Ethnic/Racial Status Autobiography


 


Introduction


            For many people, especially those in industrializes western cultures, individualism prevails. Adolescence is a time of separating from parents, becoming self-reliant, and defining one’s personal independent self and its connection to one’s own culture and society. Uprooted and placed in a foreign land, one’s identity-as a unique individual with particular traits, values and dreams- would remain intact. The psychology of western cultures assumes that your life will be enriched by defining your possible selves and believing in your power of personal self-control. By the last century’s end, individualism had become the dominant voice in popular culture. Western literature, from the Iliad to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, celebrates the self-reliant individual more than the person who fulfils other’s expectations.


            Cultures native to Asia, Africa, and Central and South America place a greater value on collectivism. They nurture what    (1995) call the interdependent self. People are more self critical and have less need for positive self regard. Identity is defined more in relation to others. Malaysians, Indians, Japanese and traditional Kenyans such as the Maasai are much more likely than Australians, Americans and the British to complete and “I am” statement with their group identities (2001; 1997). When speaking, people using the languages of collectivist countries say “I” less often (1998). A person might say “Went to the movie” rather “I went to the movie” with the subject made clear by the grammar or context.


            With an interdependent self, one has a greater sense of belonging. Uprooted and cut off from family, colleagues and loyal friends, interdependent people would lose the social connections that define who they are. They have not one self, but many selves: self-with-parents, self-at-work, self-with-friends ( 1992). The goal of Social life is not so much to enhance one’s individual self as to harmonize with and support one’s communities. The individualized latte, “decaf, single hot, skinny, extra hot”, that seems just right at a North American Espresso shop would seem a bit weird in Seoul, note  (1999).


            Self-esteem in collectivist cultures correlates closely with “what others think of me and my group”.  Self-concept is a malleable (context specific) rather than stable (enduring across situations). In one study, four in five Canadian students but only one in three Chinese and Japanese students agreed that “the beliefs that you hold about who you are (your inner self) remain the same across different activity domains. “.  For those in individualistic cultures, and especially for minorities who have learned to discount other’s prejudices, “outside” appraisals of oneself and one’s group, matter somewhat less. Self-esteem is more personal and less relational. Threaten our personal identity and we’ll feel angrier and gloomier than when someone threatens our collective identity.


            A comparison was made between Japanese and American college students regarding reported positive emotions and elatedness. For Japanese students, according to some researches, happiness comes with positive social engagement- with feeling close, friendly, and respectful. For American students, it more often comes with disengaged emotions- with feeling effective, superior, and proud. Conflict in collectivist cultures breeds more crime and divorce between individuals. Social facilitation experiments show that groups can arouse people. Social loafing experiments show that groups can diffuse responsibility. When arousal and diffused responsibility combine and normal inhibitions diminish, the results may be startling.


Peoples in the world, it seemed, have diverse thoughts about Globalization and its effects on them. Filipinos in a poll conducted by Social Weather System, for example, gathered that two out of every three Filipinos said globalization has positive effects on them and on their families. While the Ugandan senior officials, on the other hand, expressed worries about the side-effect of globalization. “Acceleration of globalization is often accompanied by a sharp increase in economic inequalities,” said , Ugandan minister of gender, labor and social development, in her opening statement at a two-day national dialogue on the social dimensions of globalization.


            Prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, sexism- the terms often overlap. Each of the situations just described involve a negative evaluation of some group. And that is the essence of prejudice: a negative per-judgment of a group and its individual members. Prejudice biases us against a person based on the person’s perceived group. Prejudice is an attitude. An attitude is a distinct combination of feelings, inclinations to act and beliefs. This combination is the ABC of attitudes: affect (feelings), behavior tendency (inclination to act), and cognition (belief). A prejudiced person might dislike those different from self and behave in a discriminatory manner, believing them ignorant and dangerous. Like many attitudes, prejudice is complex and may include a component of patronizing affection that serves to keep the target disadvantaged.


            The negative evolutions that mark prejudice can stem from emotional associations, from the need to justify behavior and from negative beliefs, called stereotypes. Stereotype is a belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. Stereotypes are often overgeneralized, inaccurate and resistant to new information.


            In the context of the world, every race is a minority. Non-Hispanic whites for example are only one-fifth of the world’s people and will be one-eighth within another half-century. Thanks to mobility and migration, during the past two centuries, the world’s races now intermingle, in relations that are sometimes hostile, sometimes amiable. Racial attitudes can change very quickly. In 1942, most Americans agreed “There should be separate section for Negroes on streetcars and Buses” . Today, the question would seem bizarre because such blatant prejudice has disappeared. In 1942, fewer than a third of all whites (only 1 in 50 in the South), supported school integration; by 1980, support for it was 90 %. Considering what a thin slice of history is covered by the years since 1942, or ever since slavery was practiced, the changes are dramatic. In Canada too, acceptance of ethnic diversity and various immigrant groups has increased in the recent decades.


            I am a native Canadian and my ethnic race is of course Canadian. Having been raced with my family, it is quite evident that I have adapted to the Canadian style of living. Interactions with my family helped me be aware of my ethnicity and my racial status. Before I started school, I rarely had the chance to be exposed to other cultures other than my own. In our household, whether extended or close, family members always kept to made sure that we had our family values. This greatly helped me be aware of my heritage as a Canadian. Though I had limited exposure to my cultural heritage as a whole, having been exposed to it by way of my family, I was able to have a strong feeling towards my ethnicity.


            But still, having been raised in a western setting, I tend to be more on the individualistic side. Though other people’s opinion matter to me, it doesn’t really pull me down so much.


 



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


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