Colorado Technical University Online Role of Cultural Identity Discussion

Understanding the Role of Cultural Identity

Reflect on the following statement: “competent communication is achieved when the participants find commonality in ascribed and avowed identities” (Samovar, 2017, p. 263). What does this imply for human service organizations that work with a wide diversity of populations and organizations in the macro environment? Choose two types of identities described in Chapter 7 of your Communication Between Cultures text and explain their importance for human service leaders from the standpoint of macro practice.

Reference

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2017). Communication between cultures (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.Identity is a term frequently used in media reports, popular culture discussions, academic studies, and numerous other contexts, but all too often it is inadequately defined or explained. Even here, you are probably wondering why identity has its own chapter in an intercultural communication textbook. A very good question, and by the end of this chapter you should have an answer as well as greater insight as to what identity is and an appreciation for the complexity of the concept.

Identity is a multifaceted, dynamic, abstract concept that plays an integral role in daily communicative interactions and particularly in intercultural communication. The accelerated mixing of cultures arising from globalization has added to the complexity of identity through increased immigration, cross-cultural marriage, international adoption, and an overall broadening of opportunities for people of different cultures to meet and interact across a variety of professional and social settings.

Because identity is so pervasive in social interactions and can be such a critical factor in intercultural communication, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of what it entails. To help you attain that understanding, we begin by providing a theoretical definition of identity. This is followed by a discussion of how identity influences social roles and guides social behaviors. We then examine a few of your many social identities and the different ways they are acquired and developed. A discussion of the different ways that you establish and enact your various identities and the role they play in communication is then provided. Next, the growing phenomenon of binational and multiethnic identities emerging from the globalized social order is examined. Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief discussion on ways of developing competency when dealing with people possessing dissimilar identities in intercultural communication interactions.

IDENTITY: DEFINING THE CONCEPT

As we have just indicated, identity is an abstract, complex, dynamic, and socially constructed concept. As a result, identity is not easily defined, and scholars have provided a rich variety of descriptions. For instance, Tracy finds identity to be both inclusive and contradictory: “Identities, then, are best thought of as stable features of persons that exist prior to any particular situation and as dynamic and situated accomplishments, enacted through talk, changing from one occasion to the next. Similarly, identities are social categories and are personal and unique.”1 Ting-Toomey echoes this inclusive nature when she considers identity to be the “reflective self-conception or self-image that we derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic and individual socialization processes. Identity basically refers to the reflective views of ourselves and other perceptions of our self-images”2

CONSIDER THIS

Who am I? Who and what help to define me? Pause for a moment and reflect on those two questions. Write down a few of your thoughts. The answers you produce will provide insights into some of your many identities and the sources of those identities.

These two definitions treat identity in a broad sense, but some communication scholars address “cultural identity” more specifically. For instance, Fong contends, “culture and cultural identity in the study of intercultural relations have become umbrella terms that subsume racial and ethnic identity.”3 Fong goes on to define cultural identity as “the identification of communications of a shared system of symbolic verbal and nonverbal behavior that are meaningful to group members who have a sense of belonging and who share traditions, heritage, language, and similar norms of appropriate behavior. Cultural identity is a social construction.”4

Cultural identity for Ting-Toomey and Chung is “the emotional significance that we attach to our sense of belonging or affiliation with the larger culture”5 Klyukanov sees cultural identity as “membership in a group in which all people share the same symbolic meanings.”6 Dervin defines cultural identity as “what we construct whenever we are in contact with other human beings—regardless of the fact that they are from the same ‘environment or not”7 This series of definitions is not an attempt to confuse you. Instead, we are trying to demonstrate that due to its complexity and abstractness, it is difficult to construct a single, concise definition of identity that will be agreed on by everyone across the various academic disciplines. Some of the definitions use “identity,” while others rely on “cultural identity.” However, as we will illustrate throughout this chapter, we believe that culture plays a role in each of your many identities, no matter how they are acquired.

