Position Paper 1 Soc 101

Shamra Godfrey SOC 101 Position paper 1 July 18, 2009

Culture Shock and Identity

Through a new perspective on culture shock that includes issues of dominance and identity, a story for identity transformation is discussed. It is argued that the experience of culture shock, through either a cognitive or physical separation from the Dominant culture is crucial to the abandonment of a dominant racial identity and transformation to a new non-dominant racial identity. By connecting theories on identity formation, social-dominance and culture shock, a wider ranging outline for identity transformation is created.

Introduction As a white, American female, discovering my culture was like a fish discovering water. (Howard, 1999) Unfortunately, the cultural “water” of white America is obscured by the gloom of privilege and dominance, so thick it is unnoticeable and is perceived as normal. The discovery of my culture was due to my experiences living in other cultural “waters” which forced me to live outside of the “normality” of privilege and dominance which I had unwittingly existed in before. The shock of this experience forced me to see my culture from the outside, and allowed me to transform my perspective on sociocultural and racial issues. I argue that for members of dominant groups, in order to abandon a “dominant identity” one must experience a form of culture shock through either cognitive or physical separation from the dominant group’s

constructed reality. This separation forces one to redefine who they are through a completely new perspective which eventually leads to the formation of a new “nondominant” identity that perceives their own culture through sympathetic eyes that recognize the negative effect privilege and domination, in all their forms, have on marginalized groups. I will end with a personal story of my own alteration that I feel exemplifies my perspectives.

Culture shock Frankenburg (1993) put it best when she coined the term “invisible” to describe dominant cultures due to them being constructed as “normal”. Gary Howard (1999) refers to this constructed normality as the “assumption of rightness”, that dominant groups don’t see their practices and beliefs as one of many possible ways of doing things, they view them simply as the normal and/or right way of doing things. It is this assumption that obscures dominant culture as normal and renders it invisible to its members. Building on Pederson’s (1995) definition, I believe culture shock describes the process of the starting point of a new identity, as an adjustment one must make upon parting from the dominant culture’s constructed reality of normality. I believe this disjointing occurs through either a physical getaway or a new cognitive perspective that discredits one’s former perception of normality constructed in the dominant culture. Culture shock is thought to have six stages of identity formation outside one’s own normal culture. These six stages were brought to us by Pederson (1995), they are…

1. Pre-encounter: Members of an out-group distance themselves from their native racial or cultural identity in favor for one more inline with that of the dominant in-group.

i. Honeymoon: (Pederson, 1995) In this stage, individuals physically separated from their culture embrace the new culture and are enamored by its novelty. They tend to distance themselves from their native cultural identity and embrace the customs of their host-culture. For members of a dominant group, re-entry into their native culture at this stage simply manifests an idealized image of the host-culture and they re-enter their previous stage of in-group identity development.

2. Encounter: Transition to this stage is usually due to experiences which remind the out-group individual of the limitations of their acceptance in the in-group usually due to their racial and/or cultural differences. 2.i. Crisis: In this stage individuals physically separated from their native culture begin to form negative feelings towards the host culture as incidents occur which make one aware of their differences. These incidents can be as wide-ranging as simple differences in greetings to overt discrimination. For members of a dominant group, re-entry into their native culture at this stage, depending on the person, can manifest resentment for the host culture and/or feelings of empathy for out-group peoples in their native culture due to analogous experiences.

2.ii. Full Blown: At this stage individuals physically separated from their culture become angry at their host culture and often retreat to the company of members of their own culture experiencing in this phase. For members of a dominant group, reentry into their native culture at this stage can either validate ideologies of superiority or create empathy through an analogous experience to out-groups in their native culture.

2.iii. In-Group Identity Phase II, Stage 4: Pseudo-

Independence: For members of the in-group, this stage represents a rejection of ones own privilege and dominance. Although feelings of guilt and shame may remain, individuals in this stage compensate by exiling themselves from their own culture and developing their new identity as an outsider.

3. Emersion: This stage is characterized by overt anger at the dominant in-group and a complete embracing of their native identity. Individuals at this stage limit contact with the dominant culture as much as possible and retreat to their communities.

4. Internalization: This stage is characterized by an individual becoming more open and less defensive towards others. Interaction with different out-group, as well as in-group members begins.

