A person’s identity consists of the qualities that make them who they are, and include his or her beliefs and ideals as well. Identity generally pertains to how a person is brought up, along with their culture or heritage. Every culture differs in some way, with some being greater than others. The American culture is one of many that influences the majority of people who live in America in both a positive and a negative way. This is demonstrated in the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell as he analyzed the hardships of immigrants, and the difficulties of being successful when faced with obstacles that defy a person’s ideals. The challenges of these cultural ideals is also seen in Richard Rodriguez’s autobiography, Hunger…show more content… “Around 10 percent of the students Michigan enrolls each fall are members of racial minorities, and if the law school did not significantly relax its entry requirements for those students…it estimates that percentage would be less than 3 percent” (Gladwell 84). This demonstrates the way in which minorities are culturally disadvantaged, and it can be interpreted to mean that people who are considered racially and culturally superior are less prone to experience these disadvantages. A person of the more privileged race will not experience these hardships, which infact does shape them as individuals since they are less prone to these subject matters, and more prone to alternative obstacles that others may never even be subjected to. Those of the minority group who are underprivileged are prone to more difficulties within the education system, but how they overcome those issues is ultimately what defines who they are. All of these factors that shape a person’s identity originate from educational ties, since it often
