Cultural Identity Essay

As the younger generations grow, they do not see any problem regarding other cultures inferior to their own culture. The feeling that some cultures are superior to others leads to cultural oppression. This leads to unfair treatment or domination of the perceived inferior culture. The oppressors engage in the unjust treatment often unknowingly. The community of the oppressed culture may not also be aware that their culture is under oppression. This is the modern form of slavery that most people find to be normal. Despite the poor working conditions and poor compensation, the workers are comfortable with this culture. Unknowingly, they accept an oppressive culture. Likewise, most cultures in the world get the influence of popular culture whose teachings are limitations of personal development.

Very few people realize that the cultural teachings do not benefit them but instead benefit the authors of the popular culture. Due to cultural oppression, there has been racism that dates back hundreds of years ago. The discrimination against black Americans was intense in the 19th and 20th century until the introduction of civil rights in the 1960s. After the introduction of civil rights and the abolition of the slave trade, slavery continued in the form of mental slavery. It was no longer forced slavery but willing individuals enslaved by the white man’s culture. Embracing the foreign culture at the expense of the traditional African culture is a form of slavery that the enslaved willingly become slaves (Bailey 137). This explains why the criminal justice system in the United States is selective.

Most of the people in American prisons are from the minority groups. This is not because they perform crimes more than white people, but because of the oppressed culture. As internalized oppression intensifies, the culture steadily changes to suit the perceived perfect culture of the oppressors. The mentality created that black Americans are not as special as whites sink in unconsciously among the black people. This affects the group as it is impossible for them to concentrate on serious issues that can benefit society. Internal in-fighting starts within the cultural group leads to mistrust among the members of the group instead of focusing on building the society. All the people from both cultures need to condemn this kind of oppression. Instead, most people feel the same by supporting the stereotypes knowingly or unknowingly.

Collectively, we can eliminate the negative cultural oppression and allow all people to achieve their full potential regardless of the cultural background. Creation of a collective identity could not solve the problem of oppression because of the nature of cultural diversity among societies. Integrating all the cultures of the world to come up with one acceptable culture across the world is a big challenge. People’s characters are different. Everyone will propose divergent views that could end up being chaotic. Not everyone could be flexible enough to accommodate the collective culture. Large data management corporations work with government agencies to access user information. Most people assume that they live in a free world yet they lack their right to privacy. As huge data files get their way more into cloud storage, more private information is exposed.