· Value: 30% of final grade. You will write an analysis to explore your social identity and social location. The length of the paper should be approximately 2000 words (+/- 10%), in APA style. This is...

RUNNING TITLE: Social Identities and Social Location    
Social Identities and Social Location
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Executive Summary
Identity is about defining ourselves at any given point in life. Discovering ourselves is a life-long process of growth and renewal. Various internal and external factors like one’s own choices and decisions including gender, race, power, privilege. Color and ethnicity influence one’s social identities and social location.
My personal experience with social identities and social locations
Introduction
The essay describes social identity and social location in terms of my personal constructs and explains how racism, meritocracy, white male privilege, micro-aggression and intersectionality has influenced my social identities and social location. My particular history gives me a unique perspective as I have dealt with oppression and privilege, and my interactions with social forces has helped shape my identities.
Background
The Concept of Social Identity
Social identity of a person results from the emotional value attached to his social group membership (Tajfel, 1981). Group structures provide interpersonal day to day experiences and commitment to specific identities that emerge over time through interaction between identity and context (Turner et al, 1987). Identity is about integrating one’s past, present and future (Piotrowski, 2003). The formation of identity is through continuous interaction with socio-cultural environment (Sevig and Adams, 2000). Individuals identify themselves in terms of different religion, race including ethnic groups, social class, gender and caste (Gutmann, 2003).
Social location in the context of social identity
The social attributes of an individual’s identity are composed of individual, community, societal, and global factors and point of their overlap is known as Social Location. Thus, social location is where all elements in an individual are present simultaneously and helps us in negotiating inequalities of power and privilege that provide the impetus to grow and continuously change ourselves to meet the challenges of this world.
Discussion
An Analysis of my Social Identity and Social location
I am a Sinhalese and was born in Sri Lanka. My background provides me with a special perspective as my country is composed of several ethnic groups separated through language and religion providing me unique experiences that others might not have experienced.
I have experienced violence and hatred while living in an ethnically multi-religious society while also feeling privileged by belonging to a majority religious group. For me, there has been a coincidence of both religious and ethnic identities. Ethnic groups in Sri Lanka are based on religion and language (Blood,1991). Sinhalese highly value their religious identity (Somasundaram, 1998). As a Sri Lankan, I regard nationality as my second most important social identity whenever I am away from my homeland. In terms of social location, people’s identity is greatly rooted in place which has an important role in shaping self-identity (Sorenson, 1996).. My social identity seems to be consistent with the social identity theory that individuals identify themselves according to diverse social groups (Tajkel, 1981).
My social location
While I grew up in Sri Lanka, my social identity remained confined to within my own ethnicity i.e. Sinhalese community and expressed myself through their language and cultural norms. My social location was confined to the city where I lived in Sri Lanka.
However, when I went to study abroad, this changed. I started socializing and interacting with individuals of different races, gender and class. The first change happened in my social location and second change happened in my identity formation.
For example, I found myself completely unrecognized in the new community compared to when I was back home in Sri Lanka. I felt as if I belonged to a different type of minority which made me feel less important and alone. This drastic change in social location also influenced my gender and race intersectionality and I found myself interacting with individuals belonging to different gender and diverse races. I started looking at life while listening to their experiences through their eyes while growing up in Canada. I felt part of many socio-cultural exchanges between different genders and races while studying in Canada that gave me my social identity as a Sri Lankan in an international social context.
My experience with micro-aggression
I attended a private Catholic girls school in Sri Lanka and there were a few students belonging to a minority group who were taught in their own language in a separate section of the school. Traditionally, this minority group came to Sri Lanka to work in tea, coconut and rubber plantations and to serve in households. These people...