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Ryan DeLuca
Feb 2nd, 2019
Eng 123
Dr. Drown
I was introduced to a new concept that I had never heard of, that new concept is called “covering”. What does covering mean? Covering is when you hide your true self in order to blend in or please the people around you or to blend in. Who introduced me into this new concept? His name is Kenji Yoshino, he is “…the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of connotational Law at New York University.” Yoshino is a gay Asian American who has been studying constructional law for a long time and is involved in civil rights, in his reading he talks about Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Civil rights. Yoshino brings in another person who talks about the difference between your “True self” and your “False self” as well as the consequences a person may experience using their “False self” for too long.
One question that was given to me to help me think about these concepts was, “What circumstances would a person want or need to cover?” I said, the kinds of circumstances a person would want to or would need to cover would be if you were going to a job interview you would want to cover your bad traits and only show your best self, right? Then I thought of another circumstance, say you are gay and live in a very Christian society and people in the community are very radical about people that go against the bible, you would want to “Cover” your gay identity in order to avoid being beaten or killed in extreme cases.
Another question that I was given to think with was, “What might hiding a part of their identity do to and or for a person?” In the two circumstances.” I stated about the job interview and the gay teen part of the christen community. Yoshino in the middle of his article brought in a man named D.W Winnicott. Winnicott explores the ideas about “True self” and “False self” and what it might do to a person over time. Winnicott says, “The true self is the self that gives an individual the feeling of being real, which is more than existing; it is finding a way to exist as oneself and to relate to object as oneself and to have self into which to retreat for relaxation.” In my own terms, the “True self” is the real you the you that has that bad trait that you are trying to cover from your soon to be boss or the trait you are trying to hide from your Christian community. Winnicott talks about what the “False Self” is, “The False Self, in contrast, gives an individual a sense of being unreal, a sense of futility. It mediates the relationship between the True Self and the world.” The “False Self” is what protects the “True self” from rejection, pain, and sorrow. To some people, the “False self” is what is keeping them alive, but the consequences of using the “False self” for too long may cause the person to explode in anger or severe depression resulting in possible death.
The last question that I was given to answer is, “What might a society gain and lose when a person or type of person covers a part of their identity?” A society may gain happiness, from certain persons covering, if you are a usually a bitter human being but you decide to cover the fact that you are a bitter human the community may gain happiness from he or she is covering their bitterness. But, on the other hand, a society may lose from a person covering is diversity and the many cultures we have in the United States and around the world.