Regardless of the definition or term used, it is important to recognize that identities are dynamic and multiple. Throughout life you are continually acquiring new identities and discarding old ones. To illustrate these two points—dynamic and multiple identities—reflect on how you identified yourself in grade school, in high school, and after entering college. As you grew older, you gained new identities and left behind some old ones. For instance, after graduation from high school, you set aside many of the identities you had and on entering the university, acquired new ones. However, you also retained some of your previous identities, such as the regional identity of your hometown and state. Perhaps you gave up your identity as a member of a high school sports team or being in the band. In college you may have taken the identity of a sorority or fraternity member, and in that case you also assumed the identity of the specific organization.

People have a number of different identities as they move through life.

It should be clear that identity is not a single entity but a composite of multiple, integrated identities; they do not work in isolation, but rather operate in combination based on the social context or situation. For example, when you are in the classroom, your identity as a student takes priority, but you are still a male or a female, a friend to some of your classmates, perhaps an employee, a son or daughter, and for some, even a wife or a husband. Identities can also be associated with the sports teams you root for, your favorite genre of music, and many other aspects of your social life.

REMEMBER THIS

Identity is not a single entity. But rather it is a combination of multiple integrated identities that operate in combination based on the social context or situation.

To better comprehend people’s seemingly countless identities, researchers have constructed taxonomies categorizing the different types. Turner provides three identity categories— human, social, and personal.8 Human identities are those perceptions of self that link you to the whole of humanity and separate you from other life forms. Social identities are represented by the many groups you belong to, such as racial, ethnic, occupational, age, hometown, and numerous others. Social identities are a result of being a member of some social groups and nonmember of others (i.e., the in-group/out-group dichotomy). Personal identity is what sets you apart from other in-group members and marks you as special or unique. This form of identity can come from an innate talent, such as the ability to play a musical instrument without formal training or from some special achievement, like winning an Olympic gold medal. Personal identity can also come from something as intangible as a gregarious personality.

Hall’s three identity categories are similar—personal, relational, and communal. Personal identities are those that set you apart from other people and make you distinct. Relational identities are a product of your relationships with other people, such as husband/wife, teacher/student, and supervisor/employee. Communal identities are “typically associated with large-scale [social] communities, such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, or religious or political affiliation.”9

Hall’s communal identities are essentially the same as Taylor’s social identities, and these identities carry importance during intercultural communication interaction, which is made clear in Gudykunst’s explication of social identity:

Our social identities can be based on our memberships in demographic categories (e.g., nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, social class), the roles we play (e .g ., student, professor, parent), our memberships in formal or informal organizations (e.g., political parties, social clubs), our associations or vocations (e.g., scientists, artists, gardeners) or our memberships in stigmatized groups (e.g., homeless, people with AIDS ).10

The objective of this discussion has been to provide a theoretical understanding of identity and illustrate that you have a variety of identities, which can change as a result of the social context. Because of its great relevance to intercultural communication interaction and study, we will now look at the influence of identity.

THE INFLUENCE OF IDENTITY

Identity represents an extremely important psychological component for the individual. Phinney writes that adolescents who fail to develop a “secure identity are faced with identity confusion, a lack of clarity about who they are and what their role is in life.”11 From this perspective, the need to understand your sense of identity is obvious.

The 2010 census survey was only the second time that respondents could indicate belonging to more than a single race. Over 9 million U.S. Americans, 2.7 percent of the respondents, identified themselves as belonging to two or more races, a 32 percent increase from the 2000 census.12 Although not included in the 2010 census survey, a question on the 2000 census form allowed individuals to write in their “ancestry or ethnic origin,” which resulted in “about 500 different ancestries” being reported, with ninety of those categories having U.S. populations exceeding 100,000.13 These figures illustrate the ethnic diversity in the United States and the level of awareness that people have about their identities. The dynamics of globalization have also made identity an important factor in contemporary social life. In other words, as people struggle to adapt to the new technology-driven social order, the push of globalization and pull of traditional norms are becoming considerations in how they live their lives and with whom they interact.

