Personal Identity Audit, Experience with the Axes Race, Class, and Gender - Term Paper Example

Running Header: Personal Identity Audit Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Introduction to Identity 2 2. Experience with the axes 3 3. Who Am I Now? 9 1.0 Introduction to Identity Identity is one of the complex phenomena in a person life because it evolves and changes with time depending on age, environment, society, economy etc. One portrays different identities in different occasions and depending on which role one is supposed to play. The different types of identities one has to portray are one being a son, dad, father, wife, daughter, mum, aunt, uncle, politician, manager, student etc. One has to behave different depending on relationship of each person and response is always different. When one is a student he has to interact with his colleagues in friendly manner and to live in harmony (Adams, 2000). In a student setting, the type of clothing one has to wear is different from the one wears in an office setting. In an office setting the interaction is different because people hold different positions and ranks and people have different powers so the freedom is limited. Identity is normally formed as a result of our values and inner beliefs and the reaction to situations and the people who are around us. Identity keeps on changing (Austin, 2005). The things that influence people’s identities are: their sexuality, the media, their culture, their friends, their family, their upbringing, their age and gender. 2. Experience with the axes 2.1 Race 2.1.1 The Description of an event In my high school days, I had a friend who was girl by the name penny and we were very close friends. The lady was white i.e. from California in particular while I am from Australia. There is a rumour that a person from Australia should not be a friend to a person from America because they are considered more successful and superior compared to people from Australia. Penny and I became very close friend after we realised we had a lot in common than we first thought i.e. both of us had two sisters and it was enjoyable to read for both of us. In the earlier days I had followed the fear that is brought about by the unknown and the fear that there is a possibility of a rejection in our relationship. Also I thought I being a friend to penny I could be rejected by the group I used to associate with which dominated my behaviour. I knew it was right to befriend Penny from the start although the perception of people was different to her. Right now I am an adult and it has to come to my understanding why people behave the way they behave. People should not be discriminated according to their eye shape, culture, hair and skin colour. Everyone has feelings and he or she should be accepted and everyone should fit in to each society regardless of her race. Due to these events that occurred, I normally take my time to know people despite their ethnicity and race. Despite the fact that I am not that kind of a person who will try different foods from different cultures I am always fascinated by the way people uphold their tradition and culture functions. 2.1.2 Analysis of the event Race is normally associated with biological characteristics of person and origin of that person. It is described as an art of representing one self, projection to one another and identification of the things that surround us. It has been found out that the body shape as a whole, shape of the head, and the shape of the eyes and the colour of the skin has been used to stereotype people for all the generations in the world to certain groups (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). This is normally done because of fear of the unknown and because of the ignorance and as a result people end up being marginalised. In Australia there is a lot of racial discrimination and people are treated badly because they come from an inferior community. They are not provided with health facilities like hospitals and also provision of education is done in a discriminative way. The children of the people from the superior community are given quality education while those from inferior community they are given sub standard education. A good example of discrimination according to race is evident between the Americans and Africans where they are considered ‘white’ and ‘black’ which they say that the white stand for purity and black stand for evil (Chapman, 2012). During the slavery times it was called the superior white race and the inferior black race. 2.2 Class 2.2.1 The description of an event To describe how people in different class are treated, I will give a scenario when I was in high school and how the other students used to treat me. My family was not that much financially stable and we did not have a family car like the other families they used to have. During the school visiting day the other students could be visited with the family car but my parent used public means. Those students who were visited using the family car could make fun of us and they could make me feel inferior in the society. This was kind of a discrimination which was not in the public domain but it could affect our self esteem and make us feel inferior. This kind of difference made our family to ranked low in the hierarchal scale. The most prestigious, educated, powerful and wealthy were ranked at the top while the low status, relatively uneducated, powerless and poor were ranked at the bottom and the students who were in the same family scale used to associate together and do similar things while those of lower ranking could not afford those things that the wealthy ones used to do. After these events it came to my understanding that I should not be allowed to be influenced by the popular culture, peers or media in the decision making and never to be afraid just because I am associated with the minority. These days I befriend people who are of my interests and they also care about me and they will never judge me out of my material possessions. 2.2.3 Analysis of the event Class is defined as people lived experience in the life of day-to-day. It is the position of people in the society, the characteristics they have and the viewing of their net worth. People are normally concerned about the experience of snobbery and hostility. The significant and powerfulness of a class is determined by many aspects of life. There are several class boundaries and the major one is the boundary which is created by poverty. It is one of the major barriers in the live of people and this forms a big challenge and makes people not to achieve their dreams. Poverty itself is a limitation and makes people to be discriminated and to be disrespected. The theorist by the name Karl Max identified the three classes which are the proletariat, the bourgeoisie and aristocracy which are mainly known as working class, middle class and the ruling class respectively (Nozick, 2001). Personally I am affiliated with middle class. There is also a ranking in the society where people are ranked according to the power positions and opportunity that are in the society which arise from the social structure. People can be ranked depending on their income, their political powers, the influence they have in the society, the type of business they have, the places they live in and the friends they interact with. This ranking makes people to behave differently and those who are ranked highly do not respect those who are ranked low. Despite the ranking there are some calamities that face human being and they do not care the level of the ranking you are in like floods, death etc. Irrespective of which level in ranking a person is all people should treat one another with respect and dignity. 