Career path, social class status, race, ethnicity, and gender are all possible features of an identity but none are universally agreed-upon as essential.

The way a group remembers its own history will of course differ from the way that non-group members will describe that history. Their narratives are wholly different. For example, the dynamic between oppressor and oppressed will undoubtedly and unavoidably shape individual and collective identity. The oppressors frequently "forgot" or gloss over instance of oppression. Those groups that are oppressed must recall their own history.

The way a group remembers its own history should be thought of as crucial to its identity. Respect for that group's history and for that group's own narrative contributes to understanding more than mystification. Instead of imposing external values onto the group, the group is empowered and allowed to assert its own identity. Identity is meaningless if it has been imposed upon a...
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