Cultural identifiers are characteristics that gives an individual cultural identity. The cultural identifiers I identify most with are race, age and religion. This is because I have an African American background and thus it is easy to identify me with my skin color and the hair texture. Though, at our workplace we have people from different backgrounds, some of my colleagues identify me with my race. Age is another factor. At our workplace we have three groups of employees according to age. We have the old, the middle where I belong and the youngsters. On religion I profess Islam faith. This makes me to be unique in the workplace, where I live and in several situations.
The cultural identifiers I mostly see in the people I work with are race and age. Religion so far I do not have another colleague in the workplace, but, where I live we are a good number. Race is evident as we are more than forty. But, I think a senior employee who is involved in recruitment suffers Similarity-Attraction phenomenon (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2017). Though, as an African American I would like to see more people from my background in employment, this phenomenon denies individuals who are qualified an opportunity to work in our firm. As a result, the firm does not enjoy benefits that come with diversity. On age, the firm has a lot of employees who are between 28 and 35 years, very few employees are above or below that age group. This makes at times this group to have a big say in the firm’s decision. The age factor has created a faultline in our organization. We have three subgroups; the old, middle and youngsters.
Although, diversity is all about how people are different or similar from each other, I think this term is misused in many workplaces. In our workplace we have people from different races, age, gender, physical abilities, religion and sexual orientation. But, I think our firm just do it to appeal to the people around. This is because major decisions are not representations of diversity. The way employees are treated shows discrimination. For example, women are not given more managerial positions like men and no single woman of other races other than White sits on managerial position. The process of promotion and rewarding employees is not fair (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2017).
The cultural identifier I recognize most is my race. This is because it is the one that influences my values and beliefs. The way I live and carry out my duties is more of my race. As an African American I have a sense of community and thus I am able to perform well in roles that require teamwork. Collective culture is what can give me self-identity. I like this cultural identifier because it helps me to relate well with others and thus have less conflict issues (McKay School of Education, n.d.).
The identifier I identify with least is age. This is because the majority of the people I interact with are my age mates. I am also able to fit well with youngsters. The old people in our workplace are very few and rarely do I interact with them. They hold senior positions in the firm and thus I have not direct contact with them. The identifier is evident in my age mates and youngsters. For example, the youngsters are not committed to their jobs. But, the old employees are the ones who offer mentorship. They are committed to their duties and they teach the others about loyalty and hence reduce the turnover rate in the firm.
The major stereotype I have faced is about my religion. There are people in my neighborhood and in workplace who believe being an Islam is the same as being an extremist or terrorist. There are people who tell me “see what your people are doing” whenever there is a terror attack. My children are also discriminated by other children when they learn about our religion. But, Islam is not about disrupting the world order as people think. It is a form of worship like Christianity and other religions (LIPKA, 2017).
Prejudice or discrimination can be positive in a situation where for instance an employer may decide to employ more of minorities. Think of a workplace or a firm with very few employees of Indian descent. If such a firm decides to employee more employees from Indian culture the action can be positive. But, it will be taken as discrimination of other races. This makes it difficult to identify the positive discrimination or prejudice (Sayers, 2019).
