Just Another Unique Social Location. Becoming familiar my individuality will assist me greatly as a social worker. I definitely would cease to be the same individual if it wasn't for my unique social location.

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Just Another Unique Social Location

Natalie Kennard

Social Work 2060

Instructor: Jennifer Murphy

Just Another Unique Social Location

         

     It's amazing how every human being is unique and thus will never be an exact replicate of any other individual under the sun. Despite the obvious similarities we also tend to share, no two people will ever experience the same events, share the same memories, or perceive the same universe in an identical way. One's identity, as well as the outcome of anyone's life adventure can be largely determined by their social location - where they find themselves within society pertaining to such aspects of themselves as their race, class, gender, and religion. My own social location assists in dictating how I react towards others, as well as how others will react towards me. Anne Bishop's " Becoming an Ally" (2002) explains that the various aspects of ones social location can either empower a person in comparison to others within their world, or leave them powerless . Things are seldom ever black or white, and thus there are several features to do with my social location that place me on ends of the spectrum. Becoming familiar my individuality will assist me greatly as a social worker. I definitely would cease to be the same individual if it wasn't for my unique social location.

     A Canadian middle class citizen brought up in a Canadian middle class neighborhood; a Caucasian female; a Christian - I possess a historic background as well as many qualities such as these, which added together form how I tend to react towards my fellow man.  I was born into a family with a reasonable financial situation, with a married mother, father, two siblings, as well as a number of pets- things of which I am very fortunate to say I have inherited, as it was only as the result of taking my first breath. I grew up with a mother employed in the field of social work, and known from an early age that it involves serving others. Seldom experiencing any other way of life but that of a Canadian, far and wide I came to see I was continually surrounded by a diverse variety of individuals. I can recall very few instances in which I was openly taught that these individuals were deserving of a variety of treatment that contrasted in to that of my own. Within a short period it appeared as if everyone's appearances came to stimulate a similar set of mostly neutral responses from myself. Every face, every differing skin pigment - only a phenotypic characteristic, scarcely received a negative response from myself as they entered my life in one way or another. Because my surrounding religious coaching emphasized the belief that all God's creatures are created with an equal inborn value, uniqueness, and worth, this too played part in how I now hope to always view others. At times I might lack understanding as to why an individual whom I encounter may behave in a way which I am unaccustomed to, but the voices of my past then urge me to correct this fault, once again learning to see the world through different a different pair of glasses. The way in which I react towards my brother is defined by the road I take, and by the assigned characteristics which I carry with me. 

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              I am an imperfect creation, as my immutable qualities and life experiences in turn ascribe to my name such statuses that appoint me both a privileged, unprivileged, and biased human being in the wide variety of connections I share with others, but I also tend to find myself caught somewhere in the middle. One type of power that includes one group dominating another can be defined as expressing "power-over” (Bishop, 2002, p.42). As a white, I have power in my relationships with others, due to the influence of the colonial views of long ago. As a female, I don't experience this power to the same extent. I can do many ...

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