Understanding Social Identity

Knowing Social Identities is Important

It is important to know my social identities so that I know how I relate to the world around me. It is also important to understand other identities and how they view mine. Everyone views the world differently and much of their view is shaped by their identity. A target group sees an agent group very differently than an agent group sees the target group and themselves. As expressed in Cooper Thompson’s piece, “Can White Heterosexual Men Understand Oppression?” it can be hard for an agent group to even admit to being a group of privilege and power, even when other groups are explaining it to them. While learning about my identities and the identities of my fellow peers, I have come to a greater understanding of what privileges I have been granted based on some of my identities and what privileges have been withheld from me based on other identities.

This understanding helps to me learn more about other people’s identities as I can relate them to some of my own. For example, while I am heterosexual, I am also female. Someone who is homosexual telling me one of their experiences might feel that since I am heterosexual, I may have a hard time relating to what they are saying. Although this is true on some level, being able to relate the feeling of having to hide parts of oneself and being who people want you to be is something I have found to be common in my identity as being female. Reading Johnson’s article on Power, Privilege, and Difference showed me numerous ways in which different target groups are targeted in the same ways. These are ways in which I can use my target identities to relate to others target identities.

Being a Resident Advisor

One of the most important things to being a resident advisor is being able to understand others and take that understanding to build community. It was important to know how I feel about certain issues and how those thoughts affect others. It was also of great value to be able to take my experiences and relate them to others. I learned in a New York acting workshop that to act well it was not about learning the lines and knowing how to react; it was about thinking of a time when you felt that emotion, even if it had nothing to do with the particular scene. The audience would never know what you were thinking, but they would be able to pick up on the true feeling that was there. The same is true for being a part of ResStaff. I will never have the same experiences as a homosexual or an African-American or a working class family. What I do have are my experiences being female, being Hispanic, etc. I learned to utilize those experiences in helping me see other’s experiences.

My Personal Journey

I have learned that I have made some assumptions about c

ertain things. My high school was diverse and accepting of all. We laughed about other schools that hadn’t entered the 21^st century. Visiting my friend’s school where there was little diversity and much racism seemed a jump back in time and an oddball out kind of situation. Being a part of ResStaff showed me that it was my high school that was the odd one out. Most schools don’t have homosexual couples going to homecoming together. Most schools have distinct cliques and lines that one does not dare cross. Most schools have students who go to college and those who don’t. Being a staff member opened my eyes to the fact that although we are in the 21^st century, there is still a lot of work to be done.

I had a very personal experience with this concept while being on staff. What astonished me was that in my one-on-one with an advisor, I had discussed how I didn’t honestly see being female as a target group. To me, that was an idea of the 20^thcentury that had been left behind. I certainly don’t feel that way now. Being more aware of my identities has helped me to see the inequalities that exist in my world that I never took the time to notice before.