Social identities are the categories we use to specify who we are, both to ourselves and to the world around us . These identities include race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc. For this discussion, you will explore how these identities are formed and maintained over time.
To help you complete this discussion, review the following resources:
A Girl Like Me
Links to an external site.
RACE: Are We So Different?
Links to an external site.,
The ‘pink vs blue’ gender myth
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I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White
Links to an external site.
There are also additional resources listed under Recommended Resources that you can review if you would like additional information.
Using the resources above as evidence to support your ideas, address the following:
Explain what sociologists mean when they say that identities are socially constructed. Select a particular racial or gender identity, and give an example of a characteristic of that identity that is socially constructed .
Stratification refers to the hierarchical ranking of individuals within a given group . Describe the stratification system of either race or gender and explain how this hierarchical ranking is a social construction rather than based on biology.
Chapter 1 in your text argues that what is at stake with these social identities is power and privilege. Using either race or gender, describe how one of the theories of inequality discussed in Chapter 1 would explain why some groups within the identity experience inequalities.
