Author: chen.9104

Text Review – Switching Identities among cultures and societies

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The book I’d like to talk is named The Dispossessed, which is a science fiction. The author Ursula K. Le Guin depicts the interactions between people in two planets, Urras and Anarres. The protagonist Shevek was born and grew in Anarress and continued to become a physicist. He betrayed his home country and then left Urras and went back to Anarres agian, which confused me a lot. But after learning a psychological theory named Social Identity Theory (Abbreviated as SIT theory in the following text), I can use the theory to explain the behavior.

The SIT theory suggests that as a man who lives in the society, everyone needs an identity, which is a “self – reference that create and define the individual’s place in a group. People create in-groups and out-groups and compare the group level to create their identities. To be more specific, people discriminate others who do not belong to their social groups, which is called “out-group discrimination” and favor their own social groups, which refers to “in-group favoritism” to secure their identities.

We can use the SIT theory to analyze the protagonist Shevek’s behavior. The first time Shevek escaped from his homeland, he felt terrible about his original social group. Shevek wanted to flee from the mob and Anarres, since he thought that the society in Urras was better for him to stay comparing to his original community in Anarres. Applying the term out-group discrimination, Shevek switched his identity from Anarres to Urras by discriminating his original community. In order to secure his identity, Shevek must find something better in society of Urras.

However, Shevek found a lot of injustice within the society of Urras, including the poverty, the inequivalence of the property, and the extravagance of the elites. For Shevek’s case, he viewed issues that even did not exist in his original social group in Anarres, so Shevek failed to complete the second step, the in-group favoritism, of securing his identity, since he was unable to integrate into the society of Urras. Shevek questioned himself about his previous choice. For he did not find enough reason to accept the Urras society, Shevek left Urras and went back to Anarres again.

As a result, the protagonist Shevek is always trying to build his identity by comparing various social groups to find which one is better, while finally he cannot tell which society is absolutely advanced than the other one because those two all contain problems. The SIT theory explains why Shevek moves between two cultures again and agin and why Shevek’s mind finally did not belong to any of these two groups of Urras and Anarres, as he fail to form his identity in the end of the book The Dispossessed.

Is this racist?

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Is this a racist_Ruitao Chen

(Word document with photos)

Ray: Good evening everyone, welcome to our podcast! It is my honor to have Mr. Chen as my guest for this conversation. As you know, that though the technology is developing rapidly and the society becomes much stabilized than past, issues among races are still a widely debated topic. There are also a lot of discrimination based on the bias and stereotypes. How do you think about the existence of these cases?

Mr. Chen: Yeah, you know, I’m also quite concern about these phenomenon existing in our present society, but I think we cannot solve the problems unless we know its origin and people’s mind behind it.

Ray: Wow! You seem really know a lot. When preparing for this show, I’ve read some academic papers on analyzing discrimination. I’ve noticed an interesting term in explaining it, which is called Systemic Racism. Have you heard about that term before?

Mr. Chen: Absolutely, well, firstly I would like to explain the meaning of racism. Racism is based on the comparison among different races. These races may show different physical appearances, religions, cultures. Racism is the mind of superiority of hierarchy when comparing to people of other races with different traits. Systemic Racism, also known as Institutional Racism, can be categorized as a form of racism performed as normal practices within a specific type of organizations, societies, or even groups.

Ray: So you mean that systemic racism does not target to one person or several people, instead, it focuses to a group of people, right?

Mr. Chen: That’s correct! Recently I’ve seen a piece of news from New York Daily reported that some African – American woman say a worker in Harlem eatery racially profiled and falsely accused them of dining. One of the women, named Fitzgibbon, walked to a bar with her friends. As they ordered the drink, an employee asked them how they pay for the dish. The employee shouted at Fitzgibbon and said that she was in the restaurant last week and slipped away without payment, while according to Fitzgibbon, she remembered it was the first time she came to this bar. She was confused by the hostility and felty dehumanized. After the closely scrutiny check on the recording, the result showed that the woman who slipped away last week looked totally different from Fitzgibbon. Not only black people in cities, but also black people in rural area are receiving unfair treatments. USDA is a kind of programs which help to improve the economic conditions and living standards of rural Americans. However even today, black farmers are still treated unfairly in this USDA program. Recently House Agriculture Committee started to hold a testimony to the unfairness received by black farmers during their interactions with U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday. What is more astonishing is that this issue has remained unresolved for more than decades. Committee’s chairman Scott said “This festering wound on the soul of American agriculture must be healed”. Some data shows that only 0.1% of black farmers has received economic help in Trump administration USDA program, which is much lower than levels of white farmers.

Ray: Why do you think that black people, I mean as a whole race, are receiving unfairness and discrimination even in the present society?

Mr. Chen: Well, I think everyone who lives in the society has his or her own social identity, and the identity is a kind of measurement for constructing a person or a group of people. To be more specific, a psychological identity is how a person models itself, while a social identity is the identity of this person in the society. It determines which social group does this person belong to.

Ray: But how do these identity conceptions relate to racism?

