Social Identity Paper

Words: 1337
Pages: 6

Human beings all share various social identities that form and present his/her own individual image to society. With this image being presented to society, it can be determined that we all share different experiences on a daily basis due to these identities. Some identities being more aware throughout our life than others. Identifying ourselves with different identities can sometimes make us feel as though we are a target group member, which can have an effect on how we interact with other individuals. As human beings, we use our social identities in order to recognize our social group memberships, and determine which ones are easier or more challenging to identify considering our status. With classifying myself as a: Young adult, African-American, …show more content…
One of these identities is religion. Classifying myself as a Christian male I find myself, on a daily basis, being around many other males that classify themselves as the same. Mainly because of the fact that it is very common for individuals to classify themselves as a Christian. Especially in southern areas. With this being the case, I find it normal to run into someone that is both male and a Christian. Therefore, although I am constantly in contact with many of these individuals, I feel that it is common in the south where a conversation asking another male his religious background does not appear as frequently as political views, favorite sporting events, and/or favorite television show etc., because many times it is automatically assumed another male is already a Christian if he is from the south like myself. This makes religion a less unaware identity because there are very few times that appear throughout my day where I am reminded of my religious background like I am the color of my skin or the social class that I come from. Classifying as an able-bodied when viewing my physical/mental/developmental ability as an identity, I am less aware of this because of similar reasons why I am less aware of my religion identity. Being at a university where there are not many disable-bodied individuals I come into contact with, I feel I am not reminded as …show more content…
It is difficult to identify with this social group membership because of the amount of injustice and unfairness that comes with being an African American in some situations. An example being where an African-American is denied an acceptance to a university that, unfortunately, is not too fond of allowing African-Americans to be a part of the student body. Simply because he/she checked the “Black/African-American” box under ethnicity on their application. Coming from middle class is another difficult social group membership to identify as well because when discussing social classes with those that I know are from the upper class I experience embarrassment due to the fact that they are unfamiliar with the middle class lifestyle. Middle class is difficult to identify because in today’s society a man is often judged by the amount of money he possesses. Meaning that the definition of a “true man” in some individual’s eyes is one that has a lot of money and can buy anything he desires. An example being that a homeless man is often seen to be less of a man than one who is financially stable because of men being held responsible for being providers. Coming from a middle class and classifying as African American are difficult social group memberships to