INTERVIEW 1

Interview Paper

Kamryn M. Mattison

SOWK 331

Dr. Bree Alexander

November 6, 2022
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Interview Paper

Social Group Profile and Awareness of Identities

Delicia McKan’s identity consists of three target groups, one border group, and five agent

groups. She is a black biological woman in the working class, which are her target identities.

Furthermore, she is an able-bodied Christian adult who is a gender conforming biological

female, which are all identities that make her an agent. Lastly, her sexual orientation is bisexual,

which is a border group that could be considered a target or agent group depending on the

circumstances; however, for Delicia’s case, we are going to say it is a target group because,

according to Bobbie Harro, it is one, and Delicia’s experiences reflect that (Harro, 1986).

On a daily basis, Delicia is most aware of being black, a gender conforming biological

woman, an adult, and a mother (parental status- she did not explicitly say this term, because it

was not on the list of identities I gave her, but I felt it should be added. She spoke about it along

with her age). She is most mindful of her age, which is at the very top of her awareness scale.

She is 29 and a first-time University of South Carolina student. Delicia is a social work major;

she feels as though she stands out a lot in her classes, especially the social work ones, because of

her age and/or parental status. She feels this way because she has had many experiences that the

younger students in her classes cannot relate to. One of these experiences being that she is

married with two kids and has another on the way. She feels constantly reminded of her

age/parental status on campus because of her current pregnancy. She always gets looked and

stared at because she is pregnant; “it is like they have never seen a pregnant woman before.”

Next, Delicia is most aware of being black because it is what she sees every morning when she

wakes up and when she goes to bed. She loves to try and connect with her sense of blackness by

participating in as many of the events, hosted by black student organizations, on campus as

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possible. Lastly, Delicia is aware of being a woman because she is very in touch with her

femininity; she knows herself very well, and feels that, in the past, some people may have tried

to take away some of her femininity because of her sexual orientation. Others sometimes tried to

make her feel less feminine for dating women rather than men because “she was supposed to be

with a man.” She did not let this affect her because of the self-awareness and love she has for

herself.

Lower on her daily awareness scale, Delicia places her religion, class, ability, and sex.

The identity that she is least aware of is her sexual orientation because she is now married to a

man. Her sexual orientation does not play as big of a role in her life as it used to. “Not to say I

don’t still look at women, but I just want to enjoy my husband.” Delicia is not worried about

attracting or finding anyone attractive other than her husband (obviously, this includes women as

well).

The easiest social groups for Delicia to identify were her race and age. Because she is a

part of a targeted race, she has had many experiences where being black played a factor in how

she got treated, so it is hard to forget that she has and/or could be targeted at any time just

because of how she looks. Furthermore, Delicia tends to surround herself with people from the

black community. On and off campus, she makes sure to support black businesses and interact

with other black people as frequently as she can. Delicia also felt that it was not hard to identify

her sex, gender, or ability because they do not play much of a role in her life. As far as religion

goes, she felt that this was easy to identify as well because she knows her relationship with God;

however, (especially in the past) her sexual orientation was hard for her to identify because of

her Christianity. Since bisexuality is looked down upon in the Christian community, she had a

challenging time discovering her orientation.

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Response to Triggers

Delicia does not let much affect her mood when something or someone triggers her.

Before seeing the list of responses to triggers, when asked how she responds when triggered, her

answer was clear and simple. “Mind your business.” This response would be to any trigger,

regardless of if it was towards one of her agent or target identities. Delicia does not like people to

make any negative comments towards her life, as they are not the one living it. She is never

worried about what anyone has to say about what she has going on or the decisions that she

makes. She feels strongly about being a grown woman and being able to make the best choices

for herself and her family. Even when it comes to members outside of her immediate family, she

does not let them, anyone, or anything affect how she lives her life. Thus, her “mind your

business” mindset; she “won’t care what you have to say, even if you do say it, so you might as

well just keep it to yourself.”

