Week 11 Annotations

The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum

I enjoyed this pieces approach to identity and how we are the amalgam of our past present and future selves. Found her points on racial identity to be very interesting; how white student rarely use “white” as a part of their larger identity, while other races and ethnicities take full pride in their heritage. Her ideas on setting forth the “other” image, or the image that you want others to recognize you as was also very astute. I feel that oftentimes we want to be perceived as special and separate from other cultures or identities. to me, the healthy mixture the self is composed of small portions of this baseline identity; the technicality aspect that you could not control. For many, the ethnic culture they are born into becomes their own and can be used against them by ignorant people. She raises the point of the “targeted” identity which is defines as the side of ourselves that is persecuted or stigmatized in the wider society. In many ways the things we try to use to set us apart can make us the target of controversy or ignorance from those who cannot understand or sympathize with an reality other than their own. I think her points are very accurate and I think we can all learn from the terms and ideas she puts forward.

Lifting the Veil by Henry Luis Gates Jr.

Gates used his mother to create a female narrative for his young daughters. I think this a a powerful media in which to relay generational wisdom through ht power of writing. Though the girls would miss out on the face to face conversations that most children grow fond of with their grandparents, having a narrative to learn from her experiences is a great alternative. I found it interesting how he said he could slip into the “black vernacular” so easily while writing. People who read his work would say he captured his father voice perfectly and I wonder wha theater is like; to be able to channel someone so real toy uo and have it be real for other people as well. It must be an immense pressure to have to do that character justice when basing them off of a loved relative.