Started from the Bottom Now...

There are many aspects to my identity that have to be analyzed and described in order to classify who I am and what I stand for. My social upbringings, values, cultural practices, and worldviews all have had large impacts on me and how I classify myself religiously, racially, ethnically, gender based, and social groups I surround myself with. Throughout time, my identity has evolved and expanded for the better. I am becoming a better man everyday. Factors like family, school, and my everyday small choices determine how my identity has developed and continues to develop now. The more I become aware of the truths and realities around me the more I become a more determined and stronger individual. However, with these truths and realities, I realize the challenges like stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, and racism that continue to play a role in our intercultural communication contexts. Based on my experiences and reflections at the end of my day I have realized there are many ways to cultivate cultural sensitivity, empathy, understanding and competency within my everyday interactions. This essay will attempt to capture my identity based on how I classify myself, how my identity has evolved over time, aspects that challenge my identity, and ways I can cultivate peace in my interactions and communications with different cultures everyday.
There are many aspects of my identity that have been impacted by my upbringing. Growing up in a single family household as the oldest brother of two sisters, I had a lot of responsibilities to manage at a young age. However, one of my strongest family values I was taught was similar to the ancient Confucian teaching that family and friends always come first. Therefore I had a constant environment of sharing everything with family. Living in this collectivist environment helped shape my belief that humans should be close both in proximity and in sharing whatever we have with the needy. Through my mother and close knit family, I learned the values of keeping honest and close relationships with family and friends, for they are the most important things in my life. Catholicism has played a large impact on my life and upbringing as well. Going to a catholic high school helped me maintain my relationship with God and gave me the opportunity to appreciate the importance of education and diligent hard work. I believe this has helped me become a hardworking, outgoing, and determined individual who is motivated to achieve as much as I can and share my knowledge with those around me.
Interculturally, my worldview has certainly been shaped by a city like Chicago, where there are so many different types of people coinciding with each other. I feel I am a sort of social chameleon because of my exposure to many different types of cultures. My ability to communicate with and learn about all kinds of people has been influenced by the different types high and low context cultures I’ve encountered. For example, because I have grown up around so many different types of people, I see the many language similarities and differences between native Spanish speakers and native Hindi speakers. Both cultures place high regard for family and have respect for elders in the family. They show this by choosing select words like “bai” in Hindi and using the “usted” form of words in spanish to interact with the endeared family members. Having these interactions with these different cultures has helped shaped my worldview by showing me how multifaceted human interactions can be when caring for our close ones.
Over time, my identity has evolved and expanded towards a hybrid identity, an identity that is consciously mixing different cultural identities and cultural traditions. My identity has developed by interacting with others constantly. Living in a postcolonial “salad bowl” society like the United States, my identity has evolved to incorporate many traditions and values that this multicultural country cherishes. For example, I have been lucky enough to discover the beneficial practices of Zen Buddhism and incorporate concepts of both “doing” and “growing” orientations to emphasize action, spiritual growth, and self-actualization, in which I can live in a moment of being and infuse myself with the experience completely. (Stewart and Bennet, 1991). I feel this practice of combining these three values has helped expand and develop my conscious mind and identity. There are many factors that have played a part in my developing identity. One of them is my family history, my history of family that has been passed down through oral stories and traditions. Hearing how my family had the will and motivation to improve their situation in the racially erratic era of the mid 1900’s helps me everyday to do the best I can in finishing school, working two jobs, and improving my relationships with family and friends. Interacting with family contributes to how I identify myself as a hard working and focused individual.
Whether they are stereotypes, prejudices, discriminations, or racists, challenges will arise while communicating interculturally. In certain communication contexts like the mostly masculine and individualistic society we live in provide the most challenges for me. In a predominantly masculine and individualistic context, the emphasis is placed on individual goals, needs and views, achievement , ambitions, and acquisition of material goods. In a collective and feminine society, emphasis is placed on family and ingroup goals, quality of life, service to others, nurturance and support for the unfortunate. My largest challenge in living in our society is the corporate greed mindset that everyone, including myself sometimes, seems to subscribe to. The power distance that erupts from unequal pay and segregation in the workplace forces me to have an individualistic mindset rather than the collective “I am We” identity I am naturally inclined to take part in and develop in a more positive manner. Stereotypes like “Latinos work harder” promote thoughts and actions like forcing job opportunities to be slim. In the past, due to my lack of education and racial identity, I have been overlooked for a promotion at work and have had to wash dishes and mop floors while another person with different skill set and different race was promoted before me. This further creates distance and petrifies the individualistic mindset where ambition, materialism, and independence are the driving forces behind my identity rather than focusing on a group goals where everyone is treated well and the quality of life for everyone improves, regardless of education, race, or ethnic identity. In my experience, my identity has formed where it has best suited me to live and thrive in a collectivist environment where everyone’s quality of life is cherished. Without the barriers of power distances and uncertainty avoidances, where uncertainty, ambiguity, and deviant ideas and behaviours collect and convoke negativity, close relationships can reproduce and true bonds can be formed without any signs of pretension. Communicating in an individualistic context promotes pretentious attitudes towards oneself and others. A false sense of reality can slip in when identifying oneself in a predominantly masculine environment where achievement and success proves more important than our quality of life. For example, one can be so focused on being driven by the idea that money and promotions at work will provide everything for themselves when in reality, the close bonds and true relationships we form are the most important. Being driven by success can sometimes get in the way of quality time needed to support a family or other close members who are in need.
Although we live in this society where greed and the idea of success rule how we operate most of the time, there are ways to cultivate cultural sensitivity, empathy, understanding, and competency. Based on my experience and reflections, I find that the best way to achieve an ideal world is to find the balance between the individualistic and collective, masculine and feminine frameworks. I feel my identity would best thrive in an environment where the best qualities from every context, like dimensions of quality of life, service, relationships, hard work ethics, interdependence, ambition, and fluid gender roles are combined and brought to the highest standard. In this fine balance of the many values expressed, I feel the best way to cultivate cultural sensitivity is to be realistic with each other’s cultural distinctions and celebrate our differences. In order to live in a competent society, we should value our dependence on living with learning from each other’s cultures. The best way to communicate effectively and the best way to form better identities for ourselves is to empathize with everyone’s cultures and values, and embrace them as if they were our own.