Zambia 2018

Following up on our discussion last class on social identities and privilege, reflect on 1-2 aspects of your identity and how has this shaped your lived experiences. How might this aspect of your identity shape your experience in Zambia? How do we use certain privileges based on our identity to adapt to certain situations? How does your social identity shape what power you have as a global citizen? What aspects of your identity do you think you would you use in country or would be more apparent in country ?               I think that the most influential part of my identity comes from being white. While I think also being a woman affects my lived experience, being a the white woman has a much deeper historical and cultural significance. I am afforded a lot more privileges by being white, privileges that generally outweigh the disadvantages of being a woman. While I was raised a feminist, I didn't understand the concept of intersectionality until mu...

Moving to the United States from Nepal made a huge impact on me. For seventeen years, I grew up around people who looked like me, talked like me and shared the same culture as me. Life was much different too. Power cuts that lasted 16 hours, drinking water that was supplied every few days, or inexistent basic infrastructure. After moving to the States, I was able to appreciate small things in life like running hot water, being able to have a job at 17 or roads to big things like access to quality education. You learn not to complain and take what you have and make the best out of it. At the same time, there were struggles, I went from being a majority to being a minority. It felt weird and certainly an inferior in my new environment. I felt I had to work twice as hard to achieve my dreams than people around me. Today I have the great fortune to be studying and educating myself in such a great institution. That I cannot take lightly. It will certainly be different being ...

Social identity is complicated concept that is shaped very much shaped by the social context and environment around us. Thus, depending on the context, certain aspects of our identity are more obvious and salient than others. Therefore, it is important for us to examine aspects of our identities and determine which aspects may have effect on our experiences in Zambia. One of the most salient aspect of my identity that has had a profound effect on my life is my identity as Southeast Asian and Vietnamese. I grew up and had spent my entire life in Vietnam before I came to the U.S to attend Cornell. The environment I grew up in was an entirely Vietnamese context with little to no diversity. As such, I never felt the need to identify myself as Asian or even Vietnamese, as it was the norm for everyone around me. When I first got to Cornell, not only did I have to identify as Asian and Vietnamese but also it was also one of the most important aspect of my identity. Being Asian was one of th...

While different aspects of my identity align with the dominant narrative, the aspects that have shaped my lived experiences the most are the ones that deviate most visibly from that narrative. Throughout my childhood, my most apparent identities were my race and ethnicity. Most of my peers viewed me as an Asian, closer acquaintances might have acknowledged me as an Asian-American, and only my closest friends knew me as a Taiwanese-American. Growing up in a white-dominant community, my interactions were often defined by being an “other.” I became accustomed to justifying and qualifying many of my actions—careful about how I represented them as products of my upbringing in an Asian family, paranoid of coming across as “too Asian or too other.” Stereotypes of Asians are largely driven by stereotypes about the Chinese and in defense to the negative stereotypes, I defined myself as another type of “other.” I would clarify that I was Taiwanese, preferring the complete lack of knowledge abo...

Our class discussion surrounding social identity made me think more critically about many parts of my identity, but specifically about my gender and my class, and the way those two aspects relate. Growing up, I was never explicitly told that my gender would put me at a disadvantage in society. It is only recently that I have really confronted this aspect of my identity and how it shapes my views of myself and the views others have toward me. Learning about gender inequality in classes and through day-to-day reading, media, and lived experiences has definitely brought being a woman to the forefront of my mind. While this is true, I have also been thinking a lot about the fact that although I identify as a woman, and by that fact alone I may be viewed as inferior, I have not felt the level of structural violence or discrimination against me that I know so many other women feel every single day.   Learning about global health has taught me that pregnant women are being mistreated by ...

      One aspect of my identity that has played a large role in shaping my previous experiences and made me the person I am today is my religion. I was born and raised Hindu and while I am not very devout, I still say a daily prayer and believe in the religious teachings my parents instilled in me when I was younger. I never really questioned my faith until coming to college when I was able to delve deeper into the beliefs and practices of other religions through classes or clubs. Yet, upon reflection, I found that what appeals to me about Hinduism is the openness and freedom it allows as well as the specific deities it offers. Hinduism I feel is a good mix of the characteristics of other faiths – tolerance for other faiths, monotheistic as well as polytheistic elements, and certain rituals or prayers. While I do not expect to encounter many other Hindus in Zambia, I believe my background in Hinduism will allow me to better understand and connect with people of othe...

Our discussion concerning social identities and privilege occurred at an interesting time due to the fact that I have been doing a lot of self reflection around this topic.  An aspect of my identity that I have always been extremely aware of is my Nigerian heritage. I grew up as immersed in the culture as one could be living in the United States and because of that I have always largely defined myself as a Nigerian. Going to boarding school for high school and now as a Cornell student, I have grown more into this identity and what it means for myself away from the direct influence from my family. My blackness contributes to a privilege that I expect to experience when in Lusaka. Because I am not obviously a foreigner based on my skin color, I am less likely to be stopped and questioned when experiencing Lusaka. I think this will allow for me to see and experience Zambia differently compared to some of the other non-black members of this cohort.  Another aspect of my ident...

            When asked “Who are you?”, my go-to answer is a black woman. I have always identified myself as black first because I believe it is the first thing that people see when they look at me, since it is the first thing I see when I look at others. However, I am not constantly thinking about my race. I find that I only think about it when an instance is brought up when I may feel slighted by an individual or when someone else who is also black is treated unfairly or given recognition. Society forces all of us to identify with a particular group. These groups are then generalized, often negatively perceived, so that the majority has “reasoning” for their power over the “other” group(s).             Growing up, I felt as though I belonged because I went to an elementary school where most of my classmates looked like me. Even in middle school, where my peers ...