A New Look at Cultural Group Identity

While looking around the internet for resources for my research on rights consciousness within the abled differently community in the United States and abroad I wandered upon a marvelous site called Exactitudes®.

Link to the site Here. 

Now before I say anything more, I want to preface this by saying that this site works to identifying various social groups that seek to set themselves apart from their conglomerate cultures. 

Below are some excerpts from their shows:

Museum of Photography, The Hague

"Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 19 years.... Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element."

21_21 DESIGNSIGHT TOKYO

"Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek classify random people whom they see in cities around the world according to particular characteristics of their appearances and attitudes. They create categories which comprise of people who share the same attributes, and give each catagory unique names. This is the artwork they developed together for more than 15 years. We always belong to some sort of groups. But when we are classified into a certain "tribe' by a third party, ignoring that reality, most of us shall be surprised to find out how different other people see us from the way we see ourselves, thinking "so this is me in other people's eyes". This gives us an opportunity to realize again how we are perceived in other eyes, irrespective of our will or intention, or reality.
What's more interesting is that despite the fact that our real selves are left behind, we find other people very satisfied with their classification, which was based on the appearance and attitude we have not necessarily been aware of before."

However, what I am interested in is how various groups are seen by cultures. Namely what are the characteristics that societies seek in order to distinguish these groups and how they shape group and personal identity. I am interested in the conceptualization of group identities as an objection of conglomerate culture that seems to be central to this project because many subcultures are the foundations of the cultures they oppose.
As seen within the United States, disadvantage cultures are often the fodder for entertainment, clothing, and other cultural aspects. One only needs to step into any clothing store to see the gross cultural appropriation of African, First Nation, and Latino cultures (with the first two being some of the biggest) within the American project. Along side these, though to a lesser problematic degree, is the adoption and appropriation of other subgroup cultures into the American project. Examples such as counter-culture movements like hippies, anarchists, environmentalists, and the Queer community have all become normalized, corporatized and absorbed back into the culture they were ostracized from (voluntarily or not) even as their core values and identities are still considered deviant. This photo collection highlights parts of this process, where group values are separated from their consumable culture, and serves as a good foundation for cultural study. 

Conceptualize growing fundamentalism into Progressivism - 1

Moving from a traditional base in order to challenge ideals such as Heterosexism, racism, cultural bigotry, transphobia, and other such categories built to separate us could possibly lead towards some of the most radical transformations in social thought that we can experience. That if we, as catalysts of social change, use fundamental concepts rooted in the consciousness of our families and communities to  move our values out from within the sky or above our heads, as things out of our grasps, into realities inside our communities, things we no longer need to value because they're foundations, we can truly enact inherent and indestructible change. 

Excerpt from "Rethinking Columbus"

“For years, I opened my 11th-grade U.S. history classes by asking students, “What’s the name of that guy they say discovered America?” A few students might object to the word “discover,” but they all knew the fellow I was talking about. “Christopher Columbus!” several called out in unison.

“Right. So who did he find when he came here?” I asked. Usually, a few students would say, “Indians,” but I asked them to be specific: “Which nationality? What are their names?”

Silence.

In more than 30 years of teaching U.S. history and guest-teaching in others’ classes, I’ve never had a single student say, “Taínos.” How do we explain that? We all know the name of the man who came here from Europe, but none of us knows the name of the people who were here first—and there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of them. Why haven’t you heard of them?

This ignorance is an artifact of historical silencing—rendering invisible the lives and stories of entire peoples.

[…] In an interview with Barbara Miner, included in Rethinking Columbus, Suzan Shown Harjo of the Morning Star Institute, who is Creek and Cheyenne, said: “As Native American peoples in this red quarter of Mother Earth, we have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people, and is still causing destruction today.” After all, Columbus did not merely “discover,” he took over. He kidnapped Taínos, enslaved them—“Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold,” Columbus wrote—and “punished” them by ordering that their hands be cut off or that they be chased down by vicious attack dogs, if they failed to deliver the quota of gold that Columbus demanded. One eyewitness accompanying Columbus wrote that it “did them great damage, for a dog is the equal of 10 men against the Indians.”

Corporate textbooks and children’s biographies of Columbus included none of this and were filled with misinformation and distortion. But the deeper problem was the subtext of the Columbus story: it’s OK for big nations to bully small nations, for white people to dominate people of color, to celebrate the colonialists with no attention paid to the perspectives of the colonized, to view history solely from the standpoint of the winners.”

—	Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Columbus: Towards a True People’s History(via seschat)

Third Party Debate Coverage

Larry King, the host of Larry King Now on Ora TV, and Christina Tobin, founder and chair of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, will serve as moderator for a special 2012 Presidential debate. This debate will take place on October 23 at 9:00pm EDT at the Hilton Chicago and streamed LIVE on Ora TV.  

Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Jill Stein (Green Party), Rocky Anderson (Justice Party), and Virgil Goode (Constitution Party). Both Obama and Romney were invited, but declined the offer. I know many of you probably believe that it is pointless to watch this debate because you feel that a third party candidate will not be going into office this year, but please do yourself the favor of staying an informed citizen. The two-party political system leaves a lot of voices silenced or unheard, so this is a great opportunity to hear alternative ideas for our country’s future. The best part about this debate is that it’s going to be ninety minutes long and features questions from both King and questions submitted by voters through social media (via the hashtag #AskEmThisLarry). The debate will also be broadcast on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera English and RT, as well as streamed online by Ora TV and Free & Equal.

 Even the “alternative” debates exclude socialists and communists. 

Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, who organized city’s Olympics

Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, who organized city’s Olympics

"The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed President Obama for reelection Friday, with an editorial that was highly critical of Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who is as close to being a favorite son candidate from Utah, the historic and cultural center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a non-resident can be."

All Indian Pueblo Council Endorses President Obama

“The President has kept his word to Indian Tribes,” said Isleta Pueblo Governor Frank Lujan. “He has engaged our Pueblo through yearly consultations. The Recovery Act in particular provided funding for our infrastructure and created jobs for our tribal members. We will do whatever we can to ensure President Barack Obama is re-elected.”

Read Here

MIDWAY

Midway is an upcoming documentary about an ecological tragedy unfolding on Midway Atoll in the Pacific: tens of thousands of baby albatross lay dead and dying, victims of starvation after mistakenly eating plastic trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (trailer). Photographer Chris Jordan began documenting the plight of the albatross back in 2009 with a heartbreaking photo series “Midway: Message from the Gyre.” Jordan subsequently began expanding the project to a feature length documentary, and raised more than $100,000 via a Kickstarter project this summer (donations are still being accepted on the film website). The film is currently in production, and is expected to be released in 2013.