The Emergence of Social Location in My Life

Hello Everyone,

Before I learned anything from this course I assumed that certain experiences in my life which, pertained to level of skill were just that. A test of whether or not I was skilled enough to get a certain job or a certain position in my community, or even a bank loan. When I failed at these tasks I assumed that it was my skills which were lacking. (I’m guessing I was a big believer of meritocracy) After this course I have come to understand that it isn’t always a lack of skills which causes me to fail but my ability, ethnicity and race which contribute to my failure. I used to see the world through rose colored glasses and assumed that society was highly attuned to issues of equality and discrimination. So you can guess that it was like a slap in the face when I learned otherwise. I was skeptic during the start of the course, because I thought that it was a class full of bitter people who want to blame their failures of the system, but I soon learned that I was the one being fooled.

My favorite quote from the course is when the professor stated, “everything happens for a reason and there is a purpose to things happening in a certain way.” This was my light bulb moment where I truly came to believe that there were higher authorities who were working diligently to keep the power in predominantly ‘white’ hands, and I finally understood that nothing is just random. I truly believed that for every job I didn’t get or for every time I was told ‘no’, it was my skill level or lack thereof which was causing this spell of rejection, but I now know better.

By using the concept of social location I learned that my ‘low-income, brown, overweight’ traits were the first things people saw or thought of, which would then cause them to assume I was ‘lazy’ before they even heard me speak. How do I feel after learning this? To tell you the truth I don’t know. On the one hand I feel sad to finally understand the sad reality of this world and to know that there are many others out there who suffer more than I have, and that it is simply because of their skin color or income level. But then on the other hand I am kind of relieved to know that it may not have always been my fault for being rejected, and this brings me peace of mind, but just barely. I am now more confident in myself and I understand that it is not always the inside which is considered but mostly always the outside, and this helps me realize that I am a worthy candidate for jobs or loans and that if I am rejected it may not always be because of my skill or competency. These inequalities were embedded into the government many years ago and therefore it is extremely difficult to overcome these inequalities. It will take hundreds of years to get rid of these inequalities just as it took hundreds of years to create them, but that still may not be enough. If you look through the videos I have posted on this website you will find many by Tim Wise, which will enlighten you on the corrupt nature of the government.