¶ … E (sub)merging Ethnicity
Like many, if not most, members of my generation, I largely consider myself to have moved beyond the issue of race and ethnicity, not just in how I perceive others but also in how I perceive and portray myself. Of course, many studies and my own honest introspection and self-examination reveals that some degree of ethnic identification, both of one's self and of others, is simply a natural if not wholly wanted part of human nature. For instance, when it is socially advantageous -- specifically, when it can be used to for comic effect, I play up my Italian. Though I am of very mixed descent and do not identify especially strongly with any particular ethnicity, the concept of ethnicity becomes useful when it can be exploited to further my own social standing.
Based on this more honest impression of myself, I would have to say that my ethnicity is highly liquid. I have a mix of ethnicities to choose from, and though I am not attached to any of them, I feel a license to slip into any of them when they serve my own -- usually highly stereotypical and comic (or so I hope) -- purposes. Of course, my relationship with my various ethnicities goes deeper than simple jokes about stereotypes -- I feel some vague tug of a connection to the disparate elements of my ethnic make-up. This reflects one of the downsides of multi-culturalism or post-culturalism; a strong sense of identity and history is no longer a part of many young American's self-identity.
In general, I leave my identity unexamined on a day-to-day basis. I feel fairly well established in who I am, and this does not hinge on any particular geographical location or ethnic heritage. The feeling of being unanchored is bittersweet; there is the obvious element of freedom and an increased ability to repeatedly redefine oneself which is strengthened by internet culture, but these themselves reflect the very impermanence of such an identity, and seem to reveal that all identity -- be it ethnically-based or otherwise -- is nothing more than a construct. Often, such as in the case of Italian-Americans, the various constructs are lived up to, but perhaps this too is just an issue of a constructed perspective.