2.3 Gender 2.3.1 The description of the event In our family, we have five family members i.e. my mum, my dad, two sisters and I. When we were schooling I could see as if my parents were biased towards my sisters. When we used to break for long holidays, my dad could go and correct my sisters from the school which was not the case to me. I perceived that my dad was treating me unfairly and he gave more priority to my sisters who were even older than me. At first I thought that they had agreed to mistreat me by not giving me the priority but it came to my understanding that daughters had to be treated in a special way compared to their brothers. They are more delicate and they are prone to challenges in life compared to their brothers. I being a younger brother the decision I used to make they were not adopted by my parents but when my sisters came up with suggestion they were not assessed as much as mine. Although the sons were more valued in the society they were not treated the same. The daughters were listed to, provided with everything they wanted and they were given priority in decision making. It was evident the gender inequality existed in the society. In the recent past it has been observed that men and women are treated the same without any disparity. There have been a lot of changes in the work place and due to technological advancement the white collar jobs has increased rapidly and the society needs has been changing drastically. The parent should give their sons and daughters the same kind of education and they should not create any disparity. 2.3.2 Analysis of the event Gender inequality does exist and it is normally natural. The way things are supposed to be or the ways things are normally are. The biologist by the name Darwin argued that there is a difference between women and men naturally (Cambell, 2004). The theory explains the superior intellectual powers and reasoning that is evident in men compared to the one that is found in women. Biologically speaking person is either a female or a male but one is pressurized to a feminine or masculine through socialisation process. Generally men are said to be intelligent, tough, rough and dominant while on the other hand women are perceived to subservient, catty and submissive. This theory states that women should be positively naturally and to submit while men are supposed to be in control and active (Harris 1995). The males do recognise that they are powerful and they portray gender divide on the other half and they will invest more energy to make sure they remain in power as much as possible this in some circumstances degrades and subordinates girls. One of the examples which can be analysed is the relationship between a father and a daughter. In the early days of development the relationship between a father and daughter is very important. At this stage it is when the girls develop the sense of non-acceptance or acceptance (Keddie, 2005). They will feel discounted and valued and the self concept as person is founded in this relationship. It has been observed that when fathers become authoritative and the daughters are given rules to follow, in normal cases they try to be rebellious and because men want to be viewed as being powerful and over critical they are normally perceived as being enemies (Kripke, 2000). It has been observed that the daughter will have pride in her opinion and much self confidence if the father listens to what she is saying and if he is also fair to her. When a daughter is appreciated and she is listened to she feels proud of herself and this boosts the self esteem. This makes her to do things in positive way having in mind there is someone who cares and who listens to her (McGinn, 2002). The daughter who have been taken care of by their father and they are provided with what they want they tend to have a higher self esteem compared to the one who did not have fathers to take care of them. 3. Who Am I Now? There are several factors that have shaped my life and made me who am I today. These are the people in my life like the co-workers, teachers, friends, family members, our pastor and even neighbours. They are the people who have put knowledge in my life, have helped to make very critical decision and even to overcome challenges. The other factors that have shaped my life are the magazines, music, TV shows, newspaper, journals and also the internet (McMaster & Austin, 2005). These factors have influence the way I am today and the type of a person I will be in the future. The memory I have of my life helps me to understand what the meaning of identity to me is. That is why I react the way I react to the people who are in my surrounding and in my environment. I was born and raised in Australia and my both parents are alive. My friends have questioning my nationality because of my dark eyes and hair and also my tanned skinned. They rarely believe I am from Australia. The societies we have today do accept multiculturalism than it did some time back. There is increased acceptance and presence of multiculturalism which not in the schools only but in the community as whole i.e. churches, shopping centres, sport teams, shopping mall, hotels etc (Noonan, 1999). Personally being a pre service teacher and according to the experiences and placing myself in the axis of the race, the main question I ask myself is that if the dominance of the class is by the multicultural students, will the student respect and accept a white teacher? Which are means I can use to make the student embrace all races and cultures and the classroom is not dominated by discrimination. Personally I also identify with the middle class of Australia who work to raise the family and make ends meet and achieving financial independence and to own a home. I being a teacher I have to make sure that all the students have the same learning opportunities, not discriminated and are able to access materials with ease irrespective of their class. Irrespective of the race all students have the same potentials of learning and even continuing with the tertiary education. When the students are treated equally they are able give the best results they can and able to utilise the materials that are available and to interact with others easily. When am teaching my student I should not be biased towards specific gender and I should not make assumptions concerning the gender stereotypes and show any interest to the students. It has been observed that male student tend to misbehave and more often than not teachers will dedicate more time to boys than it s to girls operating on the same environment. Teaching is one of the best careers to in because it is like educating the whole society and I will enjoy it for the rest of my life. References Adams, R.M. (2000). ‘Should Ethics Be More Impersonal?’ Philosophical Review, 98(3), 83-101. Austin, J. (2005). Culture and Identity. Frenches Forrest, NSW: Pearson Education. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012). Australian Social Trends. Retrieved April 7, 2012, from http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs. Chapman, A (2012) Gender Bias in Education. Retrieved April 7, 2012, from http://www.edchange.org/multiculutural/papers/genderbias.html Cambell, J. (2004) Past, Space and Self. Cambridge: MIT Press. Harris, H. (1995). Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keddie, A. (2005). Understanding Gender, Culture and Identity. Frenches Forrest, NSW: Pearsons Education. Kripke, S. (2000) Naming and Necessity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. McGinn, C. (2002) The Character of Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. McMaster, J & Austin, J. (2005). Race: A Powerful Axes of Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press Noonan, H. (1999) Personal Identity. London: Routledge. Nozick, R. (2001) Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge:Harvard University Press. Read More