The study of identity in intercultural communication tends to focus on how identity influences and guides expectations about one’s own and others social roles and provides guidelines for communicating with others.14 For example, the cultural model for university classroom interaction in the United States is defined as studentcentered because students are free to interrupt lectures to ask questions, offer personal opinions, and respectfully question the professor’s claims. Also, students are aware that they may be called on to answer questions about the lesson, which instills a motivation to come to class prepared. One’s identity as a professor or a student provides the blueprint for assuming the appropriate U.S. classroom behavioral role. But is that blueprint applicable to other cultures? The short answer is, “No.” China and Japan, both of which are collective, hierarchical cultures, usually adhere to an instructor-centered blueprint. While the identity roles are the same as in the United States, the culturally instilled expectations are quite different. Normally, Japanese university students do not expect to be asked questions in class, and they seldom interrupt the professor’s lecture. Culturally established norms can also be seen in the way occupational identity can influence intercultural communication. In many cultures, teachers are afforded considerable social respect and shown deference by both students and the population as a whole. In the United States, however, status is more a function of material gain, and educators do not usually occupy an especially elevated societal position.

While somewhat oversimplified, these examples demonstrate the importance of understanding the role of identity in an intercultural environment. There are, of course, many more reasons to gain an appreciation of identity and its influence on intercultural communication, but the above discussion should convince you of the benefits of a greater awareness of your own identity and that of others. To help you with that task, we will discuss some of your many social identities and examine how they are influenced by culture.

EXAMINING SOCIAL IDENTITIES

As noted earlier, it is important to recognize that your identity is actually a product of multiple identities, sometimes acting in concert and at other times acting singularly. The community you are born into and those that you elect to belong to constitute a large part of your identity. And while identity serves to bind us to a larger group and makes us feel part of something bigger and more enduring, it can also isolate and even alienate us from other groups.15 The schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims exemplifies how identity can contribute to alienation.

The salience of any identity generally varies according to the social context. As situations vary, you usually choose to emphasize one or more of your identities. In the classroom, identity as a student is paramount, but at work, occupational and organizational identities take precedence. When visiting your parents, you are first a daughter or son. In any context, however, other identities, such as race and biological sex, are also present, albeit usually in a secondary role.

REMEMBER THIS

Identities such as race and biological sex are always present, albeit usually in a secondary role. However, regardless of the identity or identities being exhibited, all are influenced to various degrees by culture.

Regardless of the identity or identities on display, all are influenced to various degrees by culture. In this section we will examine a few of your many identities and illustrate how each is influenced by culture.

RACIAL IDENTITY

Perhaps the most important single aspect to remember about race is that it is a social construct arising from historical attempts to categorize people into different groups. The concept grew out of efforts by eighteenth-century European anthropologists to place people into hierarchically ranked categories based largely on their outward appearance. In retrospect, it is easy to see how those early endeavors were influenced by feelings of prejudice and ethnocentrism grounded in a strong sense of Western superiority. This concept of classifying groups of peoples as superior or inferior has, unfortunately, “been used as justification for brutalities ranging from repression to slavery to mass murder and genocide.”16 Today, racial classifications and identity are usually associated with a person’s external physical traits—principally skin color but also physiognomy and hair texture. Modern science, however, has discovered very little genetic variation among human beings, which erodes the belief that race can be used to categorize people. The concept is further discredited by centuries of genetic intermixing.17

However, as in many other countries, social categorization employing racial identity persists in the United States, no doubt abetted by the historical legacy of slavery, early persecution of American Indians, and issues of civil rights. The vestiges of early racial differentiation can be seen in question 9 of the 2010 census form, which offered respondents a choice of fifteen different racial categories, and clearly confused race (e.g., White, Black) with nationality and ethnicity (e.g., Chinese, Guamanian).18 More recently, issues of racial differentiation have become prominent in discussions on immigration and the relationship between police forces and minority community members.

