Harro Response

Bobbie Harro’s short essay entitled “The Cycle of Socialization” is an easily understood piece that outlines, in a general sense, the concept of systemic socialization.

In the essay, Harro initially targets the variety of institutions as the perpetrators of this cycle of cultural oppression. These institutions, he claims, socialize us into “ascribed” identities with “no effort or decision or choice of our own” and therefore there is “no reason to blame each other or hold each other responsible for the identities we have” (Harro 16). He spends much of the beginning of his essay arguing the extent to which the individual is victimized in the system and how our identities are shaped and determined by the variety of dominant and/or subordinate groups we may be inherently born into.

Further into the article, Harro acknowledges this inevitable systemic socialization yet points his finger also at the individual as a guilty party. He argues that despite the rules of dominant society, it is the individual’s duty to educate his or her self on the subject. Only then may real social critique emerge and rebellious groups may form to disempower this system and reject the “fear and insecurity that we have been taught” (Harro 20).

I stand by every word Harro articulates in this piece. To blame the individual for holding his or her beliefs is a groundless scapegoat to minimize the issue at hand. The truth is that systemic socialization is a real, influential phenomenon. However, the acknowledgement of such and the conscious, informed rejection of these assumed socialized behaviors is the only way to break it down. Harro says “our silence is consent” (Harro 20). This simple sentence needs to be the motto of the entire population. Our silence grants authority the assumed permission it needs to define our lives for us.