Reason:
The ethnography project was especially meaningful to me as I got to hear about my fellow first year’s struggles in identity, more specifically on Dartmouth campus. It challenged me to think about data and look at observations from a new perspective that is objective yet insightful and involved in the situation. This style, and method, of data collection, is going to be very useful in the future when I work in the subject of Geography, as ethnographies are often utilized in the humanities.
Alexandra Bramsen
Professor Adedoyin
Expository Writing 19
20 November 2018
Origin in Identity and Recognition; Ethnography Project
Dartmouth college was originally founded to educate Native Americans in the area, but over the past 249 years, it has developed impressive international programs and is becoming increasingly diverse in both its student and faculty demographics. It is actively seeking to provide a comfortable area for diversity and cater to all the different origins that need to be welcomed into the community. There are Living Learning communities directed to specific identities and many groups on campus that are for specific ethnic groups, minorities. With this push for inclusion and diversity, especially regarding origin, there needs to be a caution when recognizing these origins, as a person’s origin or appearance does not completely define their experience and personality. I personally have been miss-recognized based on my origin. In other words, my appearance deceives the perceiver into thinking I have a certain identity, the typical Caucasian identity, which is not true of my experience as I grew up in Tanzania and was born in Zimbabwe. There must also be an understanding of open communities, because once communities become exclusive, there is a tone of separation and segregation which, diversity wishes to overcome in the first place. Without the proper recognition of all identities in all spaces, there is no true inclusion.
To best perceive the conditions of spaces on campus catered to a specific origin, I observed the East Asian study room. This enabled me to see the dynamics of the room and the interactions between individuals that appeared to be either Asian or non-Asian origin. This was difficult as I had to assume identities, but it placed me in the shoes of those I was observing. I was hoping to see how the apparent Asian might react in this encounter. More specifically, whether the arrival of a person, appearing to be non-Asian, would be viewed as an invasion of their space, or would be welcomed for the interest in the origin. I would conduct my observations, first by entering the room and wandering around to see who all the different people were and where they were situated relative to each other. Initially, I also inspected the format of the room. It appeared that observing all interactions might be difficult as there are three sections to the room and two of them have rows of books filling them. Therefore, I would observe while walking around, but then I would sit and wait to see or hear what else happened. The rooms functionality was first and foremost for quiet study, which I observed in all my visits. Everyone worked quietly on their own, except for a pair of students who were working together one time, but still quiet. In terms of the demographics of the room, I found that many groups used the room, and more often than not, most students in the room appeared to not be Asian. And only one time did I observe a divide between the two groups, there were 2 Asians working in the center section and then 4 non-Asians working on the left section. However, this result seems anomalous as the right side of the room was under maintenance, so it could have led to this appearance of segregation. In conclusion of my observations, it appears the East Asian study room was inclusive, even though it does not necessarily serve the purpose of a social forum for inclusive interactions.
Another situation I observed, was a Dartmouth African Students Association (DASA) movie night. This was important to me, as I am a Caucasian African and by entering this occasion I placed myself in a position to either be rejected or accepted based on my appearance. In my interactions with the subjects, I was warmly welcomed by friendly faces, though often ones I had met before. I did not speak to everyone as conversations preceding and following the movie, where conducted in small groups of 2 to 4 people. Also observed, was that the movie options were all Africa centric, which made sense as it was a DASA event. Though there were parts in the movie that we watched that we would react to, because it referred to African life or experiences, that would only really be understood if you had lived there yourself. This may be a point where an outsider might feel uncomfortable, not being able to relate.
My interviews were on several people, covering several diverse backgrounds. All these different students are Dartmouth freshman that I met during orientation week. I chose to talk to people I knew and who were in the freshman class because as a friend and fellow freshman, they could be honest with me on their experiences and thoughts on their origin. If I had talked to strangers, I would not have this level of trust. I also find that Dartmouth really becomes a part of a student’s identity, so by asking freshmen instead of upperclassmen, I was able to get the first perceptions of trying to fit your identity into Dartmouth. It is much harder for upperclassmen to relate to struggles of finding a place at Dartmouth, as they may have had more time to settle. I interviewed a boy who identified as Mexican, an Angolan girl, a mixed Japanese-Kenyan boy, a boy who was just Kenyan, a Taiwanese-American girl, and a girl from the Dominican Republic (DR). The questions I asked were about what they identify as their origin, how, and the incorrect recognitions they get about their origin, as well as how they feel about Dartmouth as a safe space for diversity. As I was asking friends these questions, I had to guard myself against imprinting my feelings upon the questions and letting the interview become too informal.
