In attempt to try and answer the professor’s question on whether someone can fit the four categories we discussed in class with the judgment diagrams, I immediately thought of myself and politics, but then, I realized I cannot follow the same example within the United States policies, so I thought of a much easier example: sports.
A. You know little but you still identify. The situation I am about to explain, I thought was very relatable given that it happens way more than it should. Your parents are taking you to a baseball game, or your school is participating in a lacrosse tournament, or even better, it’s Super Bowl night, and you have no idea what the sport is, and no clue whatsoever about how it is played, but you identify with a team either way. Your parents attend the game because they are huge Red Sox fans and because of this, it seems somewhat reasonable that you identify and cheer for the Red Sox too. You support your school’s team because it’s the home team, and because you are or were part of the school, you feel it is your duty to identify with the team, and if someone asks at the end, you will even say “We won!” as if you had been part of the entire game plan. You knew little to nothing about the entity you were identifying with, but you still did, because your parents did, your friends did, or it just seemed like the most logical option to do so. B. Now you still know little, but you decide to distance yourself because you are afraid to make a fool out of yourself by pretending to be the expert. You’re still attending the sports games but instead of shouting something random every time the referee whistles, you keep quiet. You refrain from making any comments about the game because you recognize you are not in the best position to do so, consequently distancing yourself to prevent someone from hearing you and wanting to engage in a full on conversation on how X player was benched because he committed a technical foul in minute 37 second 43. C. Now you love the sport, you know every single technical rule and fault there is to hold players accountable to and you have been to every single game the Red Sox played in your town. You now know a lot, so you identify. This is the most logical way to go about identifying; you know about what the entity represents, what it stands for and its history. It makes complete sense to identify yourself now. D. Lastly, now you know a lot, but you decide to distance yourself from the entities or identities because you deem it inconvenient for X or Y reason. The friends are playing in the home team, but you have friends on the visiting team too so you decide it is better to distance yourself in order avoid conflict of interest. Some people maintain themselves apolitical because of whom they work for or their stance at the given moment. Members of the royal families in Europe live by these, they must refrain themselves from supporting political parties or even candidates because of their standing in a country’s government. The sports metaphor is only one of the many that can be utilized to explain the diagrams’ reasoning; I’ve come to think of many others that go along the same line of thought. Nonetheless, this shows one of the many reasons why the identity judgment crisis between the Spaniards and the Indians turned out the way it did in a more modern and relatable way.
2 Comments
Wyatt Foster
11/26/2018 06:52:19 pm
This is a great and easy to understand metaphor for this situation you put it really well. I can relate to the last section as I went to a certain high school but had many more friends at one of our rival high schools and often felt torn when deciding who to support but usually ending up supporting the team more of my friends were on which usually got some backlash from people at my school but it was the school I identified more with so it felt right to go for them. Identity, belonging, and understanding are complex topics and I think you put this really well. Great blog :)
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Anneli T Sánchez
12/4/2018 08:38:53 am
Yes! I thought of phrasing the terms in the simplest way possible precisely because of that. I felt like there was a difference to be explained between supporting and identifying and I am glad you could relate to it as well. How interesting to know that you were willing to face that backlash in order to be there for who you most supported, most would have not; this says a lot! Thank you for your comment!
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