Appiah illustrates this by saying, “If you allow your identity to be totally shaped by your opposition to a dominant culture, as many racial groups have done because of the history of racism and xenophobia, you can become locked into that minority status. The first time a group becomes conscious of itself as an important social group, it is because they realize that they’re all being subjected to something. But if you define yourself through the act of opposition, then you’re letting the oppressors set the terms.”. This is essential to forming your identity because only you want to set the terms of how you can be identified. By not giving other people the space to identify you, in turn you are creating your own identify for yourself that other people would know you as. An example of this would include”

…Sometimes I don’t recognize myself,” she says. “I get so much disorganized brain activity, I would get lost for 12 hours.”. To overcome this horrible disorder she made herself known by wearing unique clothing, “… Carrelli wears a remarkably consistent uniform: a crop top with ripped black jeans and brown leather lace-up boots, with her blond hair wrapped in Jack Sparrowish scarves and headbands. At her waist is a huge silver screaming-eagle belt buckle, and her torso is covered with tattoos of hand tools and designs taken from 18th-century wallpaper patterns”. With this she is now known to almost everybody in the city, she stops and talks to most making herself a known person incase a fit came on and she needed to get back to her shop.

 

These two examples that I chose illustrates perfectly that I integrate my ideas well with others. I always effectively lead into the quote (cannot be seen in second one because it is so lengthy) with just a short sentence that will open up for it for the reader to understand. Then after I am done stating the quote I make sure to give a summary in my own words of what went on so the reader can effectively understand what is happening at this point in my writing. I also integrate my ideas with others so that way it gives me backup in some of my arguments, because not many people care about what a freshman in college has to so but if you have some professional voice stating a claim and you backing it up with your own personal thoughts that sound similar that sounds like a recipe for a killer argument. Integration can be a dangerous tool though because every idea that you use from other people must be cited or you will be guilty of plagiarism. In my mind the most effective tool you can use while writing is integrating ideas with others because not only does it keep the readers engaged but it in turn helps you out in your arguments based off of the passage and the person you used the idea from. Usually integrating other ideas and getting other outside and unique sources will keep the reader hooked throughout your writing. This gives them the sense that the all the material is new if you switch up writers and that the ideas will flow and be simple to process and understand which is also extremely helpful if you are the reader. Nothing is better than an article that is interesting and easy to understand and that gets the points across effectively in an interesting manor. The first quote is a stellar example of integrating my ideas with another (Appiah) because I effectively lead into the quote, then I quoted a relevant passage into my article, cited my source, then continued to give my own input and explain why that passage was relevant to my writing and the claim I am using to support it with.