My Race And Ethnic Identity

It is undeniable that social interactions shape an individual, and that predetermined cultural boundaries determine a world view from which an individual interprets the occurrences within the world around them. The point of this reflection is to determine the social aspects that have made me the person that I am today, and alter one sociological factor with the aim of understanding how different cultural and social experiences would create the foundations for an identity which would be far removed from that which I hold as my own today. The sociological factor that I choose to amend for the point of this essay, is my race, or ethnic heritage; I assume the role of an indigenous Australian. From the limited viewpoint of a mildly educated imagination,

I am a Caucasian female of English and Irish heritage situated in 21st Century Australia. My family was seated within the bounds of lower middle class society, which during the era of my childhood, the late 1970’s through to the 1990’s, depicted a typical model where a father worked to provide for his family, and a mother nurtured her children within the confines of the family home. This was the case in my family unit. Currently, I am located in a rural city, I am a heterosexual, single, working parent, still seated within the confines of the working class society. My religious beliefs are minimalist, identifiable primarily to individual concepts of spiritual purification, and karma. My education level was year 12, with continuous efforts at certificate levels, and current continuation at university level. I believe that my life is what I make it. However, I know that I am constrained by various social determinations. As an Indigenous Australian, my existence is likely to be comprised of similar human emotions and life goals that I currently experience as a Westerner. However, the experiences that have made me an individual would undoubtedly be very

There is a high chance that I would have been continually subjected to the abovementioned inequalities that exist in the Australian society; theoretically defined by Marx and Weber’s traditions of class structures. Plummer, in his work, demonstrated examples of how repeated social inequalities are characteristic of the structured divisions and hierarchies existent within all human societies (2010, pp.153-154). The racial segregation that has existed within the Australian population has forced the Indigenous cultures to the bottom of the hierarchical scale and they have consequently, endured the classifications of barbaric and primitive second class citizens. For this reason, I am placed at birth, into the lower bounds of society and have felt firsthand the “deprivations, degradations and defilements” that occur due to conscious awareness of social belonging within the confines of the lower class (Plummer 2010, p.162). This would have been highlighted if I had endured racial taunts throughout school, or experienced a childhood constituting deprivation and poverty. My family may be victims of racist unemployment, homelessness or alcohol abuse. All of which are prevalent within the Indigenous population, and affectively reflect the perceived class structures in