Who Am I? Understanding the Dimensions of Identity

Ask yourself the question “Who am I?”

Who Am I?

The answer to “Who Am I?” is complex and encompasses how we define ourselves, our membership in certain groups, and how society or others label us.

Let’s break it down.

Psychologist and educator Beverly Daniel Tatum illustrates the complexity of identity:

“The concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts. Who am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am. Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbours, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me? Or am I missing from the picture altogether?”

Personal Identity is the way we define ourselves. Social identity is the sense of who we are based on membership in certain groups. Some of those groups are chosen, like political affiliation and some we are born into, like ethnicity. Hence, self-concept is not only defined by you, but it is also reflected back to you from your social groups (Tatum, 2000).

Identity is also fluid and evolves as we age.  Some parts may remain consistent throughout our lives, and others will shift or change altogether.

For example, are you a student, employed, or retired? Do you have a partner or family? Were you born in Canada or another country? Are you young or old? What about ethnicity, language, or religion? Think about your gender identity and expression or sexuality. These identities shape how you see the world, your values, and your beliefs.

Philosopher Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah explains that identity consists of a series of labels that we apply to ourselves which are associated with society norms and carry expectations.

Key Definitions

The following are some important definitions to know. If at any time you’d like to reference them in the course, you can click them when they are bolded like this to quickly review the term.

Culture: National Geographic defines culture as “the shared characteristics of a group of people, which encompasses , place of birth, religion, language, cuisine, social behaviors, art, literature, and music.” It is the unwritten rules that govern how we, as individuals and as a group, act and behave with regard to our beliefs and values.

Ethnicity refers to the cultural expression and identification of people of different geographic regions.  These groups of people are often characterized by common racial, national, linguistic, religious origins/backgrounds (National Geographic, 2018).

Nationality is the status of belonging to a particular nation or country.

Race often refers to a set of physical characteristics, biological features such as skin colour or hair texture. It is important to note that both race and ethnicity are “social constructs used to categorize and characterize seemingly distinct populations.” (National Geographic, 2018)

Social Location

The concept of social location comes from the field of sociology and describes the ways we connect and experience various groups because of our place and/or position in society. Defined as an individual’s combination of factors including gender, race, social class, age, ability, and more (Anthias, 2013).

Understanding our social location means understanding how elements of our identity relate to people around us. This can show up as privilege or oppression, depending on which element of your identity is at play. Understanding our social location helps us have a stronger understanding of ourselves and why we see the world the way we do.

Privilege

Introduction

Privilege describes benefits that belong to people because they fit into a specific social group or have certain identity characteristics. This benefit is due to group membership rather than anything that they have done or failed to do (Ferguson, 2014). Having privilege means having an advantage that is out of your control and that you didn’t ask for. Analyzing one’s own privilege can prove to be a difficult task because it isn’t easily perceived.

For instance, if you’re not pregnant, you may not have to consider how long you’ve been on your feet in a day’s work. Or consider if you are right-handed; you have probably not considered zippers, number pads on keyboards, scissors, can openers and more.  These are advantages afforded to you for being right-handed. It is an automatic, unearned privilege.

This second exercise is an opportunity to understand the intricacies of privilege and to explore the ways that we enjoy privileges based on being members of social identity groups.

Please note that this exercise is not meant to make anyone feel guilty or ashamed of their privilege or lack of privilege related to any social identity categories. If we want to engage in the work of dismantling barriers and biases, we need to acknowledge the privileges, advantages, and systems of power that each of us has.

In our society, privileged groups often have more power over marginalized groups and are more likely to be in positions of power (Chugh, 2018). This exercise seeks to highlight the fact that everyone has SOME privilege. By illuminating our various privileges as individuals, we can recognize ways that we can use our privileges individually and collectively to work for social justice.

Intersectionality

“Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated.”
– Kimberlé Crenshaw, American civil rights advocate

Introduction

What is Intersectionality?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, intersectionality is, “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” It is a framework for understanding how issues like racism and sexism overlap.

The term intersectionality was coined by civil rights advocate, Kimberlé Crenshaw. She wrote about how feminist initiatives and anti-racism movements were actually excluding Black women. This is because the levels of discrimination Black women were facing concerning both their gender and their race were overlapping.

Edvina Besic uses this figure to highlight that the individual (represented in the innermost circle) has many different intersecting identity markers. It is difficult to separate out the identity markers and demonstrates that an individual possesses multiple identities simultaneously. All of which contribute, not only to how they see themselves, but also to how they are seen by society.

The “Group Membership” circle shows that individuals with similar characteristics are perceived to be the same and thus are categorized together as members of one particular group (Besic, 2020). An intersectional approach  recognizes that people can be simultaneously embedded within multiple group memberships.

Layer three of the figure, “Social Context”, illustrates how numerous concepts—such as privilege, power, social construction, and attitudes—come into play, all of which impact the individual and the group layer. For example, students with disabilities may experience less power in social situations since prevailing attitudes regard these individuals from a deficit model (Besic, 2020).

The outer layer portrays the major mechanisms of discrimination. These oppressions are not separated in different circles, rather they work together in unison with each other.

Becoming Intersectionality Conscious

Intersectionality is meant to be utilized as a tool. While it will not provide ‘answers’ to social problems, it does reframe our understanding of marginalization and creates space for critical self reflection and discourse.

These are key enablers that underlie an intersectional approach:

• Self reflection: Take the time to examine your biases, beliefs and judgements. How do they influence your work and interactions? What are my assumptions?
• Recognizing difference: We must recognize that all unique experiences of identity, and particularly ones that involve multiple overlapping oppressions, are valid. Do not shy away from recognizing that people experience the world differently based on their overlapping identity markers.
• Diverse knowledge: Incorporate different perspectives and learn from individuals with diverse forms of knowledge who are typically excluded from ‘expert’ roles. Seek other points of view and explore the narratives of those with different identities than you.
• Avoiding oversimplified language: By avoiding language that assumes our own experiences are baseline, we can open ourselves up to listening to others’ points of view.
• Relational power: Be aware of and challenge relational power, including our own. Understand that people may experience power in one context/ time and oppression in another
• Analyze the space you occupy: recognizing when diversity is not represented in the spaces you occupy: in your workplace; your activism; your community spaces and more.

References

Anthias, F.  (2013, January 1) Hierarchies of social location, class and intersectionality: Towards a translocational frame. International Sociology  28(1) 121 – 138.

Chugh, D. (2018, September 18). Use Your Everyday Privilege to Help Others. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/09/use-your-everyday-privilege-to-help-others

Crenshaw, K. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

Ferguson, S. (2014, September 29). Privilege 101: A Quick and Dirty Guide. Everyday Feminism. https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/what-is-privilege/

Kwame Anthony Appiah. (2018, August 31)  Can we choose our own identity? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/31/who-owns-your-identity-kwame-anthony-appiah

McIntosh, P. (1989, July/August) White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Peace and Freedom Magazine. pp.10-12 https://nationalseedproject.org/images/documents/Knapsack_plus_Notes-Peggy_McIntosh.pdf

National Geographic. (2019, February 22). Race and Ethnicity: How are they different? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/race-ethnicity

National Geographic Society (n.d) Cultural Identity. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resource-library-cultural-identity/

Source: Bešić, E. Intersectionality: A pathway towards inclusive education?. Prospects 49, 111–122 (2020). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11125-020-09461-6#Fig1

Tatum, B. D. (2000). The complexity of identity: “Who am I?” Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An Anthology on Racism, Sexism, Anti-semitism, Heterosexism, Classism and Ableism. https://uucsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-Complexity-of-Identity.pdf