Saturday, February 24, 2007
CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF SELF
Today will be crazy, so I am checking in early to post the Cultural Analysis of Self that I mentioned in yesterday's posting. I will be back on-line Sunday, after the visitation of our diocesan bishop. For those of you who do not know me, here are some details...
I identify myself as a white person with a genealogical history that includes forbears from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. More recently, my maternal family emigrated from Canada and my father’s family moved from Maine to Connecticut at roughly the same time my mother’s family moved from Canada to Connecticut. I am proud of my Canadian heritage and my Anglican roots. Culturally, I am what has been called a white Anglo-Saxon protestant and I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative. My class background at the generation of my grandparents is working class poor, and because of their educational background, my parents were able to enter the ranks of the professional class. Strategic investments and fiscal conservatism has allowed my parents to retire in a lifestyle that might be considered wealthy.
When I was growing up I may have identified myself as middle class, but I was not encouraged to make that kind of assessment until well into college. My parents were especially eager to see my brother and me succeed in school and proceed into higher education. At this time, as a single parent, unemployed person living in my parents’ home, I hesitate to identify myself is upper or middle class. I realize that my educational background and my access to the benefits of middle and upper class resources keep me from being classified as poor or working class, but I am not sure if I identify with any of these classifications at this time.
The cultural variables in my life include my status as a divorced woman, a single parent, a full time graduate student and a seminarian and postulant for holy orders in the Episcopal Church. Each of these classifications either augments or detracts from my standing in the community and in the world. I am also self-identified as a heterosexual person; however I proudly take on the labels of black and queer when they refer to my solidarity with oppressed peoples.
One thing that I like about my cultural identity is my commitment to a liberal standard of social order. Diversity, inclusivity, and respect for multiculturalism are for me hallmarks of an educated and open minded person. I do not like the assumptions people can make about me because of my commitment to my Anglican and stereo-typical white heritage.
As a person labeled white by this society, I will be hampered in my limited exposure to other cultures and lifestyles. I am working to rectify these shortcomings, and God willing, I will go about the work of ministry with and for all peoples.