When coding the data from my interviews, I first looked over all six of the interviews to reaffirm general ideas from them. This meant, reading through my three transcriptions and watching the three other videos, and finding any common answers or topics. Then I created these general codes, which helped me to go through the interviews again highlighting the parts that were related to these general thoughts and discovering other themes in the text. My set of codes was then; origin as language and accent, origin as family, origin as assumptions, origin as recognition of identity, origin as stereotypes and fit, origin as relation to place, and the origin as recognition by Dartmouth College. I then mapped out these different codes, and then went back to the annotated interviews to attach examples and ideas behind each code. Connections between the codes, or several codes started to become clear once the map was complete. So, I classified the ideas that were subject to each other under a specific umbrella code that became its category. These major codes were; origin as assumptions, origin as recognition of identity, and origin as recognition by Dartmouth College. Finally, I went over the examples and themes in each code, defining them more clearly with the newly related subcodes, or parts of former codes, and expressing examples for different parts.
A big theme, that was unearthed in the research, was the unhealthy habit for people to make assumptions upon meeting someone. This is usually based on their appearance and accent, where we automatically connect them to an origin, a race or ethnic group. All my interviewees expressed unappreciated mistaken identification of origin when they first met someone. These assumptions were mostly based upon appearance, but sometimes due to their accent. In the case of the Mexican-American boy, he is often assumed to be white because of the way he looks, however he does not identify that way at all, and it makes him feel “sad” as his true identity is not recognized. Another example of this is with the Taiwanese-American girl, who often gets mistaken as Chinese, which tends to frustrate her. The boy from Kenya and Japan tends to get the most confused reactions, as he says, “they generally don’t know where to place me.” This produces many opinions and questions, ranging from Hawaiian to Dutch and to Chinese. Based on the way he speaks English, his accent, he has also been mistaken for an American and an Ethiopian. A similar assumption is made for the Angolan girl, who often gets labeled as African -American because of her accent. All these assumptions challenge a person’s identity and can be damaging to their sense of comfort or stability in their identity, which can already be a fragile thing.
To add, many instances presented by the interviews, showed assumptions of origin led to stereotyping and generalizing the person and the assumed ethnic group. These prejudices can then alter our interactions with one another and define a relationship before it has even begun. There is also the fact that, we tend to generalize and blend completely different groups altogether. Again, everyone I interviewed knew of some sort of stereotype they were expected of based on their origin, and while some were true there were many things that were false, and even gave a negative representation of the person. Asians have a lot of generalized stereotypes, which the Kenyan and Japanese boy recounted. The example he gave was that in Kenya they expect that all “Asians eat dogs”, which is not true at all. Then there is the grouping of Africa into essentially “one country” and is stereotyped as such. The Angolan girl found this particularly disconcerting. She has always had to fight against the stereotype of Angolan women being inferior in intelligence, which is not at all true to her as she has real merit. Even here at Dartmouth, she feels that she must continually be “proving” her place in a predominantly white institution. Thirdly, Latinos are said to be a “crazy”, “loud”, and generally extroverted. However, according to the girl from the DR, she only fits these stereotypes partially, it does not encompass her entire personality. She feels she is loud and “a bit crazy” but considers herself to be an introvert that is not comfortable in social situations, like parties. We can’t expect people from one part of the world, or from one ethnic group, to be the same. Origin cannot define someone in their entirety.
For the interviews, each person presented their own self-constructed identity, not the imposed labels from others, and was able to define the extent of their origin in their identity. We are individuals that draw on our origin in different ways, and often this is through our family, our language and how we fit the stereotypes. The Mexican-American boy claimed to be Mexican because of his family is “purely Mexican” and, explained how he would be recognized as Hispanic as soon as he spoke Spanish, and it was clearly “native”. The girl from the DR also identified as Hispanic because she speaks Spanish. She also explained that she has many values and identities besides the origins that are given to her through her family. The “close” relationship with her sisters means that they tend to resemble each other, and she learned things from both her mother and grandmother who raised her, and these all contribute to her personality and choices. The Taiwan-American girl bases her entire Taiwanese influence on her parents and inferred from the fact her mother “raised us with a more western mindset,” led her to be more detached from her Taiwanese heritage. It was also significant that she hadn’t learned Mandarin as a child, making her feel even less Taiwanese. On the other perspective, she finds she fits some of the stereotypes of Taiwanese culture, like being “shy”, having a strong understanding of mathematics, and even having “strict parents”, even though she explained that “they are not as strict as people think they are.” This is key because she identifies with her origin in this way. In fact, there is a case where the Japanese-Kenyan boy tends to try and fulfill the Japanese stereotypes to help him identify with this part of his origin. Origin in our identity is variable to an individual. The definition of our own identity in our origin can be determined by our personal experience, not what others dictate.
