for personal identity through the destruction of our foundations as a whole unit. We pick up the pieces of the debris and our failures come as we define fragments by their shape and textures. We haven’t a definition for what it is to be human, never mind attempting to define what it is to be American. How can we assimilate into something we haven’t the capacity to understand yet? Defining and identifying with a particular ethnicity is its own failure. Continuing a path of discovering differences that are an illusion, harms us.
I refuse to identify with particular ethnic groups because of the indoctrinations of certain authors of modern sociology. Despite the teachings of modern sociology; I am more inclined to continue the path of doctrines by modern anthropologists and biologist constructivists. I do not consider myself mainstream. Mainstream culture is a mindless robot composed of non-thinkers and followers who have little capacity to think beyond what they are taught inside their tiny little boxes. I would rather continue to think for myself and not be devoid of personal intelligence. Though I consider mainstream to be mindless, it serves as a stepping-stone for all of us, and I do believe it has its place.
