tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14184878.post4155155196382265900..comments2023-10-15T10:29:12.991+01:00Comments on Karyn's erratic learning journey: Ethnicity, Race, Politics, Nationalism - are they inextricably intertwined?The upsychohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06345558899662051670noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14184878.post-90935247436991983852007-09-13T13:27:00.000+01:002007-09-13T13:27:00.000+01:00You raise some very valid points, Mark, and I have...You raise some very valid points, Mark, and I have to say that we have taught our children that Indians come from India - that the so-called "Indian" people in the US are Native Americans... although you rightly point out potential flaws with that term too. Apart from which - they were native to the land long before it was called America. And for me, this touches on the key issue that the ebb and flow of people groups predates the establishment of nations, and continues to this day - so the relationship between nationality and ethnicity is tenuous at best. <BR/><BR/>What has irked me enormously has been the assumption on the part of some people to dictate to me how I may regard myself. My passport says I'm South African, my skin says I'm white, my features say I'm caucasian with the possibility of some slavic influence (if those two terms have parity - I'm wa-ay out of my depth, here), BUT...<BR/><BR/>the effect on my being of the call of the fish eagle, of a cowhide drum, of the savannah grasslands filled with zebra and wildebeest, of the smell of rain on sunbaked earth, of voices raised in improvised, multipart, repetitive harmony, of ululating women, of naked chocolate children swimming in a brown river, of images of AIDS orphans, of war and pestilence and poverty, of fuliminating dictators reducing their lands to rubble, of people who retain their indomitable ability to be generous in the most crippling of circumstances... THAT says I'm African.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14184878.post-33457982333534697082007-09-13T12:55:00.000+01:002007-09-13T12:55:00.000+01:00Karyn,The short answer is yes. They are intertwine...Karyn,<BR/><BR/>The short answer is yes. They are intertwined and the real issues arise when we try to act like we can somehow use these terms in a way that is value-neutral to both ourselves and the people hearing or reading that usage. Not only do we bring our own histories and contexts to these words, so to does everyone else and the real art is in figuring out what each of us is talking about when we seem to be using the same word. <BR/><BR/>I once a prof in grad school, in a course on nationalism, assert that he believed in three kinds of nationalism; the first would be the nationalism of your birth (can't really help that right?), next was the nationalism of your parent's (again, not a lot of choice), the final one though was nationalism of your heart. He argued that all were valid designators - each in their own context. <BR/><BR/>My son (7 and a half) and I are currently working through the repeated explanations of how the fact that a lot of his friends or their families are from India, we (in the U.S.) don't really refer to them as "Indians" but usually as "from India" and that "Indians" (in the U.S. again) is really an incorrect term for "Native Americans" which in itself is comprised on a chuck of European hegemony...Native <I>Americans</I>, really? I prefer "indigenous" but even that is inaccurate since most evidence indicates that North America (back to the dominant term right?) had no indigenous people but was populated by Asians who either cam across the land bridge or now evidence indicates, even by coastal boats. First Nations is good but assumes a Euro-centric understanding of government and collective identity that while evident in such bodies as the League of the Iroquois...certainly was a later development and not uniform throughout the majority of the tribes. <BR/><BR/>So, we're back to...yes. I am a white/Caucasian, Western Euro/German-American....I think. :-)Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08218024853670656902noreply@blogger.com