Political Identity

The majority of my political identity was probably formed sometime during high school. Prior to those four years, I really did not care much about what was going on in the world of politics, but was aware that my mom was an Independent and my dad was a Democrat (they both, as far as I can remember, tended to vote for the Democratic candidate). When I hit high school, I began to realize that the overwhelming majority of people around me were very liberal, even more so than my own family. I don't want to write this in a way that makes it seem like I was influenced solely by my high school environment - I still based my political identity around my own personal beliefs. I think what really happened was that I became aware that some of the things I had been taugh at Catholic school (elementary and middle school) I did not agree with. As we touched on in class, it is difficult to separate politics from religion and I think that has had a strong effect on my beliefs.



My political beliefs are liberal - I am pro-choice, support gay marriage, am concerned with the environment and conserving our resources, fully supportive of civil rights (I don't think anyone should be discriminated against due to their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.), and am against the death penalty. One of the main reasons why I could never be someone who discriminated against others is because I am a biracial American. Even if I wanted to, it would be impossible for me to associate myself strictly with one racial or ethnic group, so how can I think that it's right for others to act as though certain people are inferior simply because of their identity? I don't like to think that there are still people out there who have a problem with interracial marriage, but I know it's probably true. My political views reflect my personal experience as someone who can potentially experience discrimination just for being who I am, and that is not something I see as just in any situation. I have been interacting with people from all different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds for my entire life, so I never though in terms of favorable vs. unfavorable identities. I guess I have my parents to thank for that: my mom has always made sure to lead me into new, unfamiliar experiences, meeting all kinds of people along the way.

Sweet kicks!

While scanning the portfolios in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind, I came across one activity that sounded both entertaining and creative. On page 94 he suggests that the readers "Participate in the 'Third Industrial Revolution'"; in this case, go online and design something original and unique, specifically, Vans skate shoes or a pair of Nikes. Since I had already been to the NIKEiD website (yeah, I played high school basketball and so spent some time browsing various athletic-type websites) I decided to check out the shoe designer at Vans.com. The shoe I picked was the Vans slip-on, which I already own a pair of that have a blue and green chair design (that gets mistaken for dinosaurs sometimes), and I used to have the original black and white checkered ones as well.

Here's a link to the slip-ons I designed.

So, you might be asking yourself, why does it matter that any ordinary person can go to websites like these and design their own personal version of a particular product? Think back to what Pink said about creating products in an age of abundance: it's no longer enough to make something that's cheap and functional, these days it must also be aesthetically pleasing and meaningful. In the case of these personalized Vans sneakers, before you even begin to pick out the colors and designs you want, it asks you how many pairs you would like to order. To me, this says that, for example, three friends could go online and design a shoe that they all agree on, purchase three pairs and each would derive some sort of joy from sharing a unique pair of vans with his/her two best friends. On the Nike website, you can create a customized basketball shoe for an entire team, and even have a personalized, stitched monogram on each pair of shoes. This was something I thought was great when I played basketball because I though if I had a pair of shoes with my name or nickname on them they would be more special to me than some other shoes that anyone else could buy.

I totally agree with Pink that there is an innate human need to own things that are unique - nobody wants to show up at party wearing the exact same dress as someone else. Hell, I'd rather have someone create a custom gown especially for me if it didn't cost a fortune. It makes us feel like individuals when we have the opportunity to obtain items that we can put our own personal touch on, or at least happier with the material things we choose to surround ourselves with.

Follow the Links

I started out at U Roulette and the first website I was taken to was The Black Collegian Online: The Career Site for African-American College Students. As I scrolled down looking for the next link to click on, I was startled to see in their "College Updates" section on the homepage a picture and blurb about a girl I went to high school with. Basically it mentioned that she was an NYU graduate who studied abroad in Buenos Aires her junior year and was able to make connections that helped her get a Fullbright-MtvU Fellowship. As it turns out, while studying abroad she developed a deep interest in conducting research on Panamanian Spanish Reggae music and Afro-Panamanian identity. The entire article gave detailed information about her research, graduate, and post-graduate goals, as well as a link at the bottom for more information on the Fullbright-MtvU Fellowship. This took me to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs website, a division of the Department of State. I was then drawn to a link labeled "Citizen Exchanges" which turned out to be exactly what I thought it was. I learned that U.S. citizens (through nonprofit organizations) can take part in a citizen exchange program with a member of another culture in order to promote intercultural understanding and respect.

Personally I think this is extremely worthwhile idea, especially with the increasing amount of globalization occurring in our world. In many cases Americans tend to forget that just because we are the world's biggest economic power does not mean that we are the center of the universe. I think there are too many people who take for granted the opportunities Americans are afforded and forget that other cultures have different values than we do. It is important for us to take the time to recognize and respect those from different cultures in order to guarantee that we will be able to work together in the future. Even now, as we discussed in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind, many U.S. jobs are being moved overseas, meaning that American businessmen/women need to gain intercultural communication skills and experience.

Facebook: Punishable by death?

Obviously this story is even more disturbing than the incident involving the teenage girl who hung herself after receiving hateful messages from her Myspace "boyfriend", who turned out to be the parents of a former friend with whom she had had a falling out. In a strictly Islamic culture like that of Saudi Arabia, it seems only natural that women who cannot otherwise express feelings of sexuality would turn to the internet to do so. I feel like a lot of people still see the internet as this massive invisible place where we can pretend to be whoever we want to be, or do things we would never dream of doing in real life. In this case, because Saudi women are forbidden to interact with any man they please, they have turned to this virtual world to derive some sort of satisfaction from their personal relationships. I think this demonstrates that within the culture as a whole many women feel stifled by the strict regulations that are imposed on them. If given the chance to safely protest in public (without the fear of persecution or even death) these women would not feel like they have to use social networking websites to secretly engage in activities that are punishable in Saudi culture.

On the other hand, as we have become increasingly aware of lately, the activities we engage in online are not necessarily as secret as we might have hoped. If employers can hire people to investigate the online habits of job and internship applicants, why can't Saudi authorities expose women who are forming secret online relationships and posting "revealing pictures"? (After looking at the picture included with the article I began to wonder just how revealing these pictures were. Maybe they just showed these women exposing their arms and/or legs? That seems like it would be enough to enrage officials in such a strict Sunni Islam society.) The only difference here is the punishments: not getting the job you applied for because you posted pictures of yourself and your friends binge drinking on St. Patty's Day vs. potentially being beaten and shot by a male relative or government official for lewd online behavior. As the woman in the article mentioned, "blocking the site would be pointless because people would simply switch to similar sites." If this is truly the case, then these women must value their freedom of expression enough that they are willing to risk their own safety to engage in activities that their culture deems taboo. It could just be that I'm coming from an extremely Westernized viewpoint, but if enough members of the culture are so strongly against cultural practices, doesn't that mean they must be somewhat outdated?