During class last Tuesday we constructed and discussed social identify profiles that illustrated our various group memberships. A couple characteristics of my social identify, such as physical ability, I rarely thought about until put in a situation where I no longer belonged in the dominant group. Dr. Beverly Tatum observed this same trend when she asked students to complete the sentence “I am_______.” She found that students seldom mentioned an element of identity “where a person is member of the dominant or advantaged social group” (Tatum, 21). When I broke several bones in high school and the doctor ordered me to not lift anything over five pounds, I suddenly became keenly aware of my lack of physical ability when getting books down from my locker at school or lifting coffee pots while working at Caribou Coffee. In retrospect, this experience demonstrated an important lesson in not taking for granted the components of my identify in which I belong to the dominant group.

The element of my social identify that I struggled most to analyze in terms of “most aware of” or “have strongest effect on how you see yourself as a person” was race because until taking this course, I seldom thought about my racial identify just as I hardly ever considered my physical ability. The majority of the assigned readings for the past week focused on the development of racial identity, and because I experienced difficulty in analyzing how race effects my social profile, I thought it would be interesting to assess what stage of racial identity characterizes me.
The models discussed thus far in class are primarily used as a framework for people of color because forming a racial identity is a much more salient issue for people of color living in a dominant White culture. Nevertheless, it seemed as if the overarching ideas for development applied also to those with White skin. After much thought about where in the cycle my identity lies, I came to no conclusion. Although I am able to recall past interactions and thoughts about race, especially in the "encounter" stage when my predominantly White middle school integrated with a predominantly Black middle school, I was never forced to grapple with the emotions and inequalities that accompany not belonging to the dominant racial group. This whole thought process made me start to consider questions such as “What exactly is “White” culture to me?” In the past when asked to define my “culture” I immediately think of my Norwegian heritage, and the language, food, songs, customs and values that I grew up with. This, however, constitutes my ethnic culture, and I never contemplated what exactly White culture entails. I guess it will be interesting to see what the psychologists say about my development when we read about the models for white identity.