I began to write a blog about, Sikh week at Texas colleges, as reported in the Dallas Morning News, a friend brought in the section for me, (surprisingly I am not a regular reader), it is a very interesting and revealing story. I think we can all applaud this effort to educate people.
I then started to think about this Cif (by Sunny Handal in the Guardian), regarding the politics of race and identity. I am concerned that often in our effort to reclaim,claim, explain,define etc our identities we distance ourselves from our shared humanity. This also coincides with my firmly held belief that I don't think we should be defined by just one aspect of our personalities. Whilst certain aspects of our identities may be more important to us or others in defining us, it is vital to look to ourselves as a sum of our parts rather then being defined by one characteristic, especially when you consider that the one characteristic, may be something that we have had no control over i.e. our race, gender, place of birth etc.
This leads me to another point after a certain age, religious identities are usually chosen, and so it is not the same as a racial or gender identity, which is something that you are born with.
I think that the differences do not have to mean "everything". Those differences can be what you pin your identity on or they could not be. Maybe that is a sign of a "progressive and open" society, that the differences I choose to identify myself with, are chosen by me and not enforced upon me. Jigna
I then started to think about this Cif (by Sunny Handal in the Guardian), regarding the politics of race and identity. I am concerned that often in our effort to reclaim,claim, explain,define etc our identities we distance ourselves from our shared humanity. This also coincides with my firmly held belief that I don't think we should be defined by just one aspect of our personalities. Whilst certain aspects of our identities may be more important to us or others in defining us, it is vital to look to ourselves as a sum of our parts rather then being defined by one characteristic, especially when you consider that the one characteristic, may be something that we have had no control over i.e. our race, gender, place of birth etc.
This leads me to another point after a certain age, religious identities are usually chosen, and so it is not the same as a racial or gender identity, which is something that you are born with.
I think that the differences do not have to mean "everything". Those differences can be what you pin your identity on or they could not be. Maybe that is a sign of a "progressive and open" society, that the differences I choose to identify myself with, are chosen by me and not enforced upon me. Jigna
3 comments:
i really like this post. i am often being 'identified, judged, categorized, pigeon-holed' its the nature of working with children i think, they want to know about you but what they are 'allowed' to know is not who we really are. (if it was it would be worrying!)
i dont resent telling them, in fact i enjoy trying to cultivate some awareness in these young people about what/how it is socially (un)acceptable when asking personal questions..does this make me a geek!?
just yesterday a student asked whats my country, i said england, she said no where were you born...leicester..and such like, i gave short 'teachery' reponses and in the end i said are you trying to ask me what my heritage or cultural background is...she got cross with me (it was an art cover lesson) and said this is art not english and asked the others if im always like that!
The point is i live in a world of defining myself, to reiterate a wise woman; 'to see ourselves as a sum of our parts rather then being defined by one characteristic' should be everyone's philosophy!
i joke, often about the indian side of me, some people cant get enough of hearing about the traditions, festivals, accents..they love that ethno-bongo vibe. Once a good friend said to me; but you're not like the others, you're just like a normal white girl....
its a tiring subject, particularly with respect to our students: some of whom dont have a sense of realism, and lots of them are deprived of access to any wider social awareness. young people thrive when they have this ability.
can we be blamed? of course we are forced to 'reclaim,claim, explain,define etc our identities' but it cant be escaped that in doing so, we do indeed, distance ourselves from our shared humanity.
Thank you Roopa! What an interesting comment, you should blog more often! I think these "identity" issues are so pervasive throughout our society, and as we all move around more, the concept of where we are from, where we belong and who we are, can become increasingly important to many. This can be positive like you say where we reach out to others and share stories and histories, or it can almost become a negative where we retreat into our little "identifiable" worlds, whilst this can be course comforting and familiar it can also be claustrophobic and insular. Never was the expression, "best of both worlds" more suitable, maybe?
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