In this assignment, you will be asked to write a 2-page paper outlining how you define yourself culturally. If you recall from Module 1, you were asked to reflect on how the person you are today has been influenced by your group affiliations. You can include components of that discussion in this assignment although you will certainly need to substantially expand on what you wrote in Module 1. In fact, you will need to indicate your ethnicity, race, gender, religion, language, and age and discuss how each of these has contributed to who you are today. You will also need to think critically about which of these factors is the most important to you (i.e., on which factor do you base your decisions, values, and opinions?) and which is the least important to you. You will be asked to apply what you have learned so far (you can do this by incorporating content from scholarly sources) to what you write.

Tasks:

Write a 2-page paper outlining how you define yourself culturally. This can be an expansion of the discussion that you posted in Module 1 with content added from what you have learned in the course so far.

Indicate your ethnicity, race, gender, religion, language, and age and discuss how each of these has contributed to who you are today. You may discuss these in terms of where you are at present (e.g., what religion you currently follow), and, if you wish, you can include information from when you were younger (e.g., what religion you were raised with).

Explain which of these factors is the most important and which is the least important to you and share why you believe this to be the case. My info below:

About Me

.African-American

female

Muslim

English

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Module 1 Discussion post below:

As far as cultural identity is concerned, I do not believe that I would be the great person I am today. In other words, group affiliation has had a significant influence in my life.

For example, my ethnic community believes that customs, traditions, values, religion, language and norms are all part of culture and that they all should be recognized and respected. Similarly, it also believes in cultural diversity. By holding on to this culture, I have been able to maintain an open mind as far as cultural diversity is concerned.For this reason, I have been able to interact well with people affiliated to different groups.

This has enabled me to avoid discrimination based on cultural diversity. From my own perspective, I believe that recognizing and respecting both your group affiliation and others' is the most important aspect in shaping a person's life as far as group affiliation and cultural diversity are concerned.

If I were to be asked, ‘What are you?' I would simply respond by saying that I am an African-American, a Muslim and a culturist. While responding to this question, of course, some factors of diversity would be incorporated outright, for example the accent, color, race, origin, way of dressing, religion etc.

At the same time, I would ensure that the issue of recognition and respect of cultural identity and diversity are either implied or expressed in the response. In other words, I would not leave the audience guessing regarding my cultural identity and diversity.This means that the response would be elaborated and thoroughly implied and expressed.

It should be noted that race, gender, religion, social class, sexual orientation and ethnicity are all elements of cultural diversity. Just by the virtue of being aware of the above elements, I have been a better person as far as personal development is concerned. I value, recognize and respect group affiliations and diversity. For example, I come from a minority racial group in a country with more than six recognized ethnic groups (Zimmermann, 2015).

I am also a Muslim in a country where most of the populations are Christians. Again, I have interacted with people of different sexual orientation; heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual. Therefore, I am aware of how diversity can be used to mistreat, perpetrate bias or discriminate others.

This awareness and social experience has enabled me to avoid being judgmental, biased, eliminate prejudice and discrimination as well as avoiding being subjective. According to me, this is what personal development is, as far as cultural diversity is concerned.

References

Zimmermann, D. (2015). American Culture: Cultural Diversity, Traditions, Religion and Customs of the United States. Journal of American Culture, 7(4): 121-134.