After reading The Complexity of Identity under the week one material, answer the following discussion questions below.
Discussion Questions:
1. Tatum describes identity as “complex.” What are the factors that make identity “complex”?
2. How do you think that (what Tatum calls) your “dominant” and your “subordinate” identities have shaped your sense of yourself?
3. Can you give examples of Tatum’s view that people tend to be more aware of their own “subordinate” identities than of their “dominant” identities? If so, why do you think that is?
4. Think of different aspects of your own identity, such as race or class, and discuss how those aspects of your life may have impacted your views of society?
5. Tatum notes that in many ways we represent multiple different identities, how do we chose what factors of our identity represent who we really are as people?