The Lives We Imagine
Stratification in Everyday Life
The character’s place in the stratification system, as a low-income, first-generation Somali American teenage girl, has a profound effect on her life chances. Growing up in a disadvantaged area of St. Paul, she has been attending underfunded public schools with no advanced classes or college counseling, thereby robbing her of any legitimate academic progress or opportunities in the future: The Lives We Imagine.
Her single mother works two jobs, so she is often thrust into caregiving roles at home, taking time away from schoolwork. Systemic barriers such as lack of affordable healthcare, language differences, and cultural ignorance in healthcare settings prevent her from getting the care she needs.
Her race and gender also limit what she can envision for her future. As a Black Muslim girl, she faces stereotypes about her intellectual capacity and place in the classroom, which lower teacher expectations for her and minimize the likelihood that she is encouraged to attend college.
In her Somali culture, cultural norms encouraging people to put family before themselves discourage ambitions that seem overly individualistic. Those overlapping disadvantages reduce her imagined and real-life chances and diminish her scope of success to what seems possible against the odds rather than what she might want. Her dreams are present but are shaped by survival more than aspiration.
Intersectionality as a Lived Experience
Intersectionality reveals that this Somali American teen’s intersecting identities, race, gender, class, religion, and newcomer status do not operate independently of one another but rather conflate to produce her unique experiences of disadvantage. As a low-income Black Muslim girl, she faces racialization, putting her down as someone less able to succeed at school, even as gender norms frame her as a free source of unpaid caregiving labor in her home.
She might not have the same domestic duties if she was a male. Her educational and healthcare prospects might be brighter if she were white or middle class. However, for a marginalized immigrant, such identities compound, limiting her life chances and colors how institutions address her needs. Intersectionality draws attention to how identities do not simply add on but amplify structural burdens in distinctive, interlocking ways (Conerly et al., 2021).
Institutional and Structural Forces
The two primary institutions that form the trajectory of the character’s life are the public education system and the healthcare industry, both of which engage in institutional discrimination. She goes to an under-resourced school in a low-income area of St. Paul, Minnesota, and there, she has few opportunities for advanced coursework and college prep programs that are already severely limiting the scope of her academic and professional future. Teachers may have their own unconscious biases against her. Due to her race and immigrant background, they may be undervaluing her and dismissing her ambitions.
In caring for her health, she encounters language barriers and a lack of culturally aware providers, which can lead to miscommunication, a lack of preventive care, and inadequate mental health support. These barriers are not strictly physical; they are a matter of uneven resource distribution and long-term neglect, not random misfortune. Institutional discrimination shows how structural injustices are nested in everyday institutions and constrain life prospects (Conerly et al., 2021).
Pathways to Change and Empowerment
If Minnesota increased funding for all the public schools in her low-income neighborhood, she would have better access to high-quality education and college prep programs. Culturally responsive school counselors and community health workers could help her maintain her mental health and address identity-specific struggles. If Minnesota had extended Medicaid to cover more people and provided mobile health clinics staffed with Somali-speaking professionals, she would have had access to preventative care and mental health services.
Additionally, state investment in after-school tutoring and youth empowerment programs affirming her identity would ensure academic and emotional resilience. Institutional reform and life chances, grounded in a framework of institutional reform and life chances, would allow her to envision and strive for a future not shaped by caregiving and financial hardship.
References
Conerly, T. R., Holmes, K., & Tamang, A. L. (2021). Introduction to sociology (3rd ed.). OpenStax, Rice University.
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Question 
Please follow the attached assignment instructions.
SOCI 101: Introduction to SociologySouthwest Minnesota State University
Assignment: The Lives We Imagine
Writing Guide: Stratification, Race, and the Character You Created
This guide is designed to help you succeed on The Lives We Imagine assignment by offering practical strategies for analysis, structure, and integration of sociological concepts. Use this document as a companion to your assignment prompt—reference it as you plan, draft, and revise your submission.
1. Connect Stratification to Everyday Life
Don’t just describe your character’s background, show how that background affects their everyday choices, opportunities, and constraints. Think about access to healthcare, education, employment, housing, and community resources.
Helpful question: How does where your character falls in the stratification system affect what they can imagine for their future?
Consider how class, race, gender, and geography shape the boundaries of possibility in your character’s world.
2. Use Intersectionality as a Lens, Not a List
Rather than simply naming identity categories, analyze how they overlap to shape experience in meaningful ways. Intersectionality helps uncover how layered identities (e.g., immigrant and working-class, or Native and queer) interact with structures of power and inequality.
Instead of writing, “He is Latino and low-income,” explain how being Latino and low-income impacts his access to healthcare differently than if he were white and low-income, or Latino and middle-class.
3. Ground Structural Forces in Concrete Institutions
When identifying institutional forces that shape your character’s life, be specific. What systems are involved? How do they operate in practice?
For example:
● If education is a force, talk about standardized testing, underfunded schools, or lack of college access.
● If law enforcement is relevant, consider policing, surveillance, or the school-to-prison pipeline.
Avoid vague claims like “society is unfair.” Instead, pinpoint how specific structures reinforce inequality in ways your character feels directly.
4. Propose Change That’s Tangible and Tied to Course Content
Your proposed change should be realistic and clearly tied to themes from the course. Focus on specific policies, programs, or cultural shifts that could alter your character’s life trajectory.
Aim for:
“If her state expanded Medicaid eligibility and added culturally responsive mental health providers, she might receive care that prevents chronic school absences.”
Not:
“Healthcare should be better.”
Demonstrate that you understand how social institutions work, and how they might work differently.
The Lives We Imagine
5. Apply Sociological Concepts Thoughtfully
You should use key terms from Chapters 9 and 11 (such as “social stratification,” “racialization,” “institutional discrimination,” or “life chances”) in a way that demonstrates real understanding.
Rather than defining concepts abstractly, show how they operate within your character’s experience. This isn’t a vocabulary test, it’s a demonstration of sociological thinking.
6. Build on, but Do Not Repeat, Your Discussion Post
This assignment expands the analysis from your Week 2 discussion, but it must offer new depth and direction. Don’t copy and paste – develop your ideas further.
Try:
● A deeper look at a structural barrier only briefly mentioned before.
● A more nuanced intersectional analysis of identity.
● A new focus on a social force or pathway to change.
Your paper should stand alone as a cohesive and elevated analysis.
Final Checklist
- I have clearly analyzed my character’s location in the stratification system.
- I have used intersectionality to explain how multiple identities shape experience.
- I have identified and explained two specific institutional or structural forces.
- I have proposed a concrete, realistic change that connects to course themes.
- I have directly used sociological concepts from Chapters 9 and 11.
If you are unsure how to apply a particular concept or would like feedback on your analysis before submitting, please reach out. I’m happy to help