pt. 1
my relationship to the state: citizenship as a privilege
With discussion of immigrant status,
how immigrants are racialized to be one cohesive ‘other’
I am reminded of how American citizenship is indeed,
a privilege.
These people that we have read about are dropping all that they know in their native land in order to travel to the United States:
where they will be racialized,
sometimes penalized for their foreign status,
and maybe,
in an extreme case, deported.
This ‘land of the free’
‘Home of the brave’
Yet, who is free?
The free people of the United States of America seems to be those born within the confines of the borders, those with white skin and American flag bumper stickers.
Yet the brave people of the United States of America seems to be those born outside the confines of the borders:
brave enough to risk their all to start again inside this western landmass.
pt. 2
what the heck is a cultural production
Yesterday in class we defined the term ‘cultural productions’.
According to Roque Ramirez, :
1. a place to understand cultural citizenship,
2. a literal means to intervene in this issue of cultural citizenship.
This definition, purely academic, did not sit particularly well with me.
It does not seem to be summative of the nature of cultural productions:
what they are, who they are, what they do how they do.
It is my understanding that we are all cultural productions, and we
Cultural productions are our quotidian struggle,
On a daily basis we humans create culture through our actions, words, dress,adding ingredients to the melting pot in this vat that is culture.
Therefore we produce culture.
-humans as manufacturers of culture-
Yet our productions are based on the reality of culture that has already been produced:
We as humans are cultural productions,
influenced by cultures of parenting, media, etc.
We, as humans, are produced and we produce.
pt. 3
cultural citizenship
'Citizenship' implies notions of belonging,
belonging to an area, or a country as we are accustomed to.
'Cultural citizenship' combines ideas of cultural productions and citizenship into one whole:
One may be a cultural citizen if they are comfortably acquainted with the cultural productions of their habitat,
and,
if they produce appropriate culture within that habitat.
Cultural citizenship suggests group conformity, negations of the other.
is that what you want?
Cecilia, I really appreciate how you attacked culture and citizenship. It really is ironic that America is called the "home of the brave" and the "land of the free" when so much of our daily lives is governed by those in a higher power. It gives this illusion of free will among citizens, and most of all among those that really don't benefit from the privilege of citizenship. I also really like the idea that you put forth of humans being cultural productions, shaped by society and other aspects of the quotidienne life. Your third part about cultural citizenship really brings up the idea of what the culture of the United States is. It makes me question the true idea of conformity and the dangers that the idea has towards different cultures. I personally love my own Greek culture and learning about those of my friends. Culture gives me a way to see differences and celebrate them.That's why I think it is important that you challenged this so called "culture" of the United States as being a vehicle for conformity.
ReplyDelete-Thania