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Culture and Intercultural Identity

Communicating and fully experiencing other cultures helps us become less ethnocentric and more appreciative of the cultures that overlap and surround us.

On our campus, anywhere you see this symbol, you will find a safe space to talk. The person displaying this symbol has received training, is supportive, and is an ally.

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Noun (allies): 1.1 A person or organization that cooperates with or helps another in a particular activity.

Terms

Intersectionality: “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” -Oxford Dictionaries

  • Intersectionality is the acknowledgement that within groups of people with a common identity, whether it be gender, sexuality, religion, race, or one of the many other defining aspects of identity, there exist intragroup differences.
  • In other words, each individual experiences social structure slightly differently because the intersection of their identities reflects an intersection of overlapping oppressions.
  • Therefore, sweeping generalizations about the struggle or power of a particular social group fail to recognize that individuals in the group also belong to other social groups and may experience other forms of marginalization.
  • Unfortunately, institutions and social movements based on a commonly shared identity tend to disregard the presence of other marginalized identities within the group.

               http://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/intersectionality/

Intercultural identity theory explains that extensive and prolonged experiences of communication across cultural boundaries render a gradual psychological evolution from a largely monocultural identity to an increasingly “intercultural” way of relating to oneself and to others. 

Kim, Y. Y. (2017). Identity, Intercultural. In The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, Y. Y. Kim (Ed.). doi:10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0037

Othering is an interdisciplinary notion that refers, among other things, to differentiating discourses that lead to moral and political judgments of superiority and inferiority between in‐groups and out‐groups (“us” and “them”), and within groups.

Dervin, F. (2015). Discourses of Othering. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction (eds K. Tracy, T. Sandel and C. Ilie).

Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.

 

"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle

because we do not live single-issue lives."

                                               --Audre Lorde, 1982

 

Marie Cochran, keynote speaker at SCC's 2019 Cultural Fusion Festival: Featured article

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