Wit With My Family: Cultural Identity

Cultural identity. The identity or feeling of belonging to a group, it is part of a person’s self-conception and self perception and is related with nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. Cultural identity also relates to ethnic identity, which entails an awareness of one’s membership in a social group that has a common culture. Many people have a different outlook on cultures and the effect it has on people, some people are influenced by it a lot more than others are. With some people they have something or do something on a daily basis that represents who they are and where they're from. Others don't even know where they're from and have no idea what their culture is about.

An example would be at holiday dinners, one of my family members will usually make a traditional British dish called trifle which is a cold dessert of sponge cake and fruit covered with layers of custard, jelly and cream. I believe it is important to incorporate some part of your culture into your life at some point not just to know it, but also so you get understanding of others and what they might go through. Some people may look asian but don't have an accent or speak Chinese, so people may constantly ask them questions about it. Same with some African Americans, they are black but they don't “act” or “sound” black and that gets people talking and some people get offended by some of the things people may be wondering or assuming.

Above I explained that my family eats food from our British culture and after reading the personal essay Ethnic Hash by Patricia J Williams, it gave me a different outlook on how that food could relate to who I am. I realized that every layer of that dessert could represent a part of my child