Mr. Chen: Just as I said, social identities define people’s belongings to social groups. This implies that people with different identities will be united, or bounded, to different groups. For instance, we can use the simplest cultural backgrounds as identities to divide people into different groups. Imagine there is an Asian boy who born in America speaks English, play with American friends, and read U.S. literature in his lifetime. He will regard his identity as an American though his parents may be immigrants from Asian countries like Korea. Just like the Asian boy case, a person, or a group of people’s identities, are hard to change in others’ perceptions. From a historical perspective, black people, as a whole group, has the identity of subordinate race in white people’s impressions, since they were imported as slaves and were suppressed by the white local landlords. This fact might be quite tough, but I think that’s the origin of racism in U.S. society.

Ray: You mentioned that subordinate race in white people’s perception is one of the identities of black people, but besides the historical aspects, do you think that there are other factors that contribute to black people’s identities which implicitly lead to systemic racism in present society? Because I think as the society develops and time goes on, the influence of history to a race is gradually disappearing, so there must be some other causes.

Mr. Chen: You mentioned the development of society. Yeah, as the time goes on the identities of races are also changing. I do think the historical factor is the most reason which build black people’s identities, but I also think there are some social reasons which causes black people still receive unfairness and injustice nowadays.

Ray: Can you talk more about those social reasons?

Mr. Chen: Sure! Continue my description of the black farmer news. Despite black farmers are receiving injustice and unfairness, neither the society and government care about their rights and voices. The majority are not the victims, so even if they know the injustice to black people, they still consciously ignore the issue. That is the reason why the issue remained unresolved for decades. Since the issue is ignored, some white people nowadays still hold stereotype toward black people. Furthermore, the government even does not care about the black citizens, just because black people are not the majority comparing to white people and will not harm the government’s domination. This inequal treatment is not to one or several black people. Instead, this inequality and injustice is to black people in every city and every village in U.S. as a whole group, which illustrates the Systemic Injustice. We should not deny that the majority in U.S. society are white people, but I don’t want to see that black people are viewed as the so – called “other” group by white people. Just as Aijaz Ahmad mentioned in his article, when the conception of “otherness” is formed due to race, religion, or ethnicity etc, there will be no kindness or friendship. Instead, oppression and revolt will appear.

Ray: Wow you do give very professional analysis to reasons of systemic racism. We all wish the society to become a much more fair and better place for every member in it, but as you see, the resources and opportunities nowadays are still very unbalanced among different races. If we can eliminate racism, bias and stereotypes within people’s minds, do you think our society will become more cooperative and fair?

Mr. Chen: Sure! I think the rise of the conception of othering is the basic reason of dividing people into groups, while the systemic racism is based on the conflicts among various divergent groups. In order to build a better society, we must firstly downplay the consciousness of small groups within people’s minds.

Ray: So the first step is to erase the systemic racism society within present society, do you have any suggestion for the solutions?

Mr. Chen: Well I think firstly we must let people know that it is unnecessary to be racists. Changing young people’s minds is the first step. Since when they teach their children, their children may not have the concept of being a racist. If the group of racists no longer exist in future through education, the systemic racism will be eliminated. At that time, everyone will start to know that we are all same because we are all human. No matter what race we belong to, we share many identical physical traits, so there is no need to discriminate others. Besides, changing the social system is also very important. We must let our next generation enjoy the same rights of receiving education. We can do this by lowering the interest of college loan to a very low percentage at around 0.001% and offering a long time span for returns. By giving more chances of education to black families who cannot afford the tuitions, we can see more intelligent black youth enter the best universities in our country, and these youth will be the force that breaks the boundary of the hierarchy of society in the future.

Ray: After hearing your suggestions, I feel more confident to our society. I can’t wait to see what will happen if everyone become friendly and kind to each other! Just as a social activist named Martin Luther King once said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” At last, thanks for your presence to this live chat Mr. Chen, and that’s the end of our podcast. See you next week!

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Institutional racism. (2021, April 01). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism

Ahmad, A. (1987). Jameson’s rhetoric of otherness and the “national allegory”. Social Text, (17), 3. doi:10.2307/466475

Ariana Figueroa, V. (2021, March 26). House agriculture PANEL probes ‘systemic’ USDA discrimination against black farmers. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/03/26/house-agriculture-panel-probes-systemic-usda-discrimination-against-black-farmers/

Sommerfeldt, C. (2018, April 07). Black women say harlem Eatery staff RACIALLY PROFILED, falsely accused them of dining and dashing. Retrieved April 06, 2021, from https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/harlem-restaurant-staff-accused-racially-profiling-black-women-article-1.3830000

PS: Individual submission

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

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In the Diary of Systemic Injustices 1 I wrote a piece of news from New York Daily reported that some African – American woman say a worker in Harlem eatery racially profiled and falsely accused them of dining. One of the women, named Fitzgibbon, walked to a bar with her friends. As they ordered the drink, an employee asked them how they pay for the dish.

The employee shouted at Fitzgibbon and said that she was in the restaurant last week and slipped away without payment, while according to Fitzgibbon, she remembered it was the first time she came to this bar. She was confused by the hostility and felty dehumanized.

