My Culture and Identity

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My Culture and Identity The Identity concept is a complex sociological theory and covers a whole range of theories and quantitative research. Identity is not static, it evolves with every moment you have, a thought, an experience, an encounter; and these are all factors in the makeup of our Identity. Is it that we all possess innate characteristics that are the foundations of our identity but as we are subjects of various social interactions, such characteristics can be shadowed or heightened according to our understanding and judgement of ourselves or how the others see us. “My past is my last, my gain is my pain”. This line came to me while I thought about what or who it is that has made me who I am today. I am a person who has depression and suffers from a lack of self-esteem. Could my past childhood memories be the reason for my over analytical self-criticisms. By associating key social theories and structures to my life I will attempt to illustrate my past struggles and social formations that were key in the on-going construction of my own identity, had I not gone through these events I would not be the person I am today and the person I’ll be tomorrow. Childhood Initiation My Nigerian born mother was in her late teens when she met my Guyanese born father In the 70’s. Thus I entered the earth as a black British Nigerian Guyanese Female, a ‘complex identity’ which I’ve learnt to embrace where others have tried and succeeded in compartmentalising me in a box with their rules and requirements of stealth segregation. It is argued that we possess combined components of heredity which are not pieces of ourselves but rather a unique mixture that makes us individually unique (Malouf, 2000, p.11). My parents met in the late 70’s. My Dad was a Rasta at this time. He lived in one of the squats in South London that were frequented by Rastafarians uniting in

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