The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity

“Do you have ID?” Marie asked. “Not really,” replied Jason Bourne in the last scene of the 2002 blockbuster, The Bourne Identity. Just like the lead character’s objective to discover who he is, people go through life trying to learn about who they really are. In view of all the stereotypes out there, one can never truly conform to fit all the criteria listed under each specific label. In most cases, ethnicity is so diluted to fall under multiple categories on identification forms. For others, identity means the kind of clothing one wears, music one listens to, and hobbies one indulges in. Considering the diverse language of identity, it can be said that each one of us is shaped by characteristics we are born with, ideas and practices taught to us through culture, and our personal choices.
From the moment we take our first breath, we are distinguished apart from others by our skin color, sex, and nationality. Our birth certificates are usually the first places that add labels to seemingly pure, newborns. We instantly become part of a certain cluster of people, whether it be black or white, female or male, Deutsch or Français, etc. Once we are placed in these ‘respective’ groups, does it become our life duty to uphold the stereotypical assumptions plastered across its categories? I would hope not. In Richard Rodrigues’, ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans, he writes about the outdated and meaningless ethnic categories that do not help to identify the melting pot which is America. While talking about the term Hispanic, Rodrigues points out that “it is a term denoting culture” (Rodrigues 122). Latin Americans see themselves as multicultural and not restricted to one vast group that includes multiple nationalities. There are racial differences between someone from Brazil and someone from Mexico. Neither one of the two is Hispanic but each is expected to assimilate to that particular identity. The author also writes about children that have two racially...