Living with Dual Cultures within the Family - Essay Example

Dual Culture People all over world live within culture and leads a harmonious life. However living with dual culture identity is more difficult than one can imagine. I have understood that being dual cultural identity is not as adventurous as one thinks. I am a person who is half black and half Egyptian. I know Egypt is more close to Africa but being half black and half Egyptian is different. Egyptians are Middle Eastern and look different than black but having both these culture in me feels different. I sometimes look in mirror and ask whether I am black or Egyptian? It just brings a lot of dismay, confusion and frustration in me. The conflicting identity in me can be overwhelming at many times. I think being half is not as good as being full especially when it comes to one’s culture and identity. As a child, I have had many conflicting emotions and confrontation as a person with dual culture. In my family, I was never a black or a full Egyptian. I was like nowhere when it comes to socializing even from childhood. I did not understand whether I should play with black cousins or Egyptian cousins. It was a kind of confusing and conflicting experience I had to face many bitter situations as I grew up .In young age, being mixed was not well appreciated and the conflict nature of such an identity is trivial. Many a times, I hated being a mixed racial person as I could not relate to any one particular culture. It is true that I feel attracted to both African and Egyptian culture, but I feel that I did not fully belong to both of these cultures. This in many ways has lowered by confidence, self – esteem and self respect. It is absurd to say that I hate myself at times but I do feel near to that. I am not saying that I do not like to be African or I hate being Egyptian but the fact is that I am not fully contributing to any of those cultures .It is like my parents are completely African or Egyptian and I am standing nowhere. The sociological theory of structural functionalism can be applied here as there were many problems in identity, culture, thoughts and behaviour which could affect the stability of the society as I interacted within it. The conflict in culture is a threatening aspect and more often people like me who are half black are more or less treated as black rather than Egyptian. Black being a dominant gene, it is likely I am black but still due to my light skin, I cannot establish a good rapport with African culture. So there is conflict in culture as I cannot accept by African heritage completely. Being a person with mixed race, I had identity problems and my association with parents was weak and it is not a sign of a stable society feature. and I could not relate to my mother or father. I feel like out of family and sometime feel that I am a stranger and not part of my family and my identity was at stake. When people consider me as a black, I feel like I am not being fully recognised for whom I am. It is kind of repressing my identity and such people cannot contribute to the society .Between two of the culture, I am not accepted and this creates conflicting thoughts in me. I have been a victim of prejudice against both of my heritage. When I look at blacks, I feel that I cannot relate to them and when I look at Egyptians I feel that I do not look at them in any ways. The most terrible thing is that I cannot accept myself. Prejudice and bias is a social evil and can unstable a society in huge ways. At family gatherings, I can see that many of my relatives do not resemble me as they are African or Egyptian. The merging of two cultures is creating a lot of confusion and identifying with anyone culture seems impossible. I feel that my life has been a long journey of conflicts at all phases. I know both of these cultures are rich but I feel that I do not belong to any of these and I get depressed on this fact. I would not hesitate to express that and many times I had wished I that I had belonged to one culture rather than being stuck with two. I do not feel like following any of these cultures as I feel I do not belong to that culture in a whole sense. Having conflict with culture, identity and ideas people can make a society unstable as they can react negatively and disrupt harmony of a society. I feel that having parents from different culture can be embarrassing at times. When I walk with my family, I look entirely different from my parents. My parent looking different than me makes me difficult in connecting with them. Obviously as a family, I feel that the society look at me as a mixed race and a people having such a perspective can interfere with the stability of a society. Having a biased approach to people can give way to problems and clashes in society. I cannot relate with my family and and it is creating clash within me which can reflect in my interaction with the society. I feel that for a society to be stable there need to be acceptance of people with dual cultural identity. Being a person with dual culture my social interaction was incomplete. Looking at the interactionism theory, having not accepted fully by my black or Egyptian cousins has left me socially paralysed. My black cousins thought I was less black and teased me and called names. This impaired my interactions in family gatherings and occasions. I was not accepted by all of the Egyptian family members as they thought I was too dark to be an Egyptian. I feel that my social needs were not met and I started hating myself as I grew older. I believe to survive as a person, one need attention from their family members especially from those of their age which I never got. When I became teenager, I could not interact in society because I have transformed in to a person who cannot socially interact or communicate with my family members. To function in a society one need to feel content and people should reciprocate to their feelings. As a person I have got rejection at many stages of my growing up and this have reduced by social interaction within my family. I feel completely disconnected from my family members and feel that I have lost my perspective on my life. Most of my life I have felt lonely and out of place. All the experiences with my family members had been hurtful which has made me less of a person. People in my family were treating me different which lowered my self –esteem .I felt as a person, I was becoming less visible. I was invisible to me and for others in my family .I hated every part of me and I was disappearing as a person and was lonely and withdrawing from society. Since my family was accepting me less, I started rejecting myself ,my desires and needs. I believe family is where one start initiating social functions. I do not remember any aspect of family which has allowed me to grow as a person. So I could see that sociological theories of structural functionalism and interactionism can relate to my condition. Dual culture creates conflict in ideas, emotions and identity and also retards social functioning. Read More