Oscar Wilde's Ideas And Identity

Oscar Wilde once said, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple”. The culture of a nation, a community, or a group, is what moulds our attitudes, beliefs and values. A dictionary definition of ‘culture’ is: “the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group”. The three categories of culture - social, ethnicity, and age - are what influence a human to support or disapprove society and occurring events. Over many centuries, racial understandings from cultural influences, have manipulated the we have perceived society and events. However, over the last century, we have seen some of the highest radical perceptions of race in history. The rarity or pure and simple truth that Wilde has talked about, could relate …show more content…
24) also notes how in Australia, we have a record of representing Aboriginal people with a “racist, distorted and often offensive” identity. She discusses the widespread concept of the Other, which over many cultures, has systematically become a fast method for racially marginalising certain ethnic groups. This dichotomous idea of “Us vs Them” has been riddled throughout cultures and creates a separation and imaginary hierarchy in the minds of ordinary people. Barbara Evers suggests in her lecture for this unit, Ideas and Identity, how representations are only “versions of reality”. This can be used by people in presenting a negative version of a group, such as Aboriginal people. Langton’s (1993, pp. 27) essay recounts an anecdote about an Aboriginal woman who was not happy about playing a particular role, but she was OK with it because didn’t represent them as “drunks”. This stereotype of drunkenness and similarly other negative and offensive representations, are from a small minority and are bread into becoming a vast misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. The struggle of the definition of ‘Aboriginality’ has caused many riffs and divides among both non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals. Langton (1993, pp. 29) highlights how the Commonwealth requires an official certificate of ‘Aboriginality’ to be given a grant or a loan. She believes that the definition for who is and is not Aboriginal lies in between the individuals and the government. The struggling …show more content…
The Presidential campaign of the United States of America has been a platform for many politicians to have their voice heard, and hopefully believed as truth in the chance of becoming the leader. Donald Trump, a controversial front-runner has stunned many people with his popularity. His racist ideologies about Muslim’s and Mexican’s has raised many eyebrows, yet how can he still be so successful with these ideas? Evers’ lecture sheds light on what makes him so successful. Apparently, the way in which he talks during his speeches is at the level of a fourth-grader. He does this by using shorter sentences with fewer syllables and letters. While many politicians speak with a highly intellectual vocabulary, Trump uses the opposite. By doing this, he is reaching the large demographic of those who are uneducated and do not have the ability to understand much of the political discussion. And perhaps by him being understood by these communities, he is getting his racist idea’s supported and believed by those who do not have much knowledge on these issues. These people think that Donald Trump is truthful and honest, therefore they believe every word he speaks. This is a form of culture where Trump has cleverly used the power of language to divide those who are different, and bring together those who are the