4.i. Adjustment: For individuals physically separated from their culture this stage represents a gradual coming to terms with the realities of their new environment and a more positive attitude towards interactions with the natives. For members of a dominant group, re-entry into their native culture at this stage can allow them to see their culture as an outsider. This can manifest empathy and aid the navigation of non-dominant in-group identity.

4.ii. In-Group Identity Phase II, Stage 5: Immersion: This stage represents an internal restructuring of ones own negative ideas and opinions regarding their own culture. In-group members in this stage begin to seek images and role models in their own race and culture that are

unrelated to dominance. The majority of the work done at this stage is an internal struggle to come to terms with the guilt and shame manifested in the previous stages.

5. Commitment: This is the final stage where an individual is strongly in-touch with their outgroup identity but is able to participate within any multi-cultural context.

5.i. Adaptation: For individuals physically separated from their culture, this stage represents a new identity that is in touch with their native culture while at the same time being able to successfully participate in the host-culture. Upon re-entry to their own culture, members of a dominant group can see the analogous connections between their experiences and those of marginalized peoples in their own culture.

5.ii. In-Group Identity Phase II,

Stage 6: Autonomy: This stage represents one’s in-group identity coming full-circle. One’s own culture is seen as an integral part of their identity, yet they are not threatened by others from different backgrounds. At this stage, the transformed in-group members are cognizant of their group’s vast inequities, yet feelings of shame and guilt manifest into motivation to transform others. Members are aware of their group’s vast inequities, yet feelings of shame and guilt manifest into motivation to transform others.

Personal Story:

Culture…..

As a element of the most fortunate social, national, racial and cultural group, the world has ever known (the USA), I got on a plane to go see my new husband (currently my exhusband) who was an active duty American soldier stationed in Dexheim Germany, and thirteen hours later I landed in a place that would bring a new outlook on life. I questioned my culture for the first time on a taxi ride to my new home in Dexheim, Germany. I was chatting with the driver, and I commented on how excited I was to learn the culture, and ways of German life. The taxi driver looked at me in the rearview mirror, and said “You are a poor American girl that has no idea what culture is.” I felt humiliated and confused at the same time. I also thought to myself…”How dare he insult my culture and who I am? I didn’t his.” This had left me very upset, I was quiet the rest of the way, which was about an hour and a half to go still. The more I thought about what the taxi driver said, the more it bugged me, and suddenly I realized that this complete stranger could be right. Many times I have often asked myself what is so great about my culture. Do I really know what my cultural background is? Once we arrived in Dexheim, the taxi driver again looked at me and said “Enjoy the next five years, I hope you find what you are looking for!” I smiled and thought to myself what have I done I want to go back home to the USA. Here I was, an eighteen year old, American female from a very small town in Washington State, the spouse of an Army soldier (which was also something new to me, before my marriage I had no affiliation with the armed services of any kind in the USA,) and living in a country I would never have thought about visiting in my earlier years. The only thing I knew about Germany was what our US History books taught us.

Just as I was putting the last few items away and getting settled in, my new husband came home from work and told me that he was deploying to Iraq in a week. Suddenly I felt lost, heartbroken, so many emotions and feelings running wild I couldn’t begin to sort them all out. I just thought to myself, my family is half way around the world, I don’t have the money for a ticket back home, and how am I going to do this? My husband went to bed, and I told him I was going to go outside and sit on the porch for a while, smoke my first cigarette and just take a few minutes to take all of this change in. As I was crying my eyes out, a quiet voice asked me if I was ok. My hands covered my eyes , as I was trying to hide the fact I was scared and wanted to go home, that quiet voice asked me again…”are you ok?” I noticed that voice was very different from what I have heard before there was a bit of an accent there. Her name was Erika a local German national, who just recently married an American soldier. We befriended each other, and tried to show one another our cultural ways. I wanted to understand and fit in with Germany and its culture, and she wanted to understand the USA and its culture. Soon enough deployment day came, and I was more scared than ever, and once again all alone. I looked for Erika, because she was the first person to talk to me, and at the time the only thing I had close enough to call a friend. Erika started teaching me a little bit of the German language so I could get by if I ever ventured off of the US military base, to really explore the German culture. Once I got my German drivers license, and comfortable enough with the language, I asked if she would go with me and show me a little bit of the surrounding area. Before I knew it my first year had gone by, I missed my family very much, and my husband, but at the same time I was getting the best educational lecture of my life. I learned what it was like to step outside of my little world known as the USA, and put myself in the shoes of a real German local. I learned the language, celebrated holidays, talked to people in the community