Although “race” remains a commonly used term in the United States, it is usually ill defined and often used interchangeably with the term “ethnic group.” This lack of a clear definition and resulting confusion leads us to agree with Kottak and Kozaitis’s recommendation that “it is better to use the term ethnic group instead of race to describe any such social group, for example, African Americans, Asian Americans, Irish Americans, Anglo Americans, or Hispanics.” 19

GENDER IDENTITY

Gender identity is quite different from biological sex or sexual identity, which is derived from an individual’s anatomy at birth. Gender is a socially constructed concept that refers to how a particular culture differentiates masculine and feminine social roles. Ting-Toomey considers gender identity as “the meanings and interpretations we hold concerning our self-images and expected other-images of ‘femaleness’ and ‘maleness.’”20

Gender identity refers to ways particular cultures and cocultures differentiate masculine and feminine roles.

What constitutes displays of gender identity varies across cultures and is constantly changing. For instance, the normative U.S. male appearance in the 1960s was characterized by long hair, often accompanied by beards and mustaches, as typified in the counterculture rock musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Today, however, style dictates short or no hair, which is evident in the many advertisements for men’s fashions. The growing number of men opting for colored nails, including toenails, is another indication of changing male gender appearance.21 In Japanese certain words are traditionally reserved for use by women exclusively, while men use entirely different words to express the same meaning. In English there is little or no distinction between male and female vocabulary.

A culture’s gender norms can also influence career decisions. For instance, male flight attendants are common on U.S. airlines, but in Northeast Asia the occupation is almost exclusively the domain of women. Traditionally, most people in the United States viewed nursing as a woman’s occupation.22 This was evidenced by the 1970 statistic reporting that only 2.7 percent of all U.S. registered nurses were male. However, in another indication of changing attitudes about gender roles and identity, by 2011 the figure had risen to 9.6 percent.23

In contrast to the rigid, binary classifications of either male or female traditionally used in the United States, many European nations, and the Middle East, there are a few cultures that offer a socially acceptable middle ground for transgender individuals. Some Native American Indian tribes historically held transgender individuals in high esteem, considering them to be blessed with the spirit of both man and woman.24 Thailand’s kathoeys, or “lady boys” do experience some discrimination but enjoy more social acceptance than their U.S. counterparts.25 In South Asia, the Hijras, generally men who assume feminine identities, are viewed as neither male nor female but rather as a third gender.26 In the United States, public media shows, such as the comedy-drama Orange is the New Black, have raised awareness of the country’s approximately 1.5 million transgendered individuals and eroded the conventional societal idea of gender as being only male or female.27

Ethnic identity, like all identities, can be communicated through art forms that are unique to a particular ethnicity.

ETHNIC IDENTITY

As stated earlier, racial identity is traditionally tied to one’s biological ancestry, which results in similar physical characteristics in skin tone, facial characteristics, eye shape, etc. Ethnic identity, or ethnicity, on the other hand, is derived from a sense of shared heritage, history, traditions, values, similar behaviors, geographical area of origin, and in some instances, language.28

Most people consider their ethnic identity to come from the nation-state where they or their forefathers were born—German or German American, for example. However, some people’s ethnic identity is derived from a cultural grouping that transcends national borders and is grounded in common cultural beliefs, practices, and in many cases, a shared language. The three groups listed below are illustrative:

The Basques, located along the Spanish-French border, who speak Euskara

The Kurds, a large ethnic group in northeast Iraq, with communities in Iran, Syria, and Turkey, who speak Kurdish

The Roma (more commonly called Gypsies), scattered across Eastern and Western Europe, who speak Romani

As mentioned above, many U.S. Americans view their ethnicity as a product of their ancestor’ home of origin prior to immigrating to the United States, such as Italy, Mexico, Vietnam, Liberia, or any one of a host of other geographic locations. Members of generations following the original immigrants frequently refer to themselves using such terms as “Italian-American,” “Mexican-American,” or “Vietnamese-American.” For Chen, the hyphen both separates and connects the two social groupings.29

