Personal Action Plan Observation
Introduction
Social class can be defined as a hierarchical stratification or distinction that exists between individuals or societal cultures and groups (Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.). My major objective in this paper is to present an observation of a different social class from my own and thereafter formulate an action plan that is based on my observation and also determine how to use the new knowledge I have gained since it is related to diversity consciousness.
I normally consider myself as a middle class individual. This assumption is based on my college education, income and my general state of living. Since I consider myself to be a middle class individual, for this particular project, I decided to observe members of a social class who I perceive to be lower than mine. What place would have been better than a local soup kitchen? I choose the local soup kitchen mainly because of its reputation. The kitchen is widely known in the state and needy people stream in every day to get a little portion of the free food. This particular soup kitchen is located in a relatively low income neighborhood of Phoenix. Before embarking on the observation, I did a little background check on the kitchen and I found out that it is actually staffed by a local volunteer organization known as the Phoenix Humanitarians. Apart from that local community groups and churches also give a lending hand. I did not want to make my observation process so obvious so I tried to blend in a little with the common visitors of the kitchen. I went dressed in relatively cheap and worn out clothes that I had bought from a thrift shop. I even queued along the other visitors to receive my portion of the free food as part of my observation process. The food was not like the one I was used to. I could tell that quality was not really considered during the process of preparing the food. This was fairly reasonable since most of the beneficiaries of the soup kitchen only wanted something to put into their mouths and quality did not really matter to them. I was very uncomfortable during the entire session as I feared someone would recognize me. This place was definitely out of my comfort zone. However, everyone was actually very friendly. Most of the people in the kitchen were from different races, ranging from Hispanics, Caucasians and African Americans. I however could not help but notice that the percentage of the Hispanics and the African Americans was slightly higher than that of the Caucasians. I also noticed that most of the soup kitchen visitors were elderly citizens. There were also a teenagers and even smaller children. In addition, most were dressed in relatively worn out or tattered clothing. Some carried huge loads on their backs and I could tell that most were homeless people.
Perception Before, During and After
Before embarking on the study, I had a quite negative perception of lower class about lower class individuals. I felt pity and compassion for them. I always thought that life was very hard for them and that they were so stressed out in their lives and had no joy whatsoever. However, after visiting the soup kitchen and interacting with these people, my eyes were opened. It’s like these people forgot their problems when they arrived at the soup kitchen. Here was a place where they could get free food and drinks and interact with their compatriots. They indeed seemed very happy and I might even go ahead and say that most of them seemed contented with their lives. The friendly interaction with me left me in awe.
Social consciousness
Social consciousness can be defined as the ability to be aware of and also understand the different or diverse ways in which people are actually different. One interest thing from this observation is that I did not actually witness any strong display or observation of social consciousness. There were however various social inequalities that I was personally able to observe. For example there was social inequality in issues relating to quality housing, dressing, education and even access to high quality food or balanced diet. The surprising thing was that these people were actually not much concerned about this and it never made them lose an ounce of sleep. Most of the people I talked to while disguised revealed that they had no homes and their education levels were very dismal. There were also a variety of differences between this lower class and my own middle class. However, I have come to draw a conclusion that no matter the type of life that one leads or the location that anyone lives, everyone’s needs are pretty much the same. For instance, despite the low quality of food at the soup kitchen, this was still food to the needy people and they never thought of it otherwise or differently. We also need happiness in our lives and this was actually in plenty in these people’s lives. Although I did not really observe any traits or characteristics of social consciousness from this particular soup kitchen setting, the whole process has however increased diversity consciousness awareness. From these observations, I will be able to formulate a personal action plan.
Personal Action Plan
In conclusion, I have decide that my personal action plan will be to engage in a lifelong goal of moving away from my comfort zone and reminding myself and also others that diversity is indeed a very important aspect of interactions that happen every day.
According to Butcher (2010), there are six different traits of diversity consciousness and these and they include: conducting examinations of ourselves and also our own worlds, expanding the knowledge that we have about others and the worlds they live in, stepping out of the personal spaces, measuring the playing field level, conducting checkups on ourselves and actually following through. (pg 124). On a personal level, I have mainly placed focus on the second trait and this is expanding the knowledge that I have about others and the worlds they live in. I have actually gained a lot of knowledge relating to this aspect due to the fact that I have experienced a setting that is different from my own firsthand. Another trait that I have also touched on is the third one which involves stepping out of our personal spaces. If it were not for this task, I would not really have stepped out of my comfort. It has indeed shown me that it sometimes good to step out of our personal comfort zone. To improve on this, I definitely need to be stepping out more often. This improvement will also be evidenced by the sixth trait of following through. The most important thing is actually seeking out fresh experiences and reflecting a lot on what I have learnt from them.
References
Bucher, R. D. 2010. Diversity consciousness: Opening our minds to people, cultures, and opportunities. 3rd. Retrieved from the University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
Social Class. (n.d.). In Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/social+class?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=social+class&sa=Search#922
