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Difference results from the ways in which we each think, behave, and feel the world around us. Our experience of the world is colored by several categories. The essentialist way of viewing these categories is that they are created by objective, verifiable differences in people. But the constructionist perspective is that categories are all created by social processes which determine what differences are more important than others (Rosenblum & Travis, 2016, pp. 2-4).
The meaning of difference to me is that there are socially constructed categories which carry weight when people continue to feed into it. What really matters is how those statuses determine a person's life experience.

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My name is Jasmyne. I am a white, heterosexual, cis-gender female. My master statuses include low socioeconomic status, Christian religion, Jewish/White race, feminist, able-bodied,  and a first-generation college student.
I’ve always felt my family’s socioeconomic status was really a defining feature of our identity and experience of the world around us. I think that being poor and having family genetics of mental illness are the stigmatized statuses. I also think being a woman is a stigmatized status in some settings.
However, by being a college student, able-bodied, white, and Christian, I have been privileged to be represented by the majority of the country and I have had many opportunities come easier to me as a result of these privileged statuses.

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This is my dad's side of the family. My parents have been divorced for 13 years. However, since he has remarried I now have 2 amazing step-siblings to add to the love!

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These are my siblings and I, along with our mother and grandmother. The Ashkenazi Jewish genetics come from my grandmother's lineage.

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How have I experienced my stigmatized statuses?

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How have I experienced my stigmatized statuses?

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For the master status of low-socioeconomic status, I have experienced not having enough and struggling just to survive. There is a cycle of generational poverty that is so hard to get out of. When you don't have financial security, it can greatly impact all aspects of your life. You end up having to buy the cheaper, unhealthy food rather than more expensive, healthier options. There is also a large susceptibility for there to be substance abuse and lower life quality. Addiction is a common issue among my family as well as poor health due to lack of access to affordable healthcare. A huge problem with the institutional level oppression that exists with lower class, is that often times people internalize the oppression. This means they actually begin to believe the stereotypes surrounding the group they belong to. This internalized oppression can in turn impact performance in tasks, motivation to achieve goals, and overall life quality

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How have I experienced my stigmatized statuses?

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How have I experienced my stigmatized statuses?

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The feminist movement has come a long way. I do feel that women now have so many opportunities that at one time, we couldn't even dream of having.
But, the lingering effects of male dominance still impact the workplace and plenty of settings today. In my own experience of being a woman, I've had plenty of men make me feel like I was not capable of doing a job that they could do. It felt like they were assuming my abilities as lesser than theirs. However, I used the frustration with male dominance, to prove them wrong. In many jobs, I have outperformed men in physical and cognitive tasks.

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I never really felt like I had any privilege growing up. Most of the time, life felt like a struggle and it seemed unfair that many others had an easier time than I did.
However, as I get older, white privilege has become more prevalent, even in subtle ways. For example, several years ago I was caught riding around in a car with my friend (white) at 2am one morning, we had some marijuana on us. Some cops pulled us over and they simple asked us to dispose of the marijuana as they turned their backs. Basically, they let us go and we got to keep the substance too. Frankly, if I were a person of color, that situation would have ended very differently.
I can see that I am perceived as less of a threat to society, simply because of my skin color. That is privilege because I did not earn that respect and I certainly didn't deserve to be let off so easy that one morning at 2am.

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The invisible knapsack is a term coined by Peggy McIntosh in 2001. Basically this invisible knapsack represents the privilege that comes with being white. While most white people don't understand that they have an invisible advantage, they do in fact carry around opportunities, resources, and reputation simply by being born with it. McIntosh (2001) describes this privilege as essentially unearned entitlement, advantage, and dominance (pp. 167).

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As a Christian, I have definitely experienced a cultural bias within America. I have never had to fear for my life because someone didn't feel comfortable with my faith. I have never had to feel like a minority in my faith because Christianity has been one of the dominant religions in the world.
People of Muslim or Buddhist faith have had to struggle in America just to have respect and not be treated as if their beliefs are a negative thing.

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According to Rosenblum and Travis (2016), dichotomization means to draw a harsh line between two groups and counts them as mutually exclusive (pp. 105). For example, with race, society has dichotomized white and black as being entirely separate from one another.
The process of dichotomization means that the association of good and dominance with white, cannot also be associated with black. This process affects my understanding of difference because it further emphasizes the subjective nature of  difference. In my own experiences, I have never thought that dichotomization was ever helpful. I can see that humans have much more in common than we do differences. Not to mention, the harsh line is impossible since many people are multi-racial or mixed. For that, I dislike the idea of drawing harsh lines to distinguish us because I see us all as related much like a family, not as aliens to one another.

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How will my experiences color my work as a social worker?

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How will my experiences color my work as a social worker?

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A study done by Simon et al. (1997) has shown that the meanings people assign to role identities are based on their perceptions of the benefits and costs of involvement with that role. This study is relevant to internalized oppression and the fact that how people perceive categories they belong to, greatly impacts their mental health (Simon et al., 1997). But what shapes the perceptions of the role identities? And how do my personal experiences play into my view of certain role identities?

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Because of my past experiences and the background that I come from, I do have internal biases and stereotypes that I need to be aware of. Everyone has biases, but as long as you are working towards combating them that's all that matters. With growing up in a white, Christian home, there are more conservative beliefs. This colors the way I view people of different sexuality and gender. I also haven't had experience with people who have disability, so this makes is harder for me to relate to them and I tend to misunderstand them.
However on the upside, I grew up in a lower class area with a lot of diversity. This has given me the understanding that no race is any better than another. I have always valued people of another race because where I am from, everyone was struggling, whether they were brown, black, or white and this has bonded us.
To summarize, individuals learn from their life experiences and by looking to others behaviors, to form perceptions about certain social identities. Society shapes perceptions about social identities.

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I think that because of my past experiences, I will love having the opportunity to bond with people from various different backgrounds and have the chance to be a change agent. Although our perceptions from what we learned growing up will always have an impact on how we view certain behaviors or traits, a social worker understands that no matter where we came from, we can always view every person as worthy of quality life. My own experience of poverty and instability will always impact my mindset. Even today, I still am in a mindset of poverty, like there isn't enough resources for everyone. As a social worker, I need to constantly be reminding myself of the implicit biases that exist and how I can change the way I view people who are in these different categories than myself.
One of the guiding principles of the NASW code of ethics, "Social workers seek to enhance clients’ capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs" is crucial to understanding how to treat every person as worthy and valuable. I want to continue to learn how to empower people, without overstepping and trying to solve the issue for them.

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My understanding of difference is that not everyone gets the same shot a life and oppressed people have to work much harder to reach their goals compared to someone else with privilege. As Marilyn Frye puts it, oppression is "the experience of being caged in: all avenues, every direction, are blocked or booby-trapped" (pp. 131).
Growing up around a large black community, I've seen the different treatment of individuals from stigmatized groups. I've seen the obvious dominance that exists within the white upper class, and how the way we perceive each other, impacts the way each person perceives themselves. A social worker's role is to work on having the same perceptions for every person no matter their race, class, gender, sexuality, or religion. All people need to know that they are deserving of the same privilege as everyone else.