This part of the course was more difficult for me to comprehend than the previous three, but I overall understood it. I could see this part painting part of the picture for the next part dealing with evil as we talked about ethnic cleansing, “ethnic card”, and stereotyping. I am really enjoying my time at Crawford with the students. I am getting more of a personal connection with some of the students, I even had one come up to me as I walked in the library. There is less of an awkward/shy feeling between myself and some of the students as now they are more comfortable coming up to me to ask for my help. Overall every week has been getting better and I am always experiencing or seeing something new.
An individual’s identity is usually fixed …show more content…
Nationality ultimately is what nation you belong to and someone could change it if they wanted to. Nationality has no ties to someone’s race, ethnicity, heritage, or genetic make-up; it is simply what nation an individual was born and raised in. I believe culture in some cases is strongly dependent on nationality, of course I believe some people strongly hold their culture ties and do not change. However, I believe when someone like a refugee enters a new nation, having their nationality changed, they are almost inadvertently forced to flow with the river. They “have” to follow the American way (one example); get an education, dress like us, look like us, talk like us, behave like us. Over a long period of time (like ten years) I believe when a refugee does start adapting the nation’s standards that has an influence on the individual’s culture. I have seen some example of this in Crawford when some of the girls wear just that hijab while others maintain the full dress with the hijab. I could be wrong in that it could be a culture or religious difference between the girls I have seen, but I believe their culture is being influenced based on what they see and sometimes what they are told. I have seen this with my cousins who came as refugees about seven years ago and they change they have gone through from then to now is quite noticeable. I have seen and heard the …show more content…
It was until we went into some detail of the issue that I saw the distinction. Ethnicity represents social groups with a shared history, sense of identity, geography, and cultural roots. Ethnicity connotes shared cultural traits and a shared group history. Some ethnic groups also share linguistic or religious traits, while others share a common group history but not a common language or religion. Race on the other hand is socially constructed, and they cannot be biologically defined. Biologically speaking as a race we are technically all categorized as Homo-sapiens, but when we start thinking about race based on specific physical features. Race is arbitrary and is based on what an individual, nation, state, or country defines it as. In one country an individual can be labeled as being one thing, but another in a neighboring country. In fact race had no significance for our ancestors, and it should not have any significance today. In reality, every single person is different and from everyone else based on a multitude of factors. In the reading from “My Identity, My Allegiances” the author says “There are many things in which I differ from every Christian, every Arab and every Muslim” (17), and every person can say the same thing no matter what religion, ethnicity, or color they are. When we start categorizing people by race (as in color) we start creating social conflicts like racism and