Another P word...

Postethnic.

David Hollinger explores this concept in his book Postethnic America. This ideology follows a long list of interpreting how we approach indvidual identity, collective identity, and cultural diversity including Multiculturalism, Pluralism, Cosmopolitanism, etc. "Posting" any term seems to signify the end of the ideology, however Hollinger uses the term in order to show both a change in the way we see ethnicity and a continuation of previous views.

After reading Hollinger, I was initially left feeling a little lost. He seems to identify numerable problems with out current system of identifying based on heritage and descent, but also illustrates reasons that the ethnoracial pentagon is still necessary in terms of governmental or political factors. But what is the solution? Ideally, we would function in a world where identity is based on affiliation by revocable consent, yet the history of oppression that our government and political system is attempting to rectify still calls for ethnoracial divisions. However, these ethnoracial divisions are constricting and do not allow for more nuanced notions of identity, or tribal differences that are apparent in many cultures. I was thinking about people who have seemingly more complicated identities (although I do not intend to say that not everyone's identity is not complicated, by more complicated I mean those who do not fit into societal norms) such as people who are of mixed race, immigrants, children of immigrants and adopted persons.

I have mentioned my aunt before, who was Korean born and adopted by my grandparents at the age of 7. During the course of this semester my curiosity about how she negotiates her identity has continued to grow. I started to think about the ethnoracial pentagon and thought she would fit into Asian-American. However, after thinking about it, my aunt has met her biological mother (who is a native Korean) but she has never been told who her father is. Because her physical appearance is slightly different from her biological sisters and brothers, she has thought that her father may be white, however, she is unsure. Therefore, she may be of mixed race identity...or maybe not. Where do people who do not have concrete knowledge of their descent fit it? Also, she was born in Korea, yet remembers nothing about Korea and does not affiliate with the Korean community. She identifies with a Norwegian, Lutheran community.

After contemplating these questions, I decided to ask her about how she negotiates her identity and we have been having an email conversation back and forth about some of the identity issues she deals with. I feel like this gave me some insight. Here are a few excerpts from our conversations. Some of the discussions require some background information which I have put in parenthesis.

(Although my aunt did not come to American until she was 7, she does not remember anything about Korea. My grandparents thought it best to keep her Korean first name, MiSun, to ease her adjustment into a new family.)
Me: How important is your Korean heritage in your everyday life, if important at all?
MiSun: Really I don’t see my Korean heritage in my everyday life. Honestly my thoughts, beliefs and values are all based/influenced on my upbringing… which is Mid-western Scandnavian. The only times it impacts my everyday life is when I meet new people and they make the assumption I was raised as a Korean and will ask really questions like, Do you like to eat kimchi… Wow, you speak English really well… or my favorite of course – which is they say something in Korean to me and expect me to understand what they said, and when I say I don’t understand, they look at me in disbelief. I think the only times I’m really even aware of my heritage are during my visits to my biological family in Texas. Of course they really embrace their heritage and it impacts their everyday life – they all speak Korean, eat Korean foods every day, watch Korean shows… so it’s really only during those times that I ever really stop and think about my Korean heritage, the customs, values, and foods…

(My aunt was raised in a town of roughly 500 people in Northern Minnesota with very, very little diversity).
Me: Have you encountered times in your life where you were conflicted or made hyper-aware of your identity?
MiSun: When I was growing up I remember being picked on or teased about looking different… for me it was my Korean looks vs. someone else who may have had big ears or was chubby. There were days when I would beg my mom to let me change my name to “Heather, Holly, Susie” or other common names, and of course I had those nights when I would pray asking God why I couldn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. Other than those early childhood years I think I was really isolated from a lot of the real predujice and discriminatory attitudes/behaviors, because as a small town they all accepted me as Clyde and Joyce’s daughter. In fact I remember it didn’t really hit me as an adult I was Korean until I went off to college at Concordia and many students and professors either assumed I was raised as one of the Asian ethnicities or would ask if I was a foreign exchange student.

(MiSun will be traveling to Korea with her biological family this summer.)
Me: How do you feel about traveling to Korea as an American of Korean descent?
MiSun: Really I feel more like I’m like many tourists visiting their ancestoral home out of curiousity. Maybe I’ll feel different once I get there, but right now I’m excited about visiting it just I would be excited about visiting Norway, England, France etc… I think my biological family in Texas are looking at the trip more as educating me about my past, and pointing out places that I probably knew as a young child (but don’t remember). For them it’s like going “home.” For me it’s a vacation to an exotic place with the best group of people to show me around. J Then again it will be really interesting to be in an environment where my race is the dominant one...

(My aunt has 3 children with my uncle who is of Norwegian/German descent. They are both practicing Lutherans).
Me: How do you negotiate your identity and how will you approach educating your children about their identity, both their affiliations and their descent?
MiSun: I have for years told people “I’m biologically Korean, but environmentally I’m MN scandanavin.” Truly those environmental influences have shaped me into the type of person I am. I was raised Lutheran, so I practice that faith and am passing that onto my children. The holiday traditions, foods, slang that I use are all those that I grew up with… and so I pass those onto my children. Do I see myself as a “dual person” with two identities… no, I see myself as an Midwestern American. I struggle sometimes with my personal beliefs on how new immigrants can create their own subcultures within our country… creating whole neighborhoods and communities for their race. I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t better to see that Korean grocery store next to a Blockbuster in the middle of “mainstream America” then amongst blocks and blocks of other Korean stores and shops. I can’t help but wonder if the first isn’t really what America should be about… not segregation, but the blending and mixing of all the wonderful things from the many ethnicities that exist in our country.

For me, my aunt's identity really illustrates the barriers between identity by consent or descent, discussed by Hollinger, since her "biological identity" and "identity based on lived experience" are very different. I also think that a move towards post-ethnicity is extremely valuable in cases like this. However, my aunt's experiences with being viewed as "other," also show that society is still quick to assume identity based on visual/physical characteristics. Although her physical appearance may classify her as Korean-American, I feel like she is a perfect example of a Norwegian/Lutheran/Midwestern, upper/middle-class woman (although here I am consciously stereotyping what it means to be Norwegian/Lutheran/Midwestern and upper/middle-class.)