What Is My Identity?

WHAT: Throughout Stevenson’s writing, he harnesses multiple social identities such as being an educated African-American male, who lives in a predominately white-driven southern state and not poverty-stricken. Each of these social identities carries with it, a discourse that Stevenson must face on a daily basis. Firstly, being African-American holds a racial discourse in itself. Then, being an African-American in a predominately white-driven state can cause discourse throughout the social lives of not only Stevenson himself, but also, the people around him. Southern states are thought of to be very conservative and republican. With that thought, many believe that southern states are home to many racially discriminative individuals who believe that the white population is superior to all other races. This alone can cause issues for Stevenson. To push the issue further, Stevenson is also highly educated, which puts him at a higher class and a poses him as a bigger threat to the “white superior” mindset engraved into the minds of most southern individuals. Educated individuals tend to sit at a higher standing than those who have received lesser or no education. Stevenson understands his identities and the discourses that come with them, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling like an outsider. He writes, “It seemed like we were all cloaked in an unwelcome garment of racial difference that constrained, confined and restricted us” (14). Stevenson is like a walking hammer, breaking down the racially driven barriers that crowd the southern states. Although he faces these discourses throughout his life, he does not let it interfere with his goal of helping incarcerated prisoners, which most individuals disregard due to the fact that they believe prisoners are the world’s dangerous individuals.

SO WHAT: Stevenson’s different social identities are important in the personal experiences he shares with the reader because they dictate the situations he encounters and the experience he learns from those situations. One’s identity can shape a person’s experiences. For example, Stevenson writes about his grandmother and the advice she always passed down. He writes, “The legacy of slavery very much shaped my grandmother and the way she raised her nine children. It influenced the way she talked to me, the way she constantly told me to, ‘Keep close’” (14). Her experience with slavery had shaped her daily life and in turn, shaped the way she brought up her children and grandchildren. Just like Stevenson’s grandmother and Stevenson himself, the individuals in the prison also face harsh realities with the identities they possess. Prisoners tend to be “permanently [labeled as] ‘criminal,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘rapist,’ ‘thief,’ ‘drug dealer,’ ‘sex offender,’ ‘felon…’ (15). These labels have an obvious negative connotation within societies, which put the accused people at a very low position on the social hierarchy; thus, their positionality prevents them from defending themselves. Their voices become mute. Their opinions are never heard. They become invisible throughout society — hopeless and depressed. It is brave individuals like Stevenson that come into the dark, cold prisons and fights to give the accused people their voices back. He fights to give them the equality and honest justice they deserve. Most importantly, despite their daily conditions, he shines a light on the people he helps and gives them hope to find their real identity again, outside of the demeaning prison walls.

NOW WHAT: All identities come with some type of constraint, big or small. Stevenson represents many people that are viewed as outcasts or nuisances to society. Due to this, it makes it difficult for these individuals to reconstruct their personal identities into a positive and more reasonable identity. The accused people can reconstruct their identities to an acceptable extent, but the labels of “criminal,” “felon,” etc. are “identities they cannot change regardless of the circumstances of their crimes or any improvement they might make in their lives” (15). These people will forever have a barrier between themselves and their real freedom, their real identity. Similar to Stevenson and the people he represent, the people who come into my community partner site also face issues with rebuilding their identities. The identities that most of the people possess are being undocumented, Hispanic and poor. These identities constrain the individuals by preventing them from getting proper healthcare and from getting citizenship in the country. Without citizenship, these individuals force themselves to become invisible, like Stevenson’s clients, and thus, they become hopeless of achieving what they came here to do — to find the American dream. My community partner site, Rotacare, has become an amazing aid in giving the patients their identity back, like Stevenson does with those he represents. Rotacare provides healthcare and emotional support to the patients, which in turn, gives back the hope that these individuals once had. Despite any constraints or discourses, everyone needs an identity and no one should ever question what their identity is.