I've done a lot of reading and work this semester about the idea of identity evaluation and formation, it seems to be a common theme in the realm of intercultural and ethical communication to a certain extent. The article from Rowe looks to explore the idea of reconfiguring the notions of "belonging" as it relates to the self and to a community. Rowe explains that there is a formal, white, heterosexual dominant meaning of belonging as it connects a person to certain things: White/Black, Male/Female, and more of these dividers that have been set up in a way that perpetrates this hegemonic order. Individuality, as known mostly be the western reader, in her opinion, is intertwined with "I" as it relates to the self, as opposed to her preference of "others" (Pages 17 & 18).
There are a couple other readings I have done in some other classes that also push this more fluid idea of identity. The idea of identity being these barriers of what you are physically (Race, gender, sexuality, etc) comes off as outdated to many scholars. The general idea, at least now is that the identity changes constantly over time, so one rigid notion becomes inaccurate quickly. Nilanjana Bardhan and Bin Zhang classify this idea of racial identity as a factor of western power structures and colonialistic thinking (Page 84). So these seemingly normalized factors of identity in the U.S. and in Western Europe are seen as odd and unfamiliar to many other people outside of this particular zone. Identity, to scholars, works in context with the situation of someone's life, and the person themselves, and changes with the context of the person's life.
Bardhan, Nilanjana, and Bin Zhang. “A Post/Decolonial View of Race and Identity Through the Narratives of U.S. International Students from the Global South.” Communication Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 3, 2017, pp. 285–306, https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2016.1237981.
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