Reflection Prompts and Responses

Reflection Prompt 1: Provide a one paragraph (6-7 sentences) summary of The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Be sure to include at least one quotation from the article to highlight your analysis.

Answer 1

Beverly Tatum declares the identity of individuals as a complex term. She refers to Colley ( 1992) who argues that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. Thus, Tatum concludes the term identity to mean that it is what is our self-perception, as well as how we see ourselves in the opinion of others. Here the term others spans friends, family, strangers, and media representations. Tatum verifies the co-existence of dominant as well as targeted identity elements in individuals. However, she adds that elements of targeted identity are more highlighted while those of dominant individuals and groups go unnoticed (Lorde, 1997). Beverly Tatum is of the opinion that societal norms are set by dominant elements of identity.

Reflection Prompt 2: Provide a paragraph (6-7 sentences) reflection of what you learned about identity and culture from of The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Be sure to include at least one quotation from the article to highlight your analysis.

Answer 2

The article clarifies that culture is a mirror, which partly reflects the identity of an individual. But the influence of culture on one’s identity is multifaceted and multidimensional. Not only one’s own culture but other surrounding cultures and their level of dominance and/or subordination frame individual and group identities in different ways. Tatum (2000) argues that dominant elements of identity are taken for granted and go unnoticed in contrast to targeted identity elements. Targeted elements are not only noticed by others but also by the targeted individual/group also.

Reflection Prompt 3: In a paragraph (6-7 sentences) discuss how you now differently understand the influence of a person’s cultural upbringing can have on everyday communication and the role cultural similarities and/or differences play in our communication exchanges based on what you learned during the Creating Community training. Provide a clear example from the training and from the textbook to highlight your analysis.

Answer 3

One’s culture plays crucial role in the one’s way of communication. based on broad segmentation of cultures into high-context and low context cultures it is quite clear that one word might mean something very positive which means quite opposite in the other culture. For example in a high-context culture like Asian culture, words have implied meanings, intuition and even silence provide contextual meanings, while on the other hand, the low-context cultures believe in absolute meanings and precise statements. Cultural similarities make communication clearer and easier while cultural differences play the opposite role. In addition, its worth mentioning that cross-culture communication adds value to the communication skills with time despite initial difficulties.

Reflection Prompt 4: In a paragraph (6-7 sentences) discuss how the Creating Community training has affected your attitude toward the practice of ethical verbal and nonverbal communication and what adjustments you plan to make in consideration to what is appropriate and/or inappropriate intercultural communication. Provide a clear example from the training and from the textbook to highlight your analysis.