WHAT SHAPES OUR IDENTITY?

How do we view ourselves? What shapes our identity?

How does how we define ourselves affect how others see us?
How do others perceptions affect they way we see/define ourselves?
How do these perceptions affect the relationships we have in society?
How does our identity change over time, within certain conditions?
Watch the video of Jesus Colon. How does Colon see himself? How might others describe him?
Create an identity chart for him and compare it to your own identity chart to consider the influences on our sense of self, our identity.

Image: Pulcinella from Commedia Del Arte, illustrated by Luigi Serafini

Jesús Colón describes labels that others have placed on him. Use the following questions to write a response on your blog.

• What labels does he place on the groups to which he belongs? on other groups?
• How did those labels shape the way he perceived his choices? the decision he made?
• Why does he have regrets? Did he make the right choice?
• Would your answer be different if he were a white American?
• Who is the victim in this story–Colón, the woman, or the larger society?

from Facing History,Facing Ourselves:Choosing to Participate

What Do We Do with a Variation?

What do we do with a difference?
Do we stand and discuss its oddity
or do we ignore it?
Do we shut our eyes to it
or poke it with a stick?
Do we clobber it to death?
Do we move around it in rage
and enlist the rage of others?
Do we will it to go away?
Do we look at it in awe
or purely in wonderment?
Do we work for it to disappear?
Do we pass it stealthily
Or change route away from it?
Do we will it to become like ourselves?
What do we do with a difference?
Do we communicate to it,
let application acknowledge it
for barriers to fall down?
James Berry

What connections do you make with this poem, Jesus Colon's story and 'The Island' by Armin Greder?