Social Class Reflection

1536 Words4 Pages

Through many life experiences and knowledge around oppression/privilege, I have been able to reflect on how my own identities and ideas shape my reactions; along with my learning process when discussing class readings involving oppression/privilege. These class readings touching base on topics such as lookism, classism, and ableism. With reading and discussing these topics, I have been able to re-think old ideas and ways of working, address questions that have been generated from myself, realize why these questions are important to my practice and personal life, and find ways I have or could use these ideas in my professional practice, employment, and/or personal life. As a result, from reading about these topics I have also been successful …show more content…

With this being true, it can be said that we use a person’s appearance in order to determine what social class he/she associates with. Classism, according to Howe, “is a process wherein the wealthy are privileged and assigned high status, while the poor and the working class and their cultures are stigmatized and disadvantaged simply because of relative wealth (E. Howe).” Classism can affect how individuals treat one another, which means this can affect how well I assist my clients. This is so because with both my clients and I understanding that social class plays a major role in determining how an individual will be treated by others can determine if I provide them the help they need. For example, due to the fact that I am one who is interested in the area of social work dealing with adults who may need government assistance, along with other issues they are challenged with, the client and I will both recognize we live in different social classes. In my line of work, it will be my job not to take advantage of the power I have in approving them for certain assistance programs. The client will understand this and could possibly be turned away if he/she feels as if I am looking down on them because they feel I am in a higher social class than they are. Therefore I have taken this into consideration and try my best to treat others with respect, no matter their circumstances or where they are classified

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