Blog #7

The discussion about target and non-target identities, including the amazing presentation by Nihal, has been one of my favorite classes thus far. The fact that these identities and non-identities are incredibly sensitive is what I think makes them most important to discuss. Our culture today is so stubborn with the treatment of people based on these identifiers and there lack of them that to not shed light on the subject would be unjust. I believe our culture today has to work on its skill of listening to other's stories rather then making a preemptive judgment based on identifiers.

For me personally one of the few targeted identities in my life is where I am from. I am from a smaller town north of Chicago on what is called The North Shore. I went to New Trier High school where many incredible people have built their lives on. While all that is great the stigma about The North Shore is that stuck-up snotty CEO's that have old family money and attended New Trier High school previously as well, now send their kids and grandkids to New Trier to continue the cycle. The North Shore is littered with people exactly like that but my experience is very very different. While yes my family held on to stay in this area for the nationally known school systems, my parents worked for themselves and had my brother and I working as soon as we could. My childhood and schooling experience was incredibly impactful as I made some life long friends, received an amazing education from nationally ranked schools and lived in a comfortable home. This environment does not make me who I am though, I believe it is how we react in such environments that prove more who you are as a person. I could recognize the over the top ridiculous of some of the people around me and to put it simply just realize that that wasn't real life. I knew that as soon as I could I would give my thanks to the North Shore and be on my way to experience life instead of just coast through it.

A non-target identity that I fit with is a white female, specifically focusing on the race. I have never had to experience racism in the ways we have seen it in our world. The amount of grief people our caused for their authentic skin color is never something I have had to deal with and I cannot imagine the oddness and pain people must feel for just being themselves. This is something that needs to change. The fact that remarks and judgements are made solely on an identifier such as race is wrong. There is so much hate when race is covered and the reasoning for it has never and will never be valid. People are people.