that were able to tell me what Germany was like during the Hitler era, I went to the concentration camp Dachau, learned how the Germans felt about that as well as how the German schools teach the children about that time period, learned to cook German food, and before I knew it, every conversation I was having was in German with Germans. For the next four years I continued that path that I was learning and enjoying, I had some great times where I felt I really fit in, and then there were times where the good old USA kept looking good. One night I heard a loud siren go off, and then all of a sudden the military police were securing post and putting us on lock down. A German national, had made it to the back gate of the housing community on post, and activated a bomb, so we were all evacuated to the middle school gym on post. The guy had placed the bomb, because he didn’t agree with the American soldiers going to fight in Iraq, and the German soldiers guarding our homes in their own country. I immediately decided that although, I still had a great likeness for the German people and culture, due to my ethnicity and nationality, I was a beacon of privilege and therefore a target. After everything settled down they removed the lock down and we could resume our normal activities, that bomb threat made the news locally, and once I finally got the chance to talk to my friends that I was starting to make I started asking their thoughts, they are very thankful for the USA freeing them from Hitler, but at the same time they feel that the USA is the next Hitler. More often than not during my five years there I saw so many German people rioting against the US military bases in Germany, there were many times it wasn’t safe to be an American out in the public streets of a foreign country. I saw the American flag hung upside down, burned, and shredded in front of my very own eyes. What I thought was disrespectful towards me being an American, was the feelings people felt about my culture, and what I have always known. During that time I was still unsure what the US was fighting for in Iraq, but here I was right in the middle of a huge

debate that I was just an innocent bystander just thrown into the battle. I had made the German life my life, so I didn’t have any words to stick up for my own country. Finally, the deployment ended, and we moved back to the states, for the first time in a long time I was hearing everybody speak the same language (English), I could understand what everyone was saying and talking about, in my head it was like a huge, loud, freeway with a million passing cars honking their horns. My husband and I got divorced, because the military life wasn’t for me. Once our divorce was final I had to learn how to be a civilian again, I had the freedom to go and say whatever I wanted, whereas before I had been on lock down and I had to learn a new language just to communicate with people. The living adjustment was difficult, because when you go from living on a guarded military base where you are very safe, to a normal house in a town like most of us have only known our whole lives, I felt unsafe for the longest time trying to readjust. I had to relearn he customs I had while I was growing up, I found myself lost in my own country and old world, it was almost as if I was a foreigner in my own place. I for the longest time didn’t know how to act around old friends and family, I found myself speaking half German half English, and before I knew it I was homesick for the German life I had. Fast forwarding, to present day I have found my American culture, and I finally feel adjusted. I have been back in the states now for four years.

Conclusion

My perspectives and beliefs discussed in this piece of writing originate from both my experiences living in other cultures as well as my studies in Psychology, Sociology, and life. While reading many stories regarding other’s experiences, no matter which race or culture, I

could not help but relate all the emotions and feelings they described to my own. I believe experience of identity formation is different for all people. Although the indistinct nature of identity, I felt the need to include my belief in culture shock’s role in identity.

REFERENCE Frankenburg, R. (1993) “The Social Construction of Whiteness: White Women, Race Matters. London & New York Rutledge. This is an article that discusses the racial issues among the white race and women. It talks about how race matters in the world and how the white race is slowly becoming a minority. It also talks about how women finally got the right to vote and how they finally got there. The Woman’s Rights Movement, was also discussed in this article. Howard, G (1999). “We Can’t Teach What We Do Not Know.” New York Teachers College Press. This article talks about how we as people and teachers, can’t teach what we do not know. People are hypocritical and they are always constantly trying to teach what they know nothing about. People do not understand that when people don’t know about the topic or understand it all that well there is no room for them to talk or discuss it. Pederson, P. (1995) “Six Stages of Culture Shock.” Greenwood Press. This article talks about and lists, the six stages of culture shock, and it gives a brief example about how and what people that are experiencing feel when they grow through it. Culture shock is thought to have a connection with identity transformation, and abandonment.