15 Aug In this assignment youll have an opportunity to reflect on one social identity category and how it has affected your lived experience.
Examples of social identity categories in US culture are race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, religion, and nationality. See this
for definitions of each category.
In this assignment youll have an opportunity to reflect on one social identity category and how it has affected your lived experience. You may choose to focus on your racial identity, your ethnic identity, your socioeconomic class identity, your gender identity, your sexual identity, your age, your ability status, your religious identity, or your national identity.
Task
Write a personal essay (between 500 and 800 words) investigating one aspect of your social identity. Use the following prompts to guide your essay:
- Think of a moment in your life or a specific experience that heightened your awareness of this social identity. (For example, if you’re choosing your racial identity, was there a moment you became aware of yourself as a white person, a Black person, an Indigenous person, a Latinx person, an Asian person, or a multiracial person?) Describe this moment or experience and how it shaped your understanding of yourself in relationship to society.
- In what way or ways has this social identity given you access to power and privilege or exposed you to oppression and disadvantage? How have you responded to the privilege you’ve had or the oppression you’ve experienced as a result of this social identity?
- How does this social identity intersect with one or two other social identities you have? (For example, how does your racial identity intersect with your socioeconomic class identity or your gender identity?
