Socio-Economic Class: 'Planned Pregnancy'

Socio-Economic Class
The writer was the product of teenage parents. According to Planned Pregnancy, there are substantial racial and ethnic disparities among birthrate for adolescents age 15-19. The birthrate for African American teens is more than twice as high as it is for whites and three times higher for Hispanic teens. The writer’s mother was a tenth grader who hid her pregnancy from everyone. The writer’s father was a graduating senior enlisted in the United States Army. The writer’s father did not learn of the pregnancy until after the writer was born, the writer’s father asked the mother if she wanted to marry, the mother said no and left North Carolina. The writer had already been taken to New York after her birth, which took place
at home. In the sixties teenage pregnancy and home delivery were not uncommon, especially in the African American communities. In nineteen-sixty-nine the south was beginning to change desegregation was taking place in a lot of southern schools. However, African Americans was still not welcomed or allowed in some places, some whites did not accept being in the same areas as African Americans. The message received by some whites were unpleasant and degrading, whites did not consider themselves on the same social or economic class as African Americans. The socio-economic class of poor was what most African-American were in the nineteen-sixties. This was determined by the amount of money, education and their occupation.
Geographical Location The writer was born into the geographic location of Cedar Creek, North Carolina in Cumberland County, which is 34 degrees latitude and 78 degrees longitude. The history of Cedar Creek goes back to 1745 in Bladen County, where William Augustus defeated Highland Scots at the Battle of Culloden. The name Cumberland was given to remind them that they had been defeated in their home country by England. Cumberland County had formed many counties in 1771 Johnston and Orange counties make up what today is known as Wake County, in 1784 the western part of Cumberland County is now Moore County and in 1855 the northern part of Cumberland County became Harnett County. In 1911, the southern part of Cumberland County and Robeson County formed Hoke County. In this regional location today there are six counties: Harnett, Sampson, Bladen, Robeson, Hoke and Moore County. These counties are the working poor areas, overpopulated mostly single parent homes.
Community
The writer was born into a rural area where most of the people were family members either by birth or marriage. The community has transformed over the years, most of the families have either passed away or relocated out of the community. The land is up for sale, some of the older generation remain, but once they are gone, no one wants to attend to the property. The reason is due to agricultural land that has been used as residential areas, no one questions this until a family member chooses to take over the land then goes to the county tax office and learns about these issues. The land must be converted over, but that includes work getting the property appraised, and the county inspector must come out and survey the land. Once those things are done, then the family must do certain things that the inspector has listed that need to be done before the process can proceeded any further. Sometimes extra work deters a person from completing a task, however if a person wants something bad enough they will succeed.
Gender
A person’s gender is male or female, masculinity and femininity, a person’s gender is given at birth depending on their genitals. The writer’s gender is female, she has heard over the years that females have their place in society. In the sixty’s women were seen and not heard. Women were treated as property of their husband or the males in their life. The writer’s mother stated that if any one of her children should have been male, Sheryl should have been. This hurt the writer’s feelings until her mother explained what she was saying. Her mother explained that she was independent whenever faced with unpleasant event she always handled them. The writer was a mother of three male children rearing them by herself beating the odds of failure. The male gender is usually classified as the head of the household, the provider. Gender is more about the expectations of a society, behavior and characteristics. Every culture has a set of standards that they are expected to follow based on their gender.(Gender and Gender Identity, 2017)
Sexual Orientation and Age Sexual Orientation is defined as heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual.
Sexual orientation refers to whom one is sexually attractive to. The writer is a heterosexual female who is attractive to heterosexual males. A person’s sexuality is important in shaping who they are as a person. Their ability to reproduce can affect them emotionally and shape how they feel about themselves and others. The writer ideas of family is everyone has their own sexual orientation she lives according to the bible God made man and woman. However the writer does not criticize how another person’s lives their life. What goes on in another person home is not any of her
business. Age can define many choose a person make about their life major changes as well as simple changes. It is said that with age comes wisdom, however that may not be true of all individuals. The writer is in the classification of middle age, the period between early adulthood and old age, usually between 45 and 65. In today’s society, middle age has been pushed back because of all the health conscious exercising individuals. Middle age is said to start at 53 by this age a person enjoys taking an evening nap, walking a few miles in the evening, choose comfort over the latest styles and groaning when bend over. The writer has heard many different quotes about old age, her favorite is “an old soul” which means a person who is wise before their years, with age comes wisdom. The writer thinks that no matter the age a person will do what they feel like doing at that time. Some people enjoy a quiet life others the more drama the better. The writer feels that the younger generation of this time needs to reexamine themselves a lot of them have no clue of what is going on around them. The young folks are out here doing foolish things that will follow them the rest of their life, things that can keep them from going any further in life. The prisons are full of our young men and women and they do not care, what we are as a society going to do. The writer’s thoughts on aging is simple, enjoy life everyday if life throws you lemons, make some good lemonade and proceed on. You have to have a plan, if this does not work, try something else.
Race
What does race mean? A person’s physical characteristics: skin, hair, eye color, and bone structure. Whereas, ethnicity is a person’s culture background, nationality, ancestry, language and regional culture. Race and ethnicity is different one explains who a person is, the other explains where they came from. The terms used to identity or describe a person is sometimes use to be disrespectful, however the writer does not use hurtful words toward another. The writer understand that because we as people may not agree with everyone’s race or ethnicity that does not mean one race is over another or better than another. The writer has learned to explore another’s race or ethnicity, it is wise to learn as much as you can about others. Do not pass judgement on others, how would she feel about a situation if it was her being judged.
Physical and intellectual ability The writer’s ability to perform certain acts are limited due to her strength in her legs, yet she does not let that limit her intellectual ability.
Many time it is not the writer that puts limits on her legs it is the other people around her. If the writer let physical abilities limit her intellectually she would be in college today. When she took the intelligence test for school required by her sponsor, she was told that they never had a client that could choice whatever she wanted to take in college. Shocked, she started school at Fayetteville Tech the writer decided on associate of arts because she knew she wanted to go to Fayetteville State she just did not know what she wanted to study. Before graduating from Fayetteville Tech the writer took a job seekers placement test, again the writer was took she could do train for whatever job she desired to have. The writer sums all that up to her faith, in all things put God first. The writer’s is serious about her religion beliefs, her faith in God and she tries to live according to the word of God. (How should our faith affect the way we live?, 2017)The writer is not perfect she makes mistakes but at the end of each day she asks God for forgiveness. The writer knows that religion and employment should not be entwined, and she will not change that as a social
worker. In conclusion, the difficulties the writer sees herself facing in her career as a social worker is hard to define at this time because she has not faced any real issues. She is aware that she is kind hearted sometimes too much. She feel the least prepared to work with abuse and/or neglected children and older adults.