However, after being given the list of responses to triggers, the most typical ones for

Delicia would be either silence or leaving. These two responses correspond with her “mind your

business” attitude because they also show her lack of care for what others think about her. She

responds in these ways because she does not feel the need to let anyone who doesn’t know her

influence her emotions. She feels that, as long as her family is thriving, nothing else matters. She

does not like to give anyone the satisfaction of feeling like they played a role in changing her

decisions or making her feel that she was wrong for making a certain choice. Therefore, when

she is not telling people to “mind their business”, she just does not respond at all or leaves so that

she can keep the peace within herself and her family.
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Critical Identity Inventory Discussion

When given the opportunity to choose a question from the Critical Identity Inventory,

Delicia chose to answer question one. “When was the 1st time you were aware that membership

in a social group affected the way you would be treated?” There were two instances where she

realized that she would be treated differently: the first realization and a reminder. The very first

time was when she came out as bisexual to her Christian family. Her grandfather is a pastor, so

her family is very strict about things they should and shouldn’t do; speaking to Delicia about this

topic was very interesting for me. It seemed that her grandfather was the least judgmental of her

sexual orientation when he found out. She said all he told her was that she knew what

Christianity was about, so as long as she remembers that, then he didn’t really care that she was

bisexual. As for the rest of her family, they were not as easy on her. There have been times in her

life where certain family members, including her mother, refused to speak to her just because she

was dating another woman. These encounters still have an effect on relationships she has with

some her family members until this day.

The second instance of realization was when she got pregnant with her first child outside

of marriage. She knew that, as a Christian, she would be looked down at since she had not yet

been married to her husband when she got pregnant. For this reason, when she went home

pregnant to New Jersey with her first born, she used big clothes to hide her baby bump so that

she would not be criticized and judged for her choices. The judgement she got when going

through these two experiences are a part of the reason why Delicia responds to triggers in the

way that she does; these situations helped her develop an “I don’t really care” approach to

dealing with others, and she stopped letting people invade her privacy by being in her business

and knowing too much about her.

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Assumptions, Biases, and Stereotypes

Going into this interview, I assumed that Delicia would not give me in-depth answers. I

have known her for a year, and she never really talks too deeply about her life; she usually tells

me surface problems and keeps it brief. She was very open to speaking to me about everything,

most likely because she has known me for a while. I did not expect to get the answers that I

received. This may be one of the biases she had (I’m not sure if it counts). She may have been

biased towards me since we were already friends before the interview, so I got great answers that

someone else, who she doesn’t know as well, would not have gotten. When beginning the

interview, Delicia assumed that I would not really be interested in what she was saying because a

lot of the answers that she gave revolved around her religion and sexual orientation and did not

incorporate more about her other social identities. However, I thought it was very interesting to

hear about what it was like for her to be bisexual in a Christian family. Furthermore, she thought

I would not care to or be able to understand her answers when it came to her age, which is the

identity that is most prominent in her life right now. Other than these I don’t think that either of

us had many assumptions, stereotypes, or biases towards each other since we have known each

other for a while. Despite the assumptions that I know of, or any other biases that were not said, I

don’t feel like they influenced the interview process, again, because of the already established

friendship that we have.

Relating Delicia to Myself and Social Work

As a black woman myself, I completely understand Delicia’ s desire to be seek

friendships in, support, and surround myself with other members of the black community. I get it

on many levels, especially while going to a PWI and being in (basically) all-white classes. We

actively seek ways to get involved with people of our race, which is how we met. I can also
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relate to her gender because we are both gender conforming biological women, which is one of

the identities she expressed to be at the top of her daily awareness. However, a lot of our

discussion revolved around her life in the past and how she has been affected by certain identities

when she was younger. Therefore, I feel that my most valuable comparison of my identities and

hers would come from the ones that were most salient in her earlier life.

