Assignment #3 – The Identity Shadow Box

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Our class studied many types of identities including; Gender, Race , Ethnicity, Nationality, and Social class. We also learned that a dominant narrative is a story that people in a position of privilege tell about someone who is not. Along with that we learned that a counter narrative is a story or perspective that people who are marginalized tell about themselves. It is important to tell counter narratives about the dominant narratives people say about our identities because this is how you can defend your identity and respond  to what people say about it.

 

The artifacts on the outside of my shadow box are pictures that show dominant and counter narratives about my identity. One dominant narrative about my identity shown on the outside of my shadow box is that black people are homeless and do drugs. The counter narrative shown on the outside of my shadow box is that many black people are graduating from college. This is important that i had a counter narrative to to one of many dominant narratives about my identity because this is how i can fight back against those false stories.

 

Shadow Box Quick Write

 

  • What do you predict will be the best part about making a shadow box about your identities?

 

The best part about making the shadow box about our identities is that  we can make the shadow box about ourselves and everyone can display their own identity.

 

  • What do you predict will be the most difficult part about putting together your identity shadow box? 

 

The most difficult part about putting together the shadow box is glueing in the pictures and assembling the whole box.

 

  • Describe something you plan to place on the interior of your shadow box to describe your identity.  What makes that picture or artifact so special?

 

I plan to put the word oakland on the interior of the box because i’ve spent majority of my life here and it has impacted my life greatly.

Assignment #2

A dominant narrative is a story told by a person in a position of privilege tells about someone who is not. A counter narrative is the ” clapback”. An example of a stereotype is,” all black people like chicken”. Your nationality is where you were born. A stereotype about my nationality is that we worship walmart. Not all people shop at walmart in america.

Assignment #1

For chosen identity I chose a picture of someone holding a sign that says “social Identity”. I chose this picture because it is one example of a chosen identity. You get to chose your social identity, its not assigned its chosen. For Assigned identity I chose a picture with lots of examples of assigned identities (sexual orientation, gender, birthday, nationality, etc…). I chose this because these are all examples of assigned identities. Your gender is assigned. Your birthday is assigned. Your sexual orientation is assigned. And your nationality is assigned. All of these are examples of Assigned Identities. Chosen and assigned identities are different because an assigned identity is given to you at birth and can never be changed, a chosen identity is what you choose and can be changed when ever you want.