Identity Crisis

Simon During has used this article to explore and debate identities. In his analysis of identities, he reveals that we all have more than one identity labelled to us by society and that these identities have roots in gender, ethnicity, religion and nationality among others. According to During, these labels can be used interchangeably for both positive and negative effects, based on the situation and the persons involved. The article delves into the usage of the ‘N’ word and how it can simultaneously be used as an affectionate form of socializing between African Americans and yet still be an offensive term towards them if used by other races.

Personally, I find it easy to recognize myself in During’s research because I am a Persian Norwegian student living in Australia therefore I am exposed to varying degrees of prejudice, both good and bad, by my social network on a daily basis. Primarily the types of prejudice I have experienced are based on the stereotype persona Australians have about Norwegians and Europeans in general. In my opinion, I believe that people’s predisposition to judging and labelling into stereotypes is a universal behaviour. During a visit to Bulgaria a couple of years ago, I encountered such an incident whereby upon disclosing Norway as my home country, the locals would remark ‘Black gold’ (oil) in recognition of the country I came from, thereby instantly implying a wealthy family and background.

In conclusion, I believe the labels we get inadvertently assigned to us in life help to dictate most of our behaviour in society. Perhaps if I had been brought up in Iran instead of Norway, my values, personality, sense of humour, disciplines and morals would differ from the ones I have now. However I would still not be able to determine if that would be of a change for the better or worst and this very insight is supported by During’s proclamation that “it makes more sense to regard [social identities] as simultaneously limiting and enabling”.