The United States is commonly characterized as a nation of immigrants, and during the nation’s formative years, new arrivals often grouped together in a specific location or region to form ethnic communities, such as Germantown, Pennsylvania, founded by German settlers. Some of these communities continue today, as seen in San Francisco’s Chinatown and Little Italy in New York. Newer ethnic enclaves, like Little Saigon in the Los Angeles area and Hong communities in Saint Paul, Minnesota, have developed in the wake of more recent immigrant arrivals. In these areas, the peoples sense of ethnic identity tends to remain strong because traditional cultural practices, beliefs, values, religion, and often language are followed and perpetuated. However, as time passes, members of the younger generations often may move to areas of greater ethnic diversity and many marry into other ethnic groups. For some, this may dilute their feelings of ethnic identity and today it is not uncommon to hear U.S. Americans explain their ethnicity by offering a lengthy historical account of their family’s many ethnic mergings. Others, especially those with a Euro-American heritage, will often simply refer to themselves as “just an American” or even “a white American.” Frequently, they are members of the U.S. dominant culture that grew out of Judeo-Christian religious traditions imported from Western Europe and whose lineage is characterized by an extensive history of interethnic Euro-American marriages.

CONSIDER THIS

How have you observed the dominant cultural values of the United States coming into contact with people of different nationalities or ethnicities? What have been some of the effects, both positive and negative, of these contacts as they apply to the beliefs and values of the dominant culture?

NATIONAL IDENTITY

The majority of people associate their national identity with the nation where they were born. However, national identity can also be acquired through immigration and naturalization. People who take citizenship in a country other than their birthplace may eventually adopt some or all aspects of a new national identity, depending on the strength of their attachment to their new homeland. This attachment can be influenced by where the individual resides. For example, someone originally from Mexico may retain strong ties to their native land if they settle in the southwestern United States, where there is a large Mexican immigrant community. Strong nationalistic ties can be sustained in an immigrant enclave, like Little Saigon, in Orange County, California, where displaying the flag of the former South Vietnam government remains common practice. Alternatively, those ties may be eroded if the new arrival settles in an area of the United States that has a limited demography. Normally, national identity becomes more pronounced when people are away from their home country. When asked where they are from, international travelers will usually respond with their national identity, for example, “I’m from South Korea.” In some cases, however, a regional or local affiliation can outweigh nationality. Texans, for instance, are noted for identifying themselves as being from Texas rather than from “the United States.” Strong and sometimes emotional displays of national identity are common at international sporting events, such as the World Cup or the Olympics.

As indicated earlier, identity is dynamic and can change contextually over time. A particularly interesting example of this dynamism is ongoing in the European Union (EU) where younger generations are moving away from the national identity of their parents and adopting what might be termed a “transnational” identity. According to Reid, many young adults from the EU tend to “think of ‘Europe as their native land.”30 A particularly prominent display of this emerging attitude came from Anne (Ana) Hidalgo, the first woman to be elected mayor of Paris, France. Ms. Hidalgo was born in Spain, immigrated to France with her parents, and subsequently took French citizenship. When asked during an interview in 2014 if she felt Spanish or French, Ms. Hidalgo responded, “I feel European.”31

Most nations are home to a number of different cultural groups, but one group usually exercises the most power and is often referred to as the dominant culture because its members maintain control of economic, governmental, and institutional organizations. This control leads to the establishment of a “national character,” as defined by Allport: “ ‘National character implies that members of a nation, despite ethnic, racial, religious, or individual differences among them, do resemble one another in certain fundamental matters of belief and conduct, more than they resemble members of other nations.”32

In the United States the dominant culture is considered to be people with Western European ethnicity, and the cultural traits arising from that heritage are ascribed to the nation as a whole and referred to as the “national character.” The advent of globalization, however, has brought challenges to the primacy of U.S. dominant cultural values as people of different nationalities, ethnicities, and varied beliefs and values increasingly come into contact with each other. The “transnationalism promoted by globalization has also given rise to growing numbers of individuals with dual citizenship who carry two passports.33