She had a lot to say about being bisexual, which I cannot relate to; however, I did try my

hardest to understand her experiences by relating them to my Christian background. As both of

us come from families with grandfathers as pastors, I know that it can be hard. There are times

where you get judged very harshly by many people (not even just family) if you do something

that is deemed “not of God” or make a choice that is considered a sin, etc. Even though I do not

share the same sexual orientation or parental status as Delicia, I can understand the pressure she

felt by having to deal with those things in a Christian family. Making mistakes or decisions that

your family does not agree with can be very complicated and emotional, especially when people

are telling you that it will affect your relationship with God; my point is, I feel like I had a way to

connect and understand her experiences from being bisexual and having a baby before marriage,

even though we do not share the same sexual orientation or parental status. I also feel like the

experiences that Delicia had when she was younger had a direct effect on how she lives her life

as an adult.

Because I am not yet an adult and do not have kids, I still can only try and understand

how she feels. Being an adult may be an agent group in the real world, but when talking to

Delicia, I feel like it is a target at universities. I realize that it may be hard for her as a pregnant

adult at a university. I will say that there have been times where I was shocked when someone

older than about 25 was in my classes, and I know that there are people who probably stare and
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make it obvious that they are shocked as well. With that being said, it is not hard to understand

that there are students that stare at her, not only for her age but also because she is pregnant. I

think I am still too young and inexperienced to completely understand what she goes through,

but I did try my hardest.

When talking about Delicia’s experiences, regarding social work and what we have

learned this semester, I think it is important to connect her life with religious oppression, which

we learned a lot about. The event facilitations on this topic stuck out the most to me. I understand

that the things she has gone through as a Christian are not the same as how people of other

religions are treated, but I do think it is important to point out that she experienced hate and

discrimination from other Christians. Not only do other religions get oppressed, but there is a lot

of judgment within the Christian community as well. Seeing how some people treat others of

their own religion makes it sad to think about how they would act towards people outside of their

own religion. I cannot even imagine how anyone who is a part of another religion must feel when

being targeted, especially while living in the United States.

Lastly, during the interview, when Delicia told me that there were a couple of instances

where her femininity was questioned just because of her sexual orientation, I was reminded of an

article we read for class. Speaking to her about this made me think about other examples of

people trying to regulate what makes someone “feminine” or “feminine enough.” The reading

about women and femininity in sports that talks about how people have a lot to say about what

makes women feminine enough to do certain things popped into my head. I don’t think it is okay

for people to try and tell others how they are supposed to do certain things, be a specific way, or

have specific characteristics to classify them as “feminine.” (Knight, 2020).

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Appendix A

Interview Questions:

1. Tell me about a part of your identity you had a challenging time discovering

2. In what ways do you feel your privileged/agent identities have affected you?

3. (Critical Identity Inventory) When was the 1st time you were aware that membership

in a social group affected the way you would be treated?

4. In what ways do you feel your target identities have affected you?

5. Which social identities are you most aware of on a daily basis, why?

6. What social identities are you least aware of on a daily basis, why?

7. Which responses are most typical for you when triggered as a target?

8. Which responses are most typical for you when triggered as an agent?

9. Are there differences in how you respond to triggers based on your different social

identities.

10. Did you have any assumptions about me going into this interview?
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Appendix B

Appendix B

SOCIAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

Social Identities Status (Agent or Target)
Race: Black/African American- Target

Sex: Bio Woman- Target

Gender: Gender Conforming Bio Women-

Agent

Class: Working Class- Target

Physical/Mental/Developmental Able bodied- Agent

Ability:
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual- Agent/Target

Religion: Baptist- Christian- Agent

Age: Adult- Agent

You can leave blank any social group memberships you choose not to disclose.
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Appendix C

Working
Class- T

Christian-
A

Bisexual- Able
A/T bodied
-A
Woman-
T
Black/African
American- T Adult-
A
Gender
Conforming
Bio Women- A
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Appendix D
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Appendix E
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References

Harro, B. (1986). The Cycle of

Socialization. https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/Cycle%20of

%20Socialization%20HARRO.pdf

Knight, K. (2020, October 28). When Will Sports Stop Policing Femininity? Human Rights

Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/01/when-will-sports-stop-policing-femininity