How Does Culture Affect Our Self-Identity?

The culture we are raised in has a great impact on the way speak, the way we act, the way we view other people and who we are comfortable with. This makes us have a bias towards different cultures. This has been a problem in society for a long time, Richard Rodriguez, in his article “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” demonstrates how in his childhood, about fifty-years ago, kids viewed him in a strange way because of his ethnicity (group of people that have a certain racial, cultural, religion or other traits in common.) and language. “Walking down the sidewalk, under the canopy of tall trees, I’d warily notice the (suddenly) silent neighborhood kids who stood warily watching me nervously, I’d arrive at the grocery store to hear their
Culture also determines the way we perceive someone and how someone will perceive us, by someone’s way of speaking (language) and ethnic background. Even if their ethnic background is unknown, we tend to make an estimation of their culture to judge a person. We have to take in mind that this is done intentionally at times. How does culture affect our self-identity? Culture informs perception. People from the same culture usually have similar perceptions on certain situations due to the influence of their society. Our culture defines our world view, how people view us and how we view ourselves and
Being different, coming from another culture, has a great effect on the people around us and their perspective on us, but it also has an impact on our self-identity. In the article “Master of Desire” by Jack Solomon he states, “The nightmare equivalent of America’s populist desire to “belong,” for example, is the fear of not belonging, of social rejection, of being different.” (Solomon 155). I definitely agree with this statement because, when I was young I did see others disparate, but I still had a sense of needing to belong. To be accepted in their culture, the society; it was a fear not being understood by my peers because of the language barrier and the cultural