SOC_FPX1150_Hannah Halstead_Assessment Five_attempt one

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1 How Society Works SOC-FPX1150 Capella University Hannah Halstead September 2023

2 According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “A right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor... especially such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office.” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). It’s a term used to describe the advantages certain groups of people have over others in society. These privileges are typically unearned and can be from the result of race, gender, socioeconomic status, or other factors a person is born with. It plays a significant role in social hierarchies and opportunities for social mobility. A social hierarchy ranks an individual based on their social status and privilege can be used to maintain a person’s status by providing a person with resources, education, opportunities, and even power that is not available to others. Social mobility is the ability to move up and down the social hierarchy and since privilege determines a person’s access to resources, it can determine how well a person is able to do that. Individuals who have more privilege have more access to resources, allowing them to move up the social hierarchy rank whereas individuals with less privilege are not able to move up the ranks as easily. Everyone is affected by privilege at one point or another in their lives and it can be positive or negative experiences. I am a small, white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. Because of this, I do not have the privilege of going for a run when it is still dark out, parking too far away from the entrance to a store, or meeting anyone new in a place that is not public. However, I also know that I have been privileged in a way that many others are not. I have been chosen for teams and jobs and promotions over others because of the unconscious bias others had towards me, and even gotten out of tickets because of the way I look. I was also not born into wealth, my family lived paycheck to paycheck. My parents stopped paying for school clothes and things I wanted when I was 15 and I began working full time. They definitely could not afford to send me to college. Because of this, I have had to become a dedicated, hardworking

3 individual and I did not start my college journey until I was 21, which was on and off again. So, while I cannot go for a run at night and had to wait to go to college, I have been given other opportunities with the way I look, and my mixed husband has gotten his car searched and been placed in handcuffs for going five over the speed limit based on his looks. On the other hand, his parents could afford to give him whatever he wanted and he still to this day receives help from them and presents from them just because they thought he would like something. My place in society’s stratification system would be somewhere in the upper-middle. I do not have wealth and endless opportunities for education and hundreds of people in my life I can look to for assistance. However, I am not hungry, I have all of what I need and some of what I want. I have a beautiful son and a perfect daughter and a husband who loves us. We get to eat meals together every night and binge watch TV and laugh together. I have determination and ambition to be more than what I am right now, which will allow me to climb the social hierarchy. I’m receiving higher education and have the grit to go back and receive more. If my parents had given me everything, and paid for my education, and never made me work, I would not be who I am today. Being somewhere in the middle allowed me just enough opportunity and resources to be able to become the person I want to be, and allow me to go to college, and give me the courage to create the dreams I have now and know they will come true. But it gave me just little enough that I know how to work hard. I know how to grind and put in hours and have taught myself how to replace a toilet and budget for a household. It gave me little enough that it made me strong and smart and courageous. By developing a sociological perspective on privilege, stratification, and social mobility, collaboration can come much more naturally. This is because by developing this, a person can understand the social structures that shape interactions with others. Understanding social

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4 stratification will allow an individual to understand where they fall in the hierarchy and be able to see their own biases and privileges, which will allow them to begin working better with others. It can also help someone understand why other people are the way they are based on their own social stratification. Furthermore, it can allow someone to see how easily social mobility is for themselves and others, or how difficult, can allow them to be more inclusive, understanding, and interested in learning more about their cultures and backgrounds. By understanding social stratification, privileges, and social mobility, it will create better collaboration by increasing the value of diversity and understanding the unique contributions of others. Lee Jourdan said, “When we understand our own privileges relative to others, we begin to recognize which teammates may be restricted from fully participating, reducing the effectiveness of the team. Pay attention: Who is speaking up? Who is not? Who is given the automatic benefit of the doubt? Who must work harder to prove themselves?” (Jourdan, 2021). Being able to better understand the experiences of others and their relationship with privilege helps individuals to better work together to accomplish goals in many ways. First, it can help people develop empathy and understanding which will lead to better communication. It can also help identify power differences at work which will lead to a more equal workforce. Finally, it can help people identify the strengths of others around them, which will lead to more innovative and creative environments. Overall, understanding the experiences of others as well as their relationships with privilege and your own personal privilege can build strong relationships and more effective partnerships. Understanding personal privileges can also lead to more effective problem-solving in the workplace. It can create awareness to the certain advantages and disadvantages people have and create the opportunity for different ideas and opinions to be brought up. By considering new

5 ideas and opinions on how to solve a problem, new solutions can come up that may have never been considered before. This opens the door for diversity, inclusion, innovation, and creativity. Understanding privilege can effectively solve problems by finding the best solutions that some individuals would have never thought of because of their differences in privilege. After completing the “Examine Your Privilege” media, I was shocked to find I had 17 out of 26. I have never considered myself a privileged person, but I only ever considered privilege as abundant wealth, opportunities, and education. Wealth brough opportunities and education, so really, I believed to be wealthy was to be privileged. I never considered going to the store and purchasing my family’s favorite foods, or living close to a church, or being physically able to enter any building without assistance to be privileged. The exercise made me grateful for my life and look at what I have differently. I learned that I have so much to be thankful for, and every little thing is a privilege that many others don’t get to enjoy. This computer I am typing my paper on right now is a privilege that so many people will never have. The clothes I am wearing, my skin color, the ability to understand the words I am writing and studying in college, the job I work at, my health- these are all privileges. I am thankful for the opportunity to complete the “Examine Your Privilege” activity, because it has really opened my eyes to all of the aspects of my own privileges that I had never considered before, and I am grateful.

6 References Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Privilege. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/privilege Jourdan, Lee, (2021). “Talk About Privilege at Work.” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/08/talk-about-privilege-at-work

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