National identity often plays a central role in contemporary geopolitics. In some instances national identity is seen as a panacea for overcoming divisions created by tribal ethnicities. For example, in an effort to heal the wounds of the 1994 conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, a struggle that claimed over 800,000 lives, the Rwandan government has outlawed references to tribal ethnicity and is seeking to have new generations see themselves only as Rwandans.34 A similar effort was undertaken in Afghanistan, where U.S. military trainers worked to create a sense of nationality among Afghan soldiers that would transcend culturally instilled tribal loyalities.35 The crisis in Ukraine, which resulted in a commercial airliner being shot down in 2014, has its basis in a question of national identity—the Ukrainians see themselves being more oriented toward Europe, but the nation’s Russian-speaking minority maintain allegiance to Moscow.36 And political divisions resulting from war have imposed different national identities on residents of North and South Korea.

REGIONAL IDENTITY

With the exception of very small nations like Lichtenstein, Monaco, or San Marino, every country can be divided into a number of different geographical regions, that are often characterized by varying cultural traits. These cultural contrasts may be manifested through ethnicity, language, accent, dialect, customs, food, dress, or different historical and political legacies. Residents in these areas often use one or more of those characteristics to exhibit their regional identity. For example, although the population of Belgium is just over 10 million, the country has three official languages— Dutch, French, and German, spoken by the Flemish, Walloon, and German ethnic groups, respectively, living in the Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels areas. Thus, individuals from the northern part of Belgium are likely to identify themselves as Dutchspeaking (linguistic and ethnic identity) Belgians (national identity) from Flanders (regional identity).

In the United States, state boundary lines define many regional identities, and almost everyone is proud of his or her home state. Louisiana is marked by a variety of distinct cultural traditions and in the Bayou Country, a regional language (Cajun French) derived from its Acadian French historical heritage. Residents of Alaska, California, and Texas offer prime examples of pride in regional identity. U.S. regional identity can also be based on a larger or smaller geographical area, such as New England, “back East” (i.e., East Coast), “down South” (i.e., southeastern United States), “West Texas,” or “Southern California.”

Regional identity in Japan is manifested through a variety of different dialects (e.g., Kanto, Kansai, Tohoku, etc.), and some of the dialects (e.g., Kagoshima and Tohoku) are difficult for Japanese from other regions to understand. Japanese living abroad often form clubs based on their home prefecture and hold periodic gatherings to celebrate their common traditions. In China, the majority Han ethnic group is also characterized by regional differences such as linguistic variation (e.g., Mandarin, Hakka, and Min), cuisine (e.g., Cantonese and Szechuan), and housing styles (e.g., wood in the south and brick in the north). Although reunited in 1990, East and West German identities remain a reality among the older generation. Mexicans demonstrate their regional identity when they tell you they are from Sinaloa, Michoacán, Oaxaca, or Mexico City.

ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY

A person’s organizational affiliation(s) can be an important source of identity in some cultures. This is especially true in collectivistic cultures but much less so in individualistic cultures. This dichotomy is clearly illustrated by contrasting organizational identity practices in Japan, a strongly group-oriented culture, with those in the United States, a very individualistic culture. Although becoming less prevalent, especially among younger workers, Japanese businessmen employed by large corporations have traditionally worn a small lapel pin to signal their company affiliation. There is no similar practice among managers and executives in the United States, although in some instances a polo shirt or a tie with a company logo may be worn.

Organizational identity is so important in Japan that in business introductions, the company’s name is given before the individual’s name. For example, Ms. Suzuki, an employee at Tokyo Bank, would be introduced as T?ky? Gink? no Suzuki san (“Ms. Suzuki of Tokyo Bank”). But in the United States, an individual is introduced first by his or her name, followed by their organizational affiliation (e.g., “This is Mr. Smith from ABC Construction Corporation”). On Japanese business cards the company and the individual’s position are placed above his or her name. On U.S. business cards, the company name is normally at the top, followed by the individual’s name in large, bold letters, with or