Today’s society has one set perception of how certain races, ethnicities, cultures, and genders should operate. This stereotypical view of how one should act depending on how the majority of the population perceives them to be, creates a complicated situation. In actuality, the concept of identity should be “shaped by individual characteristics family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political factors” (Tatum 105). These aspects contribute to one’s identity in a multitude of ways, whether that is how they perceive themselves or how others perceive them. One’s culture, as demonstrated in Joanne Hyppolite’s Dyaspora contributes substantially to one’s identity, especially when that group is relatively small in size. The perception…show more content… Race is what an individual most closely identifies with, whether that is African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, Latino/a, etc. Race is generally used to advantage one group over the other. As Tatum explains, “there is a group considered dominant (systematically advantaged by the society because of group membership) and a group considered subordinate or targeted (systematically disadvantaged)” (Tatum 107-108). Typically, the dominant group holds the power and “is seen as the norm for humanity” (Tatum 109). Thus this relationship between the dominant and subordinate group, enables the privileged to base one’s entire identity off of their race. The subordinate group consists of minority groups such as: race or ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and physical or mental abilities. For example, the dominate group for race would be individuals that consider themselves Caucasian, while the subordinate group would consider themselves African American. The dominant group usually assigns characteristics to the subordinate group, which creates a certain way to view them. The perception of someone who identifies as African American is unintelligent, lazy and having a low socioeconomic status. Generally, this perception of African Americans is the first idea to arise to a non-African American. Forming one’s identity off of the color of…show more content… The dominant and subordinate group relationship, explained by Tatum, is also represented by this idea. Male’s are typically seen as the dominant group, breadwinners of the family, strong, intelligent, and masculine. Women are typically seen as the subordinate group, domestic worker for the family, not as intelligent as the male, weak, and feminine. These perceptions of women have seemingly caused women to be continuously disadvantaged in the work force and in universities. This inequality of genders demonstrates the presupposed gender roles that have been formed in today’s society. This inequality, generally goes unnoticed because “rationalizations have been created to justify [these] social arrangements” (Tatum 109). These male chauvinistic ideas have been long engrained in our society since the earliest of times. As in, Hyppolite’s Dyaspora, culture today has molded us to think this way because the dominant group has structured society in this fashion. In retrospect, if the dominant group was the women, would there be a difference in how society works? There is a difference between sex and gender. Sex refers to a biological concept where there it is dependent on an “X” and “Y” chromosome. Gender is a social construct that has been formed by the social culture of our world. Therefore, there should not be such a this big of an inconsistency in