After the closely scrutiny check on the recording, the result showed that the woman who slipped away last week looked totally different from Fitzgibbon.

Not only black people in cities, but also black people in rural area are receiving unfair treatments. USDA is a kind of programs which help to improve the economic conditions and living standards of rural Americans. However even today, black farmers are still treated unfairly in this USDA program. Recently House Agriculture Committee started to hold a testimony to the unfairness received by black farmers during their interactions with U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday. What is more astonishing is that this issue has remained unresolved for more than decades. Committee’s chairman Scott said “This festering wound on the soul of American agriculture must be healed”. Some data shows that only 0.1% of black farmers has received economic help in Trump administration USDA program, which is much lower than levels of white farmers.

Despite black farmers are receiving injustice and unfairness, neither the society and government care about their rights and voices. The majority are not the victims, so even if they know the injustice to black people, they still consciously ignore the issue. That is the reason why the issue remained unresolved for decades. Since the issue is ignored, some white people nowadays still hold stereotype toward black people. Furthermore, the government even does not care about the black citizens, just because black people are not the majority comparing to white people and will not harm the government’s domination. This inequal treatment is not to one or several black people. Instead, this inequality and injustice is to black people in every city and every village in U.S. as a whole group, which illustrates the Systemic Injustice. We should not deny that the majority in U.S. society are white people, but I don’t want to see that black people are viewed as the so – called “other” group by white people. Just as Aijaz Ahmad mentioned in his article, when the conception of “otherness” is formed due to race, religion, or ethnicity etc, there will be no kindness or friendship. Instead, oppression and revolt will appear. I think everyone in this society has the responsibility to help improve the society by bonding together to eliminate the systemic injustice.

Link: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/03/26/house-agriculture-panel-probes-systemic-usda-discrimination-against-black-farmers/

Link: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/harlem-restaurant-staff-accused-racially-profiling-black-women-article-1.3830000

Reference: Jameson’s Rhetoric Of Otherness and the ‘National Allegory’ by Aijaz Ahmad.

Context Presentation: The Leavers – issues & solving issues of immigrant children

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After reading the book The Leavers, the content of the book, or the actions of the protagonist, raise my interest. There are more and more immigrants in U.S. nowadays. Those immigrants’ children, though become local born American citizens, are still affected by the original culture including their race and ethnicity from their families. Due to this partial culture difference from the original American culture, these groups of young people still feel hard to get into the society. Also, local Americans are unlikely to build relationship with them because they are the “other” group, which is excluded from the friendship considerations.

Another issue faced by these young people, which is what the book exaggerates, is more serious. As the original culture, or the family culture background, is quite different from the local American culture, these groups of young people always have mental psychological issues of their social identities. They might always think which society they truly belong to, and this is also a reason why they feel hard to step into the society.

The inheritance of two or more different cultures is the reason of troubles faced by the offspring of immigrants. I want to talk this topic since there are a lot of people around us who have this kind of troubles while the majority society and U.S. government do not realize the issue, or even intentionally ignores mental suffering of these groups of people. The truth is that the majority don’t have the identity troubles so that they cannot understand the pain.

In fact, the offspring of the immigrants cannot rely on the society, or beg for majority’s understanding and pity, to solve their problems. Instead, they should find their own ways to build their personal identities, and then their social identities. Identity is very important to every single man in the society since it is “used to describe a person’s character and identification with other individuals” (Garcia, 2019). In other words, building identity helps you differentiate yourself from others. After this process, immigrant children will become confident and succeed in the society.

Social identity theory (Abbreviated as SIT theory in the following text) claims that people build their social identities by using “in-group favoritism” and “out-group discrimination”. People compare the different groups by comparing the group levels to ensure which social group they participate. For example, in the last part of the book, The Leavers, the protagonist Daniel felt that he like the New York City much more than China, so he went back to New York after seeing his birth mother and lived in an apartment with his friend Michael. This example illustrates the meaning of in-group favoritism. Daniel feels more comfortable to the society in New York and he is willing to stay with his friends. This makes him like the social group in U.S. much more than that in China.

However, the book does not evidently mention how Denial don’t like the people, or the society in China, so there is no example to illustrate the term out-group discrimination. One thing clear is that by discriminating the members in “other” social groups, people are more determined to their social identities and their belongs to the existing social groups. As a result, when clearing which society is better for staying after comparison, immigrant children, especially the second-generation, will become more confident of being a member of the current society, which also helps them to build their social identities.

 

Work Cited:

Cardoza, K. (n.d.). Migrant children face huge challenges as they enter U.S. school system. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/2019/08/08/migrant-children-face-huge-challenges-they-enter-us-school-system

Garcia, M. (2019, January 01). [PDF] cross-cultural identity of SECOND-GENERATION immigrant Youth: Semantic Scholar. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/CROSS-CULTURAL-IDENTITY-OF-SECOND-GENERATION-YOUTH-Garcia/64cf861fe4c634f832ce3a67287caa3800cd3c65

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2004). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. In J. T. Jost & J. Sidanius (Eds.), Key readings in social psychology. Political psychology: Key readings (p. 276–293). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203505984-16