What are the limitations to the term “Global Citizen”?
There is no such thing as a global citizen. It is an oxymoron. So, in what ways are we inept from calling ourselves global citizens? The answer lies in the extent to which you cannot appreciate a different community’s shared experience and landscape of meaning associated with past events or their continuing repercussions.
In each nation and smaller society within, there are many set roles and relationships which contribute to something much greater. Within the organization of each community, the interactions between all groups, whether the most powerful or the least privileged, contribute to a collective memory and consciousness. However, there exists a significant power struggle within each nation between different classes or socio economic backgrounds and their influence.
Recently there was a viral video of a white women who had claimed to have African American ancestors getting ousted by her family and confronted on TV for it. Though this may be a somewhat rare and stupid example, this type of insensitivity towards a group to which you don’t really belong is inappropriate and I fear that in more subtle ways it is a very common flaw in our approach to appreciating other cultures. This woman took away from the struggles of African Americans both in the past, and the lasting impact and recurring racism and classism that impact members of this community today, by falsely including herself in that shared experience. I find this very relative to the idea of global citizenship. How can I claim to be a global citizen or even hope to be one without inevitably treating other cultures in an unconcerned regard. Therefore I believe global citizen to be an essentially contested term. Part of the definition of a global citizenship should be as much self awareness as possible in regards to trying to contribute to a society other than our own.
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