A Reflection On My Identity In My Life

Currently, I am in the process of not only becoming comfortable in my identity, a black queer woman, but, also attempting to find solace in my identity as well. Something that all women, especially black queer women, should achieve in their lifetime. It is that dream that inspires me to travel to experience other cultures and to unite with women from various cultures across the black diaspora. Throughout many cultures, women’s identities are defined by their male counterparts and the labor they provide to them. Therefore, a major goal of mine is to create a space where women are able to exist outside the scope of their relationships with men and live uninhibitedly to become their best selves. That is why I find it pertinent to travel not only

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

What is identity? The definition as a person’s own sense of whom they are, which their past define them. Identity is very important in our society, no matter your social status. I can attach identity to belonging to something or place. As human race, we feel the need to belong to a group or place. Because belonging to a group or place, give us the sense of identity.

I am a white woman living in America in the 21st century. Growing up white has made my life fairly easy when it comes to the opportunities I have had to become more successful. For example, I probably have an easier time getting a job, getting into college, or even buying a new car than someone of a different race. Our country doesn’t want to accept it, but it happens all around us. I have also had it easy in that I did not grow up in poverty, in the ghetto, on the streets, etc, as many people of different races have. I grew up in a nice house with my two married parents and four siblings. We were just an average family living the American Dream. I remember going to elementary school and seeing all the kids of races other than white walking to school from the “bad” part of my neighborhood. Most of the white kids never stepped foot in that part of our neighborhood because of a fear. When I think back now,

Being raised by Caucasian grandparents on the southside of Lincoln in the state of Nebraska isn't the normal living situations for most children. As well as, being a young African-American woman growing up and raised in an isolated community has altered my views on race and different opportunities received as a black individual compared to a white individual. I realized while residing in a primarily white neighborhood on the Southside of Lincoln, white and are opinionated on their personal views and aren’t necessarily accepting with change or promoting differences. (*my personal views about race)

I am a white woman living in the United States of America. Without any intent on my part I have automatically been given certain advantages based on the randomness of the color of my skin. Yes, I am aware that being a woman includes dealing with lower pay wages, body objectification, pressures to be beautiful, sexual harassment and so on and so forth. However, I will never be able to comprehend the struggle or challenges that face people of other races and ethnicities. I do not know what it is like to be watched in a store for fear I am going to shoplift. Or to be questioned about my loyalty to the country I was born and raised in because of the religion I grew up practicing. Unfortunately, those are just two of the many examples that

I am a white woman. I am so pale, that my skin blows out the white balance in a photograph. Because I am white, I have been able to escape prejudices that so many other women experience every day. For a very long time, I was unaware of how deep-seated racism is in America. Because I am white, color was a non-issue for me. It was never discussed in my family. Why would it be? Many white people are blind to the injustices that others face, because it has never been something that affected their lives directly. As stated by C. Wright Mills in The Promise of Sociology, “...the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement with public issues” (Mills, 5). This describes how people are so focused on their own personal troubles, that they cannot comprehend the troubles of others. Therefore, they do not see the struggles of others as having the capacity to be a problem within society. Privilege is something I feel has only recently been discussed in mainstream media. Going to college really opened my eyes to the experiences of people who live entirely different lives than me, and interacting with people from all

There are many factors that shape us into who we are, and who we will become. Some of these factors we can control, while others we cannot. While we are born into many traits of our identities, much of our other behavior is learned. My identity, for example, is “based not only on responses to the question ‘Who am I?’ but also on responses to the question ‘Who am I in relation to others?’” (Allen, 2011, p. 11). My identity and the question of who I am, are both influenced by many aspects of my life, including my hometown, my family, my friends, and my beliefs and moral values.

As I reflect on my individualities, I must take into consideration, all of my life experiences that have had made significant impacts on my vivacity. One's identity is constructed by several different characteristics and attributes that are not limited to just their uniqueness’s, such as appearance or things that can be seen. As a white female born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, I sometimes feel discouraged, as though I don’t have an exciting identity to expose; However, I was lucky to be raised in a city that is known for having a large Hispanic cultural influence. Many of these influences were adopted into my family and have resided with me; So, regardless of where I live, they will always be a part of who I am.

I might be white, but I can guaranty you, during my childhood, my family did not fit into the category, of the so called ‘privileged white’. The socioeconomic ladder classified us as ‘poor white trash’, because we were migrant workers that labored in the groves in Florida and the fields and orchards in Michigan. Education, needless to say, was low on the totem pole; therefore at the age of sixteen I dropped out of school. However, when I was twenty-seven a dear friend Mary Updike, who at the time was attending Bryn Mawr College, told me I was wasting my life and should go to college and enhance my common sense with a well rounded education. So I did. And in the eighties – I graduated with a B.A. in History followed with a M.A. in Diplomatic

The town that I lived in was majority black, but most of the wealth was found in the white community. As a person with white skin, I was automatically given a higher status socially and several other privileges, such as growing up in a culture that expected me to achieve academically and therefore have the ability to leave the town. For people of other skin colors, that was not an expectation, and there were many roadblocks to their success, such as poor education and a high crime rate where they lived. It wasn’t until college where I read about oppression, that I began to understand that not confronting the privileges I received from my skin color is part of the problem, a way of maintaining meritocracy. As a woman, I am also the oppressed. I have to ensure that I do not achieve or succeed too much or else I will threaten men, and run the risk of not finding a husband some day. Should I find a husband, I will likely be expected to prioritize family over my career, something not as expected from my husband. My mother stayed at home with us our entire lives, and I often feel the expectation that I will do the

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet

The following paper will discuss two of the major dimensions of my cultural identity, and analyze the way in which my identity holds privileges, or has exposed me to oppression. Being that I am white, I have lived a life of privilege simply because of the color of my skin. I have been afforded opportunities, and lived a life free from persecution due to my skin color. I have also lived a life that has been impacted by oppression because of my female identity. This unique position between privilege and oppression is where I live my life.

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.