My Social Identity

Who am I? My Social Location and Identity First, I want to explain what social location and identity means.

When filling out a questionnaire, it is only a matter of time before I come across the predictable: what is your race/ethnicity? I do not have to think long nor hard about my answer. In fact, I do not hesitate to pencil in African American. Why is that? It could very well be that at a glance my skin tone and accent is enough for people to quickly label me as such thus reaffirming my identity.

In such an environment, it becomes easier for people to identify themselves and easily resolve issues affecting them using strategies that are better suitable for them. Ethnorace also proves to be effective because it allows all members of society to start learning more about the other different types of ethnicities that exist in societies around the world, from those that are different that theirs and even from their own. In doing so, they will not only start to appreciate the different cultures that exist, but also learn about their own biases against others and explore their own views about others, and how they can change any of their own behaviors, attitudes or beliefs that may be harmful or disrespectful towards others. Therefore, the theory of ethnorace also proves to be a learning opportunity for all members of

Part B – 1. Identity I am a young white middle class heterosexual female who was born in Canada and raised in an English and French speaking nuclear family household. This statement matches how socially I see myself, and how others would see me by first impression, but it does not define who I am. It captures everything that I am as a person, but it fails to capture my beliefs, such as my religion and view on politics.

As a member of a working class community, my life has been a struggle between resources and opportunities available for me. Having sparse resources has lead me to the constant push of working towards the things I’ve achieved. Social identities have become a guidance for my future goals and abilities. Being working class Latina, raised in a Catholic family has created many barriers and pathways into the future I wish to hold. Furthermore, taking all the social identities I have grew into have become the bases for my educational goals and identity.

At first I wrestled with where my identity lay. The strong values and traditions of the Indian culture sometimes made it difficult to fit in with the crowd. As I grew older, I began to understand that I was not part of an individual culture, but a fusion of two rich and colorful histories. I recognized that there is remarkably more to an individual than where she comes from, and more to her than where she currently lives. Importantly, being from two cultures allows me to incorporate the best qualities of both.

Throughout my life I have come from and created a few identities for myself. Perhaps, the most dominant identities that have been apart of my life are being an athlete and being a family orientated man. In this paper I will write about how my identities have shaped my life. First off I believe my biggest identity is being an athlete.

It took me so long to try and find where I fit and belong. I now know that my identity is something unique and individual and any person growing up, with or without immigrant parents, struggle to find

Honestly, it’s very difficult to find a place for me to be accepted as a being of Lao. It 's hard to explain because where I live in a predominantly neighborhood where racism exist on a standard level. Due to my race, some of the people are hesitating to accept me for who I am. However, I had an opportunity from my parent to influence me toward understand Lao culture and tradition. Therefore, for me being a member of the Laotian-American makes me feel a sense of appreciation of my race.

Personal Identity and Managing Personal Values Who I identify as, the groups that I belong to, and the values I have will knowingly and unknowingly attach a level of privilege and power that can and will impact my professional identity and the work I do as a professional. The purpose of this paper is to examine how my identity could impact my work as a social worker, how my personal values conflict with my professional values, and to recall a time when I reduced the participation in oppression. The groups of which I belong can impact my ability to help individuals and communities in a number of ways.

Although I stated that every individual has a different identity, they could have very similar social locations. Certain social

Positionality Paper Throughout the semester, we have had the opportunity to study many different social identities and their impacts on my life. For the purpose of this paper, the three social identities I have decided to focus on are: gender, nation of origin and race. Key Influences/Specific Events My gender was my first known identity, even before my name was given or before I had taken my first breath.

So, in looking at my cultural identity, I am examining both my own labels and what they mean to me and layering on top of that cultural influencers that operate within my life and how the interplay between these layers works. In looking at all of the groups I listed as being important parts of my cultural identity, I think the one aspect of internalized or deep culture seen as an undertone throughout all of them is the theme of independence. I was raised to believe that as long as what I was doing was not hurting anyone else, it was okay. I was also taught early on that I am the only one who can make me happy, and that has to happen before I will be able to help others.

In the past, I found myself identifying myself to have commonalities with people surrounding me. When I was surrounded by a diverse group of people, I would find that I would gravitate towards those who appeared to have something in common with me. I believe I was drawn towards people of the same age range, race, and culture the same as my own because it is something familiar. Although I still think that I gravitate towards individuals like myself, I believe I try to branch out and meet others individuals that differ from me more than I did in that past. Now, I shape my own identity.

Cultural identity plays a very vital role in cross cultural communication, people from a particular culture communicate with partners and employees from many different cultures and in this situation every individual strives to keep their cultural and individual identity. According to Gardiner and Kosmitzki, identity is defined as “a person 's self-definition as a separate and distinct individual, including behaviours, beliefs, and attitudes” (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2008, p. 154). Also, Ting-Toomey defines identity as a "reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization process"( Ting-Toomey, 2005). Both definitions bring out the generalisation of cultural identity