Culture, ethnicity, gender, race, and geographical location are the main attributes used to identify people. They help people to understand the connections they have with other people in different regions. In modern times, many people identify themselves with their countries of birth, and this makes them eligible for citizenship rights and other social and economic privileges that are offered by their countries.
Also, many nations rely on shared geographical, social, religious, and political attributes to identify their real citizens from foreign nationals. The race is also one of the most used attributes which are applicable when trying to identify people in different countries (Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality 146).
Physical characteristics based on people’s skin color are used to divide people into various racial groups, and this influences the way their identities are constructed.
In the U.S., race, and ethnicity are the main attributes which help to assign identities to different demographic groups in the country. Therefore, people that share a common language, ancestral background, and cultural practices belong to the same demographic cluster which is used to identify them. Also, residential segregation is used to assign collective identities to people with similar ethnic and social characteristics.
Immigration of large numbers of people from one country to a particular locality leads to the transformation of cultural and economic practices of that area.
For instance, Washington Heights in New York has a lot of Dominicans, who emigrated and settled there in large numbers within the 1960s (Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality 155). As a result, the district has become a hub for economic and social activities which many immigrants from the Dominican Republic identify themselves with.
Alternative sexual and lifestyle practices encourage people to construct their own identities based on connections they have with other people who have similar interests. Therefore, such people create spaces for themselves, and this leads to the formation of exclusive communities where people with distinct sexual or lifestyle preferences live together.
For instance, in the past two decades, exclusive neighborhoods in the U.S. which have large numbers of same-sex couples and families have increased in their numbers. Power relationships in different geographical regions also have an impact on people’s identity construction (Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality160).
In the past, racial segregation laws played a major role in separating whites from people of other racial groups such as blacks, Native Americans, Asians and Latinos in the U.S. Therefore, people from minority racial and ethnic groups were considered as inferior to whites who used their economic and political power to demonstrate their racial superiority.
Gender roles are also used to identify men and women in various societies. In conservative societies, men are expected to work and support their families financially while women are to look after their homes and children. However, more often than not, women are involved in informal economic activities which are not given a lot of importance by their male-dominated societies.
This situation results in unequal gender relations, which disadvantage women because their societies expect them to be submissive and docile. As a result, this makes it difficult for women to empower themselves socially and economically due to deeply entrenched cultural prejudices.
High competition for resources redefines relationships between people from different cultural and racial backgrounds. As a result, this affects how they identify themselves about other social systems which exist in a particular area (Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality 169).
Works Cited
“Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality.” Chapter 5. Chapter 5 Identity Construct File, 2014. 144-171. Print.