Is Our Identity Flexible Writing Assignment

Is Our Identity Flexible
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Institution
Is Our Identity Flexible
The question of how we define identity both as parts of groups and individuals has been of great concern among various people. Maureen O’Connor and Steve Olson have made different attempts to answer the question which include ethnic plastic surgery and Hawaiian intermarriage concepts respectively. The ideas are considered post racial explanations because the concept of race used in defining personal identity has become less prominent with time. However, they describe that race still exists but in various ways where Olson used the term ‘’community of decent’’ to replace the term race. Further, the term ‘’community of descent’’ has become more of religious affiliation or a professional concept where an individual has some elements of control in associating himself or herself with a given race. Therefore, the assignment focuses on the analysis of Maureen O’Connor and Steve Olson definitions of identity based on non-racial grounds as presented in their books to prove that identity is not flexible.
A society has a common identity as people who live together and share resources that they possess. However, the increase in the rate of socioeconomic inequality between the aboriginals and the foreigners has led to loss of identity. The natives are now identified with their level of income and their living standards because they have unlimited access to resources such as educational facilities. Specifically, the foreigners are more educated than the aboriginals and they occupy the best remunerating jobs in the nation (Galanter, 2018). As a result, the new generation has lost empathy to the original inhabitants and they are identified as primitive people with low socioeconomic status. Olson states that ‘’several ethnic groups occupy the lower end of socioeconomic scale, but one in particular stands out: the people descended from the island’s original inhabitants. Native Hawaiians have the lowest income and the highest unemployment rates than any ethnic group. They have the most health problems and the shortest life expectancy. They are the least likely to go to college and the most likely to be incarcerated.’’ The statements prove that people have lost empathy to the original inhabitants and they are the most suffering groups in the country irrespective of being the aboriginals (Olson, n.d.). Moreover, the group focuses on producing a cultural amalgam which attracts tourists and form their main source of income. Further, there are active programs to revive the traditions of the society such as canocing, religion, dance, and music through immersion of new programs that are intended to incorporate the customs in the new English speaking community. However, O’Connor gives a different picture as she describes how people have become more interested in plastic surgery to fit into the new culture. Specifically, she states that ‘’regardless of whose face the patient idealizes, modern plastic surgery is often a matter of fitting in. First, each future must fit in with the rest of the face; and every surgeon I spoke to emphasized attention to proportion.’’ The...