Jacob M.

Laguerre

SOC 105 Extra Credit Paper – Option 1

I like to think of myself as my own unique individual. I would rather be the one that sets

trends rather than fall right into them. I enjoy being different, even if people look at me strange

or do not readily understand why I act the way I do or go about things in a very unique manner.

Two factors that have assisted in shaping my identity would be my gender identity and my social

identity. From the outside looking in, it would be safe to assume that I identify myself as being

part of the male species. I enjoy doing things that make me feel masculine. I used to identify

myself strongly as being an African American. I grew up in a predominantly African-American

community and most of my friends growing up were African-American as well. Now, I can

proudly say that I have friends from a multitude of different races and ethnicities. I had never

really considered race to be a big deal when it came to choosing friends. If I was able to connect

with someone on a personal level, then it didn’t matter what kind of background they came from.

This became more apparent as I had gotten older and became less shy. Losing my shyness

around people enabled me to communicate with people a lot more easily. And as I began to

communicate with more people freely, my identities began to take shape much more. I was no

longer confined in my “shell”. I wanted to be known to the world but before I could do that, I

had to know myself on a much more intimate level. And my gender identity and to a certain

degree, my ethnic identity, played a key role in knowing who I am and what I am all about.

From the time that I was young, my parents constantly stressed the fact that I was a

male. I knew that I wasn’t like my mother or my grandmother. I also knew that my father and my

older brother shared the same gender with me. When we would dress up, I would wear suits just
like all boys did. I also didn’t mind playing a little rough when I was younger. My parents even

enrolled me and my older brother into karate when they realized the importance of us learning

self-defense. Fighting, in my eyes, was a very masculine pursuit, despite the fact that there were

a couple of girls in the class. My father raised me and my brother to respect women, for it was

because of a woman that we were brought into this world. My father had made it seem like back

then that it was the duty of men to be the protector and provider for women, especially during

marriage. He never brought up the possibility of a woman taking care and providing for a man.

According to the lecture, women make 77 to 78 cents for every dollar that a man makes.

Therefore, it would only make sense that the person that has the potential to make more money

in the long run should be the sole provider. However, this does not apply in all cases. There are

women out there who are making just as much as a man given the fact that they both have the

same job.

In lecture class, the professor had discussed this exercise that was given to these little

kids. They were to describe the kind of job that their mother has and the kind of job that their

father has. In just about every case, every child described their father’s profession but when it

came to the mother, they spoke only of the household chores that she does. What’s interesting

about this is that all of these women have jobs outside of the house. Even for me growing up,

when my mother had gotten her job at the bank, when she came home, she still did housework. I

think that my case is a bit different from the norm because my father also helps out with the

household chores as well whether that’s cleaning the bathroom, mopping the floor, sweeping,

etc. But in my eyes, that didn’t make him any less of a man because he wants to help clean. If

anything, he set an example for me and my brother to follow. It was ok to be a man and still do

some cleaning. The gender expectation was a little skewed to say the least. This brings me to my
next point that the professor brought up where if men are in a field that is dominated by women,

it elevates the status of that job significantly. My father took part in household chores as if it was

the norm. So it became expected of me and my brother to follow suit and take part in helping out

with the chores. A lot of emphasis wasn’t just placed on the fact that we were expected to clean,

but that we were also expected to do it properly and with a type of professionalism such that

when the job is done, it is something that we can look back at and admire.

My gender identity is rather essential to the way that I choose to live. Being that I am a

man, society will be a lot harsher on me in the long run should I ever have a run in with the law.

When you throw in the fact that I am African-American as well, society does tend to look down

on us and expects us to not go very far in life. And for the most part, African-American men are

more likely to die young and get in trouble with the law contrary to their Caucasian counterparts.

Bearing that in mind, I made it a point to be a law-abiding citizen and minimize any risk of me

having an altercation like those mentioned before. Being a black man in society is definitely a

challenge when you stop to think about it. In my situation, I was born in a middle class

household, with two hardworking parents who did everything in their power to make a brighter

future for me and my brothers. Like I had stated in my introductory paragraph, I grew up in a

predominantly African-American neighborhood so most of the people that I had known growing

up was black. From elementary school to middle school, I had went to school in a predominantly

African-American population. It wasn’t until high school when seeing other races and ethnicities

interact with each other became the norm. It took some getting used to, but overall I don’t regret

the experience. I believe that high school gave me a taste of what I was going to see in college,

but on a much smaller scale.

 The fact that I am a male grants me many options when it comes to looking for a job in

the workplace. Considering the fact that we live in a male-dominated society, there are a lot of

opportunities out there for us to succeed, provided the fact that we apply ourselves. At the same

time, when you also throw in the fact that I am an African-American, finding a job becomes a

little bit more difficult. Due to the negative stigmatism that is associated with being black, it is

imperative for me to do everything within my power to stand out above my colleagues in the

most positive manner possible. I think of it as a challenge for me to stand out from my

colleagues, while I believe there would be some, if they were in the same situation as mine,

might complain at the fact that they are being judged on factors that they have no control over.

While this may be true, it does not change or improve our predicament in any way. At the end of

the day, I believe that there is always going to be things that lie outside our control.

In conclusion, when you look at race or gender, these are two factors we are not given the

option to choose. While there are special cases like sexual reassignment surgery and people who

are born with ambiguous genitals, for the most part these things are not common. Whether we’re

born male or female, or no matter what kind of ethnic background we may hail from, we still

have a big say on what we decide to do with our lives and how we go about doing it. If we really

want something bad enough, we have the option to put in all the work necessary towards

obtaining it. Society is always going to have its opinion about race and gender. This cannot be

helped unfortunately. But what can be helped is the fact that we have the opportunity to improve

our own happiness to whatever level we wish to reach. That does not mean that it’s going to

come easy of course. Anything that is worth obtaining is worth the effort putting into getting it.