Self Identification
Today on one of the listservs I am on, someone was trying to tear down the concept of self-identifying as part of a certain cultural group when one does not belong to it by blood. The argument was as folows: If self-identification is validated, then a person not skilled to fly a plane, could still self-identify as a pilot. But all the self-identification in the world, this hypothetical person would not be allowed to fly a plane ! This argument was used to justify that an organisation with a focus ethnic group should not be administered/led by anyone who does not belong to the group by association of ancestry…. a person who might have contributed significantly to the group, and self-identified with that ethnic identity should be kicked out, according to my esteemed friend on that group.
Its strange that there is such hostility to self-identification from the queer community. The entire movement of queer rights and gender equity is in some sense is intricately linked to the idea of self-identification. How else would one justify a person identifying with a gender different from that based on the genetalia ?
SImilar to gender being a social construct, I feel cultural identity if defined by one’s birth, is a social construct. A person with not the right skin color can often feel a part of a community of a different color. A glaring example is Eminem who identifies with the black culture.
April 6th, 2005 at 10:30 am
How dare you call rap “Black culture”. Eminem is a glaring example of breaking these racial stereotypes. After all, music is universal. Just because you think you are black, doesn’t mean you can rap well. Or fly a plane.
Ultimately we are all people. A kind of animal. A form of life. Composed of matter. Henceforth, all organizations should define themselves as being “About Matter.” That way no one will be offended, and our definitions of our selves and our organizations will be broad enough. At least until the antimatter lobby starts mailing your listserv.
April 10th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
That Eminem example was lame, for various obvious reasons.
Now consider this: What if I identify myself as a person who belongs to the set of all people who do not self-identify.
Thats a valid identity, isn’t it?
May 8th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
yeah and next you will say that I cannot say that Kurta-payjama is a south asian thing … of course! we can take slippery slope argument to ridiculous levels … just like gay marriage ==> beastiality. See, i am sorry if the above statement was rude, but self identification to me seems the only way to go, especially in today’s world where cultures and things mix so much; well, you yourself say that there is something like ‘differently oriented’; in the absence of self-identification we would have to throw people into either gay/str8/bi based on “objective” criterion. Self identification gives a person the choice of choosing for oneself what he/she wants to identify as: be it gay/str8/bi/different and thus also change the identification if things change over time.
Self identification also helps one identify as a female even if one was born with the male genitalia and raised as such; without self-identification we might as well throw the term transgendered out of the window!
Also, there still are dominant lines : can you deny that ‘bhangra’ music does bring up pagdi-clad sikhs in mind, that rap does conjure up the image of a black person, that pasta is more an italian cuisine and paratha indian….. but that does not mean that a white person cannot make a paratha (porota in bengali) better than I do. To deny him/her the right to cook a paratha, and to claim that I can do it better just ‘cos I was raised in India is what I do not agree with. thus undeniably ‘rap’ has been a part primarly of the black culture, but eminen self-identified into it; and I think he should be allowed to; that was my point!
Self identification does not mean/imply the destruction of lines of distinction, rather the allowance to cross them, in case one wants to. It does not destroy all walls, just makes them a little porous so that people inside do not suffocate.