TOPIC 1 - CULTURE, IDENTITY & POWER Flashcards
What is identity?
- Identity is the sense of belonging to a group based on cultural categories including nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. You can think about your identity and your self-concept which is the sum total about how you think of yourself & your roles that distinguishes your identity.
How are identities tied to communication?
- Identities are ties to communication because they are
- formed as in the people that say the things you do, you had begun to convinced yourself that those characteristics are true.
- enacted : as in representing the characteristics through performance
- managed. : as in you might want to be seen a particular way with one person than another or you might change aspects of your identity to appeal to the other person.
What is the difference between avowal and ascription? How can the two conflict?
- Avowal: How a person perceives himself or herself. What that person choses to enact.
- Ascription: What others believe your identity or personality is. This is the description I personally give somebody.
This is an issue because the identity you present yourself to others and that you enact may not be what they personally perceive you to be. Example: A group of people are speaking Spanish to a Filipino woman because by her appearance, they assume she is Hispanic.
How are identities tied to culture?
- Culture essentially tells us how to act in an identity for example, which behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable. It also tells us how to think within an identity.
- Macro culture, the broad dominant culture, provides a framework for cultural identities as it is tied to societies institutions.
- Microculture/Subculture/ Co-Culture : has distinctive features. For example, the identities of the South versus the North or even Texas versus New York.
Describe the primary cultural identities discussed in class (e.g., gender, age, class, race, etc.). How is each communicatively enacted—verbally, nonverbally, in activities, etc.
What are some ways we divide class in our culture?
- (Previous bullet point?) ^^^^
By Macro culture & what society thinks about our identity.
How is identity tied to power?
What is the difference between a ‘majority’ identity and a ‘minority’ identity?
Majority Identity (Dominant): The majority is the social group considered to have the most power in a particular place (and sometimes the most members)
Minority Identity: a minority is any category of people distinguished by either physical or cultural difference that a society has subordinated
Identity is tied to power because systems reflect worldview, and if that’s the case, the people who built the systems would be considered the Majority identity. So the hierarchy basically would be Cisgender, white, straight, wealthy, men.
What are the differences between personal and social meanings associated with identity?
How are they connected?
What is “normal” identity enactment?
- Societal Meanings (Macro culture)
○ What we think the macro culture thinks about an identity.
○ Ex: What does American society think about being… Black/White, Gay/Straight, Catholic/Jewish etc. Do they view them the same way? - No.
○ Oftentimes given through news sources or the media - Personal Meanings
○ Are the meanings you ascribe to an identity.
Can be different from what you think society thinks
What does it mean to say that something is socially constructed?
How are privilege and power socially constructed?
It means that it is a result of human interaction. It exists because humans agree that it exists. Some examples are countries and money.
What is privilege?
How does it connect to social institutions and systems? How is it different from contextual privilege?
Privilege helps explain the consequences tied to majority versus minority identities
Privilege means fewer obstacles, more opportunities, better treatment, less discrimination, it is mostly unconscious and is defended
Who has privilege and power in the U.S?
What are the benefits of institutionalized privilege?
- The benefits of institutionalized privilege:
○ Individuals don’t do anything to earn them. Ex: if you were born into money; the race & the sex you were born into as well are other factors.
○ You can’t not have them.
Comes with having a dominant identity.
Be able to give examples of privilege tied to multiple majority identities.
What is standpoint theory?
How does standpoint theory explain differences in perceptions of privilege?
Our individual perceptions on what occurs. The very things we experience are based already on what we perceive. Our truth is formed by our experiences & it analyzes out inner-subjective discourses. Your truth is often one part of a bigger picture.
Ex: the story of the 6 blind men describing an elephant
Describe phases of minority & majority identity development
Minority Identity Development
- Unexamined Identity - Identity in which there is no awareness
- Conformity - Trying to be the majority
- Resistance & separation - Often a rejection of a group (Think about the reading the Korean woman and her experiences in a majority heavy college)
- Integration
Majority Identity Development
- Unexamined identity
- Acceptance - “I understand that this identity is good and I’m okay with that” but they may not change
- Resistance
- Redefinition & Integration - Changing too fit and understand others
How are power and language connected? (Consider how it relates to identity, social structure, perceptions, etc.)
Powerful institutions and individuals use language as both a means to construct their power and as a way to maintain it.
