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Social Identity Group ReflectionAshley BunnellUniversity of South CarolinaSocial identity groups are based upon various social categories such as race, sex, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, mental or physical ability, and age. These identities can make you a targeted or agent group member, or a combination of both. Identifying memberships within social group categories can be challenging depending on your awareness of your status within a group. Along with identifying statuses in social group memberships, recognizing the environmental and historical context is vital to understanding responses to triggers. We are all made up of socially constructed identities. Our memberships and statuses within social categories make up our diverse identity groups. I am a White working class Christian biological woman. I am also a young adult able-bodied heterosexual gender conforming woman. These identities make me a targeted or disadvantaged member in select social groups, a privileged or agent member in select social group, or a combination of both as a border member in each of their respected social groups. Constructing an identity wheel helps to visually display my awareness of certain groups memberships in comparison to others. The targeted or disadvantaged group memberships I hold are generally groups that I am most aware of on a daily basis. These largest portions of the identity wheel represent targeted membership status of being a woman and working class. Women face oppression, marginalization, exploitation, and unequal treatment in many areas. Examples that I have experienced include; increased incident of sexual harassment; assumed gender roles from outside influences; domestic violence; pay inequality; and termination of employment shortly before maternity leave. As a target member of the social identity group, I am more likely to live in poverty due socialized gender roles such as being the primary caregiver for children and aging parents. Gendering conforming biological males are agent members of the sex and gender social categories. Males are privileged and agent members even if they do not actively participate in prejudice, discrimination, or the oppression of women. Aside from institutional forms of oppression, men are privileged because they generally do not need to have concern over whether their clothing choices or body type will be sexualized or affect their interactions with the outside world. They can generally go out, travel, or walk alone in most areas at night without fear of being attacked. They can generally consume alcohol in social settings without fear of someone trying to take advantage of them. I am most aware of my social identity in this category due to these factors and my personal experiences.As a now working class member of the social class category, and approaching lower middle class, I am very aware of this social identity on a daily basis. Though I am aware of being a target member of the class category, I grew up experiencing varying forms of poverty, and do not consider myself to be incredibly underprivileged now. In comparison to the wealthy or upper middle class, I am disadvantaged. However, I no longer have genuine food insecurity, lack of housing, or access to medical care. I am also aware that should one unfortunate circumstance arise such as illness, divorce, or job loss, I am only one step removed from returning back to poverty and a therefore am very much still a targeted member of the class groups. The third social category I am most aware of, when displayed on the identity wheel, is race. I hold an agent and privileged status in the social grouping of race and have more awareness of that social identity and status as I mature. I have experienced many inequities and forms of oppression in my life thus far. Over the last several years of reflecting on the hardships I have overcome, I am much more critical of the routes that led me to break away from many of those obstacles. I know that being White likely afforded me the opportunity to easily pass in social groups other than my own. It likely afforded me the access to social networks to gain opportunities for upward mobility. I never feared unfair treatment or bias based upon my skin color. I believe I have more awareness of the social memberships I hold in targeted groups because of the hardships, restrictions, and experiences. However, I have witnessed peers that were disadvantaged in many of the same areas be held back from opportunities based upon their race. Race is also a very real issue in our society today despite messages of equality and colorblindness from those that deny White privilege. I was strongly someone that held on to the values that if I wanted to break the cycle and change my environment, I had to “pull myself up by my boot straps”, work hard, and depend on myself. I can see how people that are members of other targeted groups, aside from race, can naturally react by denying any type of privilege. It is difficult to tell someone that struggles for basic necessities or safety, that they experience privilege because they are White. Personally, once escaping some of those areas of disadvantage, I was able to see how much my areas of privilege assisted me. Despite growing up disadvantaged in many areas, I know that it was easier for myself to pass in other social memberships in which I did not hold status. A time I can remember distinctly having advantaged identities that buffered my disadvantaged identities was when I was fifteen years old and seeking a better job to become emancipated from my parents. I was from a small town that had rigid division of classes and various social groups. By chance, I was in a better side of town with a friend for a church baseball game and watching my younger brother. I met a wealthy White woman while helping her granddaughter that was playing with my brother. That chance meeting led to babysitting job offer and later turned into steady well-paid employment and mentorship. Looking back, I know how my identity group memberships of being White, Christian, heterosexual, and a gender conforming female afforded me the opportunity to be in that area and appear to be a suitable option for a babysitting position.Social identity groups that I am less aware of on a daily basis are mostly due to being an agent member of those groups. While my Christian faith is very important to me, I take for granted the fact that I can freely practice my religion without much, if any, outside opposition or bias. My sexuality or gender conforming memberships are not something I have to be consciously aware of on a daily basis because society views them as the norm. I am more aware of my able-bodied privileged than other non-target groupings because of personal experiences with temporary disabilities and family members with mental and physical disabilities. I have direct knowledge of many vulnerabilities people with disabilities can experience. Lastly, being a target and agent member as a young adult, I am somewhat more aware of my membership on a daily basis than other categories. Due to being especially vulnerable as a child and struggling teen, ageism was something I encountered. As a young adult, and border member of the age group, I experience much more instances of privilege than before. However, I often still feel slight biases from older people because they assume life skills or goals by age range. We are often threatened, offended, attacked or unfairly treated based on our statuses in social groupings. The way we react to triggers varies based on social groups, whether you are an agent or target member, experiences, and the context the trigger occurs. Triggers cause some type of emotional response that guides how we engage with opposing group members or treatment. If I feel threatened by a trigger I may respond by leaving, confronting, or attacking. When I experience institutional inequality or oppression, such as dealing with sexism. I am more likely to name or call out the wrong doing, confront, discuss, strategize with others to make change, or use discretion when necessary. When dealing with more indirect triggers to racism, as an agent member, I am more likely to be confrontational or discussion if in a public setting. If dealing with a one on one interaction as a target member, I would likely avoid or leave the situation, release by failing to respond, or silence in general. I feel responses to triggers are so emotionally guided that it is difficult to say how I would respond unless I knew the exact circumstances. Overall, I believe that your personal experiences and your social group membership statuses shape your understanding and views. Someone can have the same memberships in target and agent groups and be able to see the other groups perspective based on experiences or relationships with other members of that group. Some people are unable to see past their own circumstances or experiences in a target or agent group. Ultimately, everyone is socially diverse based on these combinations of agent and target memberships. We all can experience similar or varying forms of inequality or oppression and simultaneously be privileged in other areas. -84582000029260804930140001676400493014000173736047701209296404594860Young Adult (A/T)00Young Adult (A/T)20116805280660Working Class (T)0Working Class (T)17297404145280221742038709608610603954780Heterosexual (A)0Heterosexual (A)180594044043600014782803535680Able-bodied (A)00Able-bodied (A)265938037795200020650204076700002750820349758022555203009900Gender Conforming Bio Woman (A)00Gender Conforming Bio Woman (A)3093720568452029260806233160Christian (A)00Christian (A)32842204328160Woman(T)00Woman(T)34899605318760White(A)00White(A)2926080493014028422603741420 ................
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