[Music] in 2015 there was a short-lived TV show called truth be told in it Vanessa lehe who's both a Filipino American in real life and on the show plays opposite of husband Mark Paul gosler and they have a biracial daughter named Sadie in this particular episode Thea's character Tracy is forced to face questions about her Filipino identity growing up I was a little embarrassed about being Filipina everybody was always asking me what are you anyway I wanted to fit in so bad I pushed away a lot of my own Heritage and I want to get some of that back for stie I'm Eric pedo and this is Asian-American studies 353 Filipina and Filipino American identities last week the lecture focused heavily on the emergence of philipina American studies I wanted to use its development along with a controvers surrounding how generations of Filipino amans demanded to be identified as a way of illustrating a lot of the problems that we'll be confronting in this class and as you're starting to see these problems are really complex and they're constantly evolving a lot of Filipino Americans can identify with Tracy's disappointment in this episode hey look I just I wanted to fit in so bad I pushed away a lot of my own heritage because her character pushed away her Heritage earlier in her life she never got to develop a cultural identity now take a moment to think about that what does it mean to have a strong cultural identity well for Tracy maybe that was fine for a while after all she eventually found a good career she could be a lawyer like Mommy for class a great relationship some wonderful friends and so being Filipino may never have really mattered up until this point but now that she has a daughter who is quickly forming her own identity as a mother Tracy wants to impart all of those identities onto her daughter including her Filipina identity that's why I want stie Growing Up Loving what's different about her even if other people might not and seeing her daughter stie reject the Filipino Barbie for the blonde white wood well that had to be devastating mommy got you a surprise she's Filipina like you and me and this embroidery on her dress this is the Philippines national flower the S the national flower isn't she pretty I like this one mommy you can play with Nanny Barbie it must have brought up insecurities that she shoved down deep inside for a long time now she's thrown into crisis because she feels like sti's rejecting one of her identities and therefore her daughter's rejecting her no but I know someone who Di because I found her hanging out in a box of old paintbrushes and look she has the perfect moonlanding dress with cultural accents representing the indigenous tribes of the Philippines no she's supposed to be upstairs cleaning Barbie's dreamhouse a lot of students find their way into Asian-American and Filipino ameran studies because they have a similar crisis of identity it's the the reason why I created this class but is there a way to understand something that's so personal so subjective as identity how can we start to learn about the process of identity making both intellectually and academically like in a college classroom for example well Scholars have been studying the process of identity formation for quite a long time especially psychologists one of them Eric Ericson the German psychologist who coined the term identity crisis he didn't actually intend for this concept to necessarily imply a dramatic or even a catastrophic moment in someone's life it didn't have to be like the one that Tracy's experienced on the show an identity crisis at least for him is a natural moment that occurs in everyone's life specifically when they're adolescents this is how Ericson put it he says an identity crisis is a necessary Turning Point a crucial moment when development must move from one way or another marshalling resources of growth recovery and further differentiation for him there are eight stages of identity development that people continue to experience throughout the course of their lives and hopefully by successfully passing through each of those stages as it occurs and reoccurs throughout their entire lives people will continuously experience a kind of acceptance and subsequently live happier and more fulfilling lives this is his theory but is it true is it enough for someone to Simply accept who they are for them to be happy or fulfilled do we alone control who we are and therefore what we do in the world or is our environment and the people surrounding us just as important to defining who we are in our identities and it's this back and forth the reciprocal relationship between one's internal and external world that drives how I want to talk about identity formation but in order for me to explain why thinking about identity in this way is so important for our class at least I have to keep EXP explaining how our understanding of identity formation as an idea has evolved specifically in relationship to Filipino amans nowadays even though Ericson's ideas are quite dated having been established in the global turmoil of the 1960s our basic understanding of his concept of identity crisis has remained mostly the same sure we have lots of identities we have political identities professional identities religious ones in this case we tend to emphasize cultural and racial identities for obvious reasons in these days well the number of our identities are almost Limitless but it's when one or more of our identities begin to rub against one another conflict or contradict another identity well it's that friction that throws us into a crisis of identity this week we're going to examine identity and identity formation more broadly so that we might learn how to apply these Concepts more specifically onto a community that continuously refuses to be identified by One Singular identity it's complicated right well let's continue exploring what is an identity and how do Filipino Americans form it