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Seeing The World Of A New Light Essay

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Seeing the World in a New Light

My notion of identity was pretty skewed growing up. While contemplating what identity is (which I didn’t do often), I really only looked at it through the lens of race and gender, completely ignoring the vast nature of what identity really encompasses. This goes for how I imagined identity for myself and everyone else. My basic concept of my racial identity then was that I am a white male, with red hair. I didn’t realize that the fact that I am a heterosexual, cis-male, from a middle class background, born in Denver, Colorado, with a Lutheran upbringing, all came into play with forming my identity. This meant I never considered how this intersectional view of identity makes everyone’s experiences in society unique, or how no one can experience their personhood outside of the social constructs (Carbado 192) of their identity. Without those realizations, recognizing privilege and patriarchy is much easier to resist.
Recognizing my own privilege was a process that took a while, with different challenges I had to overcome to finally come to terms with how inherent racism is in our society, and its effect on me while growing up. As I look back at how my way of thinking transitioned, I definitely am a bit frustrated with some of the times I was resistant to open my mind and accept the new ideas. But then, I know I understand intersectionality better now, and can use my newfound knowledge/mindset to progress.
The process began when the Black

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