Rethinking Identity

Unfortunately, there have been some unexpected problems with my MORE form and I won't be able to start collecting data until it is all sorted and approved. Hence, in the meantime, I've started to do some reading for my literature review.

It was recommended to me to read Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity, which explores how we shape our identity and he dedicated each chapter to five types of identities - creed, country, colour, class and culture.

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Appiah proposed the importance of owning an identity, “because it can give [people] a sense of [being able to fit] into the social world". Having an identity not only creates the “norms of identification” and stereotypes, it also present justifications for actions. Giving the example of, being a gay Chinese in American as compared to being one in China, Appiah presented that “the shape of one identity can be [shaped] by [another] identity”.

For creed, Appiah concluded that religions have become a noun when it should be a verb. He give the example of his parents’ marriage where both of them are different Christians yet their marriage worked because religion “infused their lives” and was not “practiced only on Sundays”. He further states that if religion is more of “mutable practices and communities” instead of “sets of immutable beliefs”, then changes brought through religions will be more acceptable.

Relocating to another country is something common in today's context. This act redefined words like ‘Italian’ and ‘German’, as these words did not represent one’s citizenship in the 1860s. These words often refer to common “language, culture and traditions” rather than “political citizenships”. Appiah described in detail how political boundaries affected the borders of nations and also how an individual determines which nation they belong to. Appiah mentioned Aron Ettore Schmitz who has a rather interesting nationality changed from his birth and death. Born in the city of Trieste, the main trading port of the Austria Empire, to an Italian-German couple. Having lived an Austria subject for 50 years and at the end of World War I, Trieste became part of the Italy. Appiah described Schmitz as someone who was “born a subject of the Austrian Emperor, [but] died a subject of the King of Italy”. Such changes make labelling nationality more complicated and also redefined nationality. 

Following country, Appiah discussed about racial fixation through colour. He introduced the 'Enlightenment' experiment where an African child, usually a boy, is brought to Europe. The boy will then undergo an education process like any other aristocrats, and being considered a 'successful' case of being able to grasp European theories and ideologies he was usually singled out by many academics later. Appiah also talked about how the rise of transatlantic slave trade in the later 1700s, many historians believed that “the increasingly negative view of the Negro” was to support and justify this act of slavery. Only later in the years when the study of Biology emerged, that slightly dissolved the concept of racial essence.

For class, there were many concepts being introduced such as 'Meritocracy' and 'Aristocracy'. The tradition method of allocating class is through birth, and only later in the 1950s that the idea of meritocracy, "representing a vision where powder and privilege would be allocated by individual merit", was introduced. Class plays a heavy role in identity as from the labelling it will influence how one should act and how they are treated by others; and these, could also be affected by colour and country. Nobility and aristocracy have always played a major role in class, however, in America they decided to remove such concepts. The American Constitution came up with an article which states that “Mr., Mrs., and Ms., the academic Professor, the professional Doctor, and the official Your Honor, Senator, and Congressman and Congresswoman” will be used as tittles instead.

Out of all the elements, I would say that culture is something that is very difficult to draw a line to. Appiah discussed the idea of cultural appropriation and property crimes, as well as the problem being disrespect rather than theft. Appiah described a culture as being values "that represents choices to make" rather than a "birthright".

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In general, despite being a rather difficult book to read as there is a lot of theories and concepts being introduced, I think this book has definitely helped me to better understand the ideas of culture, country and colour which directly relates to my inquiry.

There were philosophical and historical aspects shared in this book that made me realised that as much as we are looking at changing certain mindsets, a lot of today's mindsets were built on past events and beliefs. Hence, although change would be possible, it might not be as fast as we expect it to be. Despite it already being the 21st Century, a lot of people and countries still seem to be trapped in the age of the previous centuries because those beliefs and 'fact' from those centuries helped build our world of today. Hopefully through the various movements organised and published books, new theories can be introduced and highlighted, allowing us to reflect and maybe change for the better.