Initial Reflection Essay PDF

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PSYC 435 Initial Reflection Social identities are labels attributed to us, by society, based on how we are perceived by others. One of my most apparent social identities is my ethnicity, white, which means I am viewed as being privileged. Not only am I viewed as privileged solely because of the color of my skin, but also because of my nationality being American. Yes, the “typical” one, with European ancestors that fled their home country to seek a better life while simultaneously plundering the lives of Native American’s who were already here. I am also a female, with that being my gender at birth, thus I’m automatically perceived as emotional, empathetic, sensitive, nurturing, I could go on. Of course, I am all of those things, so I do fit into that societal view of femineity, but I and every other woman should not be limited to those assumptions. These identities have always appeared to be quite salient in my life, but they are all becoming increasingly more so in our world today. I have recognized the important roles that my social identities have in society and how to use them to help others. In regard to learning about these three identities, certain aspects of each were learned both explicitly and implicitly, from my surroundings. However, the implicit learnings from each have had more of an impact on shaping my views today. In regard to how I explicitly learned about each of my identities, it’s very cookie-cutter: the pale color of my skin and having access to my family’s history; the gender on my birth certificate being female so the color pink was in everything I wore; and learning to read, write, and speak the English language because I was born in America. But what I have implicitly learned and continue learning to this day are similar to “unspoken” rules, rules that society has set forth. Society has implicitly warped the young female minds of today into thinking what facial features and body sizes are considered “perfect.” It’s truly despicable that we continue feeding these mindsets and ideologies.

PSYC 435 A prior experience of multiculturalism for me, that I am thankful for today, is attending a public middle and high school in a low-income area. These schools were the clearly the most diverse in my area and looked down upon by other schools, as if they were “less than.” To this day, I still believe they were the best schools because they allowed me to embrace other cultures and have this as my social norm, all throughout my most important period of growth. One of my personal strengths, in regard to multiculturalism and diversity, is my willingness to learn and the open-mind I carry along with that. Being cognizant and understanding is of utmost importance when speaking with those of other cultures. To my surprise, being outspoken has turned out to be one of my personal strengths. While growing up and living with my conservative, Christian family, I assumed that I must align myself with them because that was all I ever knew. Oh boy, was I wrong. I learned I never wanted to remain silent on what I believe to be right, no matter how uncomfortable. Of course, it caused rifts, but the moment I realized my outspoken nature is actually beneficial was when I overheard a conversation between my mother and her close friend. The expected, post-election conversation. Her friend is going on and on about Democrats and “having no facts except the news,” and “Black Lives Matter protests were worse than storming the Capitol.” My mom then interrupted her and used me as an example. She was speaking quite highly of me and my opposing views, saying I constantly educate myself and have a reasoning for everything with supporting evidence, and that I shed light on the BLM movement for her. I had never heard her say things like this before so while writing this, I knew I had to use it as an example for why being outspoken isn’t always a weakness. It’s difficult to focus in on a specific area of learning and growth in regard to multiculturalism and diversity, as there is always more for me to learn and room for me to grow.

PSYC 435 Although, the first step of learning is to acknowledge that you don’t know something. And something I have always struggled with, are terms; the proper terms for marginalized communities, such as: Black, transgender, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, and other communities. I am always cognizant of what I say, however, this is an area I can definitely gain more knowledge in order to properly address others going forward. A learning goal that I have set for myself to achieve in this course is the unlearning of intergenerational, unconscious and implicit bias. How I can work towards achieving this learning goal is when I hear only one or a couple stories that are taken as “representative” of the experiences of an entire race, culture or ethnicity, to not let that story become the story for an entire social group, and know they have many varied experiences. I will allow more room to hear stories and experiences, to then be able to distinguish the commonalities that emerge from the rich diversity that also exists within each group....