A pattern that came up was that location, in many contexts, has a huge role in how all my interviewees were able to identify with their origin, and how this identity is fluid with movement from place to place. It was clear that for the Japanese-Kenyan boy, it depended upon where he was how he was able to identify with the different origins in his identity. While in Kenya, he felt out of place, so identified more with his Japanese origin, but at Dartmouth, he seems to be identifying more with the Kenyan, African, aspect of his origin as people identify him more as such. This is entirely based upon how the community accepts him for his difference. It is similar to the Mexican-American boy, who finds that he feels more Mexican, and proud of it, here at Dartmouth in a more diverse community than his hometown in Texas that was really close to the border, so had a majority of Mexicans living there. Place can even enforce a particular identity upon you, as the girl from the DR explained how in the DR it was encouraged to identify as “light” as possible, but when she came to the US she recognized that she needed to be comfortable with identifying herself with her Afro-Caribbean identity, because she was being classified as Caucasian when she knew that was not true. Then there is the fact that the Taiwan-American girl had only been to Taiwan when she was little, and once again for a recent summer, but grew up in Florida. This combination of place interactions plays a huge part in creating her lack of identification in her Taiwanese origin. The Angolan girl finds that even though she was born and raised in Angola, the parts of her life where she lived in America, have led her identity to be slightly displaced from completely Angolan, referring to herself as a “third-culture kid.” These experiences of place give an understanding that our identification in origin is fluid because it can be changed and adapted as our experiences shape us.
Dartmouth is considered a safe space for diversity, but there have been some concerns with groups and how they might not be as inclusive as they should be. Everyone I interviewed explained that Dartmouth definitely has safe spaces for diversity, specializing in certain named minorities. There is a range of Latin, Asian and African clubs and designated spaces on campus. However, there are cases where discomfort is felt in these places. The most profound example is that of the Japanese-Kenyan boy, who feels he cannot attend Asian centered meetings, otherwise, he would be “judged” by them. He expressed that the problem that there are no spaces that can really cater to an identity such as his, where there is a mix of minority origins. Both the Mexican-American boy and the girl from the DR pointed out the role of their appearance in feeling acceptable in spaces catered to Latinos and Hispanics. As the boy is often mistaken as Caucasian, he explained that at first, he seemed to be out of place in the group, whereas the girl feels she would fit right in based upon her appearance being typical of her origin. However, she sympathized with the boy about how it might not be as easy for others who do not resemble the origin’s identity. She even went into the issues of having an affiliation to a place and culture, yet not feeling accepted by it, due to a differentiation in origin. Finally, the Taiwanese-American girl explained how it really depends where you go, how open to diversity the area or group is. She gave examples of the Global Village and mentoring programs, where she feels there is a lot of diversity and inclusion. Both the East Asian room and DASA work well to provide an arena for those identities. Though, DASA can tend to be a little more exclusive than the East Asian Room, as it seeks to provide an opportunity for Africans to connect with each other and find comfort in common culture. Whereas the East Asian Room, is constructed as an open study space. There are many areas on campus that cater to diverse groups, but whether they are open to different appearances, or different origins, varies across the options.
To conclude, the pattern across cultures about our origins is that we tend to assume peoples’ origins when we meet them, based on appearance and accents. Then from these assumptions, we are led to believe that they fit the stereotypes that we associate with those particular origins. However, we can only define our own identities, and we can create the level to which we identify with our origin, which is influenced from factors, like family, language, the environment we are in, and how we compare to the stereotypes. Dartmouth does well at defining spaces with a purpose on campus, and those that address diversity have varying levels of inclusion. The students usually feeling excluded exhibit a difference from the origin which the area is categorized under. An ethnography is a means to study a topic, which is usually concerning human interactions within the topic. It brings together the qualitative thoughts of the people, and objective observations of locations that are within the field of the topic. From these studies, either connections or missing parts can be identified, which then can present a hypothesis that concludes the study of the topic. This is how I conducted my research in origin and how it relates to Dartmouth, by observing places on campus and interviewing students.