Daniel Tartakovsky

Globalization fundamentally desires to erase and homogenize identity

through its overreaching goal, which is to facilitate the commercial exploitation of
its partakers. However, thanks to the power of human agency, globalization does
not succeed in draining the identity from a culture. Instead, it creates a change in it
that has far-reaching repercussions in the culture that identity corresponds to.
Through multinational corporations inserting their media and ideals into foreign
cultures, the now-globalized mindset of individuals within those cultures may
interpret that media as they wish. Through globalization, the identities of many
different individuals in unrelated societies have changed, as expressed in Golden
Arches East, Hip Hop Japan, and the piece on Salsa Dancing.
Golden Arches East explores five different East Asian countries. All of these
countries had had McDonalds franchises enter their respective markets.
Astonishingly enough, McDonalds wasnt considered foreign cuisine; rather, it had
become simply a part of the local fare. Even more astonishing was the market for
McDonalds. Rather than the American chains reliance on the market of lower-tomiddle class workers and students who needed to grab some food on their way from
Point A to Point B, East Asian McDonalds actually served as a nexus for middle-toupper class students and workers to study, work, and eat due to its cleanliness and
roominess. Not only did McDonaldss trans-nationalistic experiment to create the
same American condition in East Asian McDonalds fail, the East Asian culture
transformed the very image of McDonalds. Now, this isnt to say that McDonaldss
outreach didnt change any part of East Asian identity. For example, many East
Asian countries did not have any ritual of the birth anniversary. Yet, when

McDonalds stuck its greasy exploitative fingers into the works of East Asian culture
to introduce McDonalds Birthday Parties, children actually began to desire a
birthday party. Now, years later, birthday parties are a regular part of East Asian
life. In a sense, their identities as East Asian people, encompassing their daily lives
and what they consumed, was changed, while remaining fundamentally East Asian.
Hip hop and rap began in the inner city and urban environments, where
lower-class people of color used their musical ethnic background to form new and
emerging styles of music. The sheer popularity and appeal of hip hop exploded once
white people discovered and appropriated, consumed, and sent it to the world,
much like a technologically illiterate grandmother discovering cat pictures on the
internet. Of course, this trend quickly reached Japan, which had already had the
strings of globalization deeply embedded in it due to its financial dependency on
America after WWII. In Japan, the culture of hip-hop did not become popular with the
push of large record labels. In fact, the popularity of hip-hop in Japan was largely
due to the underground rap movement. This underground rap movement allowed
individuals to shape the form that rap would take in Japan, rather than the large
trans-national record labels. In the process of integrating rap into Japanese culture
without it seeming forced or foreign, the artists and individuals in the rap genba
experienced a change themselves; rap became a way of expressing their identity
and worldview and therefore became integrated into their own identities.
Salsa dancing is another globalized cultural aspect appropriated from a racial
group, namely, Latinos. As a foreign dance, it primarily appeals to middle-class
people with a lot of free time on their hands. As such, it is no surprise that the
dance came to Belfast, Ireland and Hamburg, Germany. However, this is a prime
example of how the cultural circumstances and agency of the participants have

shaped the very meaning of the dance. There is a distinct trifurcation between how
the salsa dance has affected the non-Latino Irish, the non-Latino Germans, and the
Latinos in each culture. In Belfast, the historic and violent cultural division between
Catholics and Protestants disappeared while in the salsa dance room. The exotic
and otherworldly interpretation of the dance (which is, by the way, fetishization,)
created an environment where their culture faded away and was replaced by just
the salsa dance. However, in Germany, the traditional male first, female follows
structure of salsa dance was interpreted as misogynistic by participants in the
dance. As a result, the German dancers broke those barriers down, often with
women leading and the men following. Of course, this didnt actually propagate
feminism and falls under the purports of microfeminism (a word that I coined for the
purpose of explaining the concept of not actually being willing to fundamentally
change misogynistic culture and instead reacting wildly to tangential
microaggressions and then patting ones self on the back for being a good
feminist.) Yet, one other group was affected by this globalization. Latinos in both
areas used the salsa dance as a way to get back to their roots. Being surrounded by
an unaccommodating culture is naturally exhausting, and a channel back to ones
own culture is a relief. Salsa served Latinos in an affirmative sense, and affirmed
their belief that they belonged.
In essence, globalization is transformative, both of culture and of individual
identity. Whether the changes are affirmative, like salsa in Europe, or exploitative,
like birthday parties in East Asia, globalization generally attempts to homogenize
foreign markets, yet it only succeeds in instigating a cultural shift.