socw 2001 Reima Watson

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Social Identity Reima Watson Walden University SOCW 2001 Social Identity I grew up in a predominantly black community in Detroit, Michigan. My extended family lived in nearby areas, so we didn’t have to travel far to visit. Although there wasn’t a lot of diversity, we often interacted with a lot of families of different ethnic backgrounds. There was a huge population of Arab American families in the nearby area, which owned a lot of the businesses in our communities. I never felt like I didn’t belong because of my race or feel unsafe in my community. The suggestion that there is new racism-a racism that has new strength precisely because it does not appear to be racism-deserves serious consideration Sniderman. & et. Al. 1991). There is a situation in my life that stands out to me as being stereotyped. I have always followed the rules to the best of my ability. I know that sometimes we make mistakes and that there is always room for growth. Description of the Experience I worked at a retirement facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan where the tenants were predominately white. These seniors were rich and they had all retired from companies that they worked for for years. The facility was huge, each senior had an apartment within this facility. I was hired for this job through a temp agency. I was in Grand Rapids helping my sister care for my mom after a major surgery she had recently had. My job was to clean the apartments and assist in any area that the seniors needed help with (cooking, vacuuming, creating a grocery list). I loved this job and I looked forward to going to work on my scheduled days. I learned things from the residents and the staff. This was the first job that I had done this kind of work and I took it very seriously. After working there, I noticed that there was not one black resident. I also noticed that the majority of the main cleaning crew was also black. I mustered up enough courage to ask one of the staff members on my floor why this was and she looked at me with a shocked expression. She replied “They don’t like to hire a lot of men because they think they might not give the residents the care they need. They don’t hire a lot of black people because the families of the residents living here feel that their items may come up missing”. The conversation with the young lady threw me for a loop and kind of hurt. Among the many threats to America, perhaps the most serious is our inability to face them together (Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner. (2015). After getting off work that day I thought about what she said while walking to the bus stop. I noticed three white men in a red pickup truck going into the building as I was leaving. There was a bus that picked up the staff from this rural area and took them to the inner city. As I stood there for over an hour, a lady rode past and told me that the bus didn’t come after seven and that I would have to walk five blocks past the train tracks to get to the bus stop that would take me where I needed to go.

As I began to walk down the street, the three men in the truck rode past. The truck stopped and began to reverse until they were in front of me. One of the men asked if I was ok and I said “yes, I’m fine.” Then he said 'Do you think black women are safe out here?’ I didn’t say anything but I did begin to worry. A common explanation for prejudice and discrimination is that people learn through observation, Segal, E., Gerdes, K., & Steiner, S. (2015). I was three long blocks away from the facility and there was nowhere else to go. He then started screaming and cursing at me. He said a bunch of things that I would rather not mention. I kept walking and he leaned out the window and he threw his drink at me and said “ Go back to where you came from with your black ass. We don’t want you working for our family so that you can steal from them.” Reflection Working at this retirement home was a step up from the places that I had worked before. I honestly did not know that companies were hiring minorities to pay them less and that they felt so negatively about my race. After working there for a few weeks I noticed that the white staff would be served lunch first and then the black staff would be served. Everyone was able to choose where they wanted to sit and eat. In the beginning, it was just another job and I think that was because I kept busy. I cleaned my floor and took care of the residents to that I was assigned. I did have one resident who only allowed me to come into her apartment if I was wearing gloves. I told myself that because she was elderly, maybe she had a phobia of other people’s germs. This experience changed me for the better. It taught me to open my eyes and to pay attention to what was going on in my life. This was a hard lesson to live through but I did. Expectations I expected to learn new things that I would be able to take with me in my career. I thought that I was helping to bring comfort to those whose families no longer visited them. I was there five days a week and most of the residents rarely had visitors. For those residents that had visitors, they did not come often. I thought that I would be working in a safe environment with room for growth, that's what I was told upon accepting the job offer. Although change can be slow and the United States has a long way to go to a truly just society, it has made tremendous progress in many areas, Segal, E., Gerdes, K., & Steiner, S. (2015). I think I had these expectations because the residents were retired and rich. I never thought that I would be treated with disrespect. Reactions I was shocked after talking to the young lady that I worked with. The altercation that I had with the three young men was terrifying. I had a two-month-old son that I didn’t think that I would ever see again. I honestly was scared for my life. This caused me to be on guard every time I went to work. I made sure not to stay a minute over so that I would be able to get on the same bus daily. Learning I learned that you cannot trust everyone. Trust is earned not given, which is something that I never understood until I went through this. I learned to watch the interactions of the people you serve and the people that you work for.

Privilege and This Social Identity While working at this job I felt like the white people thought they were superior to the black people. Race played a huge part while working here and it was not equal most of the time. It amazed me how some residents thought that money could get a person to do anything. I would be cleaning and hear the residents talking amongst themselves and the conversations would almost always be about privilege, race, and gender. Conclusion A conclusion is a place for you to reinforce the perspective, aim, or argument of the paper; sum up the main points, and offer a sense of closure. What is the lasting impression you want the paper to have on the reader? What is the significance of social identity, above and beyond this experience you had? References Blacksher , E, & Valles , S., 2021. White Privilege, White Poverty: Reckoning with Class and in America. The Hastings Report. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hast.1230 . Segal, E., Gerdes, K., & Steiner, S. (2015). An introduction to the profession of social work: Becoming a change agent. Cengage Learning. Sniderman, P., M, Piazza, T, Tetlock P., E & Kendrick, A. 1991 The New Racism https://www.jstor.org/stable/2111369

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