The Importance Of Cultural Identity: Who Am I

Cultural Identity: Who am I? In order for us as people to understand who we are, it is critical that we make sense of our relation to others and what these relationships implicate. By understanding our various cultural identities in relation to our cultural others, we may be better equipped to answer the question, “Who am I”. What we think of ourselves may or may not correlate to the impressions others have on our identities. Since this is so, we must contemplate every identity that one may attribute or misattribute to our person. Understanding how we communicate these identities and how others communicate to us through these various identities, makes for a well- rounded view about our own identity. The many complexities of identity are …show more content…
We often define ourselves with the groups that we associate with. This is identity as political. As for myself, I associate myself with being a musician, a student, and a weightlifter; this is identity as political. A positive of this idea is that one may find themselves comfortable with others in these groups. As a negative result of this idea, identity freezing may occur. One’s identity can’t be summed up into a set of rules and regulations. Stereotypes detest the idea of identity as non- summative. Being black comes with stereotypes that attempt to identify and sum up who I am. Identity is ever changing, evolving, and rarely stagnant; this is identity as fluid. When people I haven’t seen in years approach me and try to talk to me as if I am the same preteen Devin they used to know, it bothers me. This is so because I have had experiences and have changed as a person. Identity has many dimensions and we are able to better understand its complexities with the use of these three …show more content…
Unlike being a man, I believe that my social class has less of an impact with how I relate to cultural others. Being from a lower middle class family, I am not able to afford some of the luxuries my peers have or to participate in some of the activities because of my financial situation. The biggest obstacle between myself and my cultural others in this way is gaining an understanding of one another. My college roommate comes from an upper class household and for a long time he never understood why I didn’t want to buy certain things or go out to eat all the time. It was not until I explained to him that I have to save money for school amongst other things that he could begin comprehend my situation. In saying that, my social class does not stand as a barrier between others and myself. I believe this to be so because it is hard to tell what social class an individual is a part of merely from appearance alone. As I walk about the campus, I don’t worry if someone will see that my family is lower middle class. I attend the same school as upper and lower class individuals, I communicate with individuals of every class, and often times I find that others do not discriminate against someone of my class background. My social class is a part of my identity but one that may be