Thursday 10/23

Culture

"Anything we want, we're trained to want" -Chuck Palahniuk

The thing about culture that bugs me a little, is that we have no active part in it. When we are born, we're born into a specific culture, and we're supposed to conform to it. Although a lot of the world's cultures have been "westernized", who knows who culture that was first, people around the world would still have a hard time adjusting to life in America, and vice versa. If I decided to come to class one day wearing what the people in the picture above are wearing, I would first off probably be arrested just outside of the doors. If that didn't happen, Tracie would certain have a few words to say to me, and if I managed to get past the office, my fellow students would either think I was making a statement about being black (As usual) or I would just be "nuts". And if I tried to Americanize that culture and wardrobe? Well, I'd probably be place in a subculture, perhaps the Afrocentrics.

In either situation, I would immediately become an outcast for it. I could go on and on about how many stereotypically black people consider me to be "watered down" and "posing as a white person". It doesn't matter that I enjoy Tupac and wear BabyPhat clothing on occasion, and it is apparently a disgrace to go into a department in which you are the only black person in your class. I should have gone into business.

So what makes this culture mine and not one in African (even though I'm American and have no desire whatsoever to set foot on African soil) or even Mongolia (no, I'm not Mongolian)? Why can't we just make up our own cultures? Would anyone ever feel like they fit in that way? And most importantly: How does the culture that we have been placed into affect us as individuals?