IDENTITY OF SELF

I am certain that I’ve written about this before, however, it is something that is part of our culture that people with certain motives tend to exploit.

I will argue why the fact that our culture makes a big deal out of a person’s ancestry, is not only detrimental to the individual daily but also is very dangerous on a macro scale, due to how exploitable it is by our politicians.

First, let us frame the problem at hand. The first question we will address in the larger whole, America is a ‘salad bowl’, that at least on paper, celebrates our differences and encourages us to use them to achieve a common goal.

Too many different results in abrasion, and is detrimental to productivity and the quality of life. Too little difference results in “group thinking” and ineffective problem-solving due to members’ inability to use different skills to contribute to a solution.

For example, if you have an engineering problem but all your team members are engineers, great, but when you encounter a sales problem, your team will falter. Or when you have a too diverse team, not only will you have problems managing the personalities, but also you will not have enough members to solve the problem that requires more people in a certain department.

This is exactly why teams and companies tend to lean towards the abundance of a few departments based on the challenges they face regularly as well as avoid the specific challenges their groups cannot overcome. This is not due to a lack of skill or will, but it is just not what their team is built around. This, with few exceptions, applies to any group.

The solution to that problem, as it always has been, introducing a bit of agreeableness and individualism into who you are. Sure, that identity, and in this case, national/racial identity can be a part of an individual, but when it becomes a person’s main identifier, all they become is a ‘stereotype.’

When a person becomes anything but themselves or accepts a label, another person can attack that label and discredit the individual.

When we talk about labels that others like to attach without a person’s conscious choice, such as race/gender/sexuality, the person who has the label attached to them can easily be smeared in the public eye at least, or be the target of attacks at worst.

Generally, we avoid this by offering the person doing this kind of action, a reality check by pointing out they are an individual first; however, when one is having a one-sided conversation, such as in a rally, that is not possible, and the speaker’s words become the only thing left.

Next Month I will propose a potentially radical however simple and applicable solution on an individual level so stay tuned.