Power & Privilege Activity Resources
Websites:
www.unh.edu/residential-life/diversity/
~This University of New Hampshire site is FULL of activities, training and
assessment tools.
www.servicelearning.umn.edu
Click on "community partner", then click on the "Get Up Get Into It Get
Involved".
~This link will take you to an introduction page of a 3 hours sensitivity training
done with students at the University of Minnesota prior to serving in the
community.
Books:
The Education of a WASP, Lois Stavley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
White Privilege: Unpacking Your Invisible Knapsack, Peggy Mackintosh
Roote: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Black Boy, Richard Wright
A Class Divided: Then and Now, William Peters
Black Rage, William H. Grier with Price M. Cobbs
Rage of a Privileged Class, Ellis Cose
Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism, Derrick Bell
Killing Rage: Ending Racism, bell hooks
Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice
Readings for Diversity and Social Justice
Magazines:
http://www.horizonmag.com/4/jane-elliott.asp
Journals:
Teaching Sociology
Rethinking Schools (online at rethinkingschools.org) Search for "race" or "racism"
Articles:
Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to
See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies"
Brian Obach, Jan. 2000
Teaching Sociology
~has a very interesting activity
Brian Obach, July 1999
Teaching Sociology
Margaret Crowdes, Jan. 2000 Teaching Sociology
~has an excellent activity
Bernard McGranes, Jan. 1993 Teaching Sociology (he also has a book)
~that I have found as excellent activities to disrupt students sense of "normalacy"
of being white and middle class.
Videos:
A Class Divided – Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes classroom experiment. Go to
http://www.residentassistant.com/programming/humanawareness/blueeyesbrowneye.htm
for a description of the activity. It is a valuable video to show and have a
discussion, although it is highly recommended that you do not replicate this
experiment, as it is unethical.
Specific Activities:
 The American Dream is an activity where you line people up on a horizontal
line (you can choose to blindfold, or not), and ask them to take a step
forward or backwards for various scenarios (First generation college student,
ever worried about walking alone, judged by color of your skin, denied a job
because of your gender.... etc). You can even have them hold hands so that
they can process what it was like to separate from others bades on privilege.
It's a pretty powerful activity, particularly for people with privilege.
 Divide class/group into three or more "communities," each with a border
(made of masking tape), resources to make their ideal community, play money,
etc. There is also an authority (police, housing authority, and a jail) to
keep order. Each community receives different space, and has a different
population density, and, of course, has different amounts of money,
resources, etc. In addition to the unequal distribution of money and
resources (pens, markers, papers, and other things needed to build the
community), the government officials treat communities differently, based
upon prestige of the community. They bend over backwards to help the
wealthy community and make life miserable for the "poor" community, throwing
them in jail and taking away what little open space they may have.
Eventually, the game runs its course, and there are discussion questions
that help get at the very issues you mention in your email. Students think
about what they saw (and what they didn't notice!). They being to think
about structures of power and opportunity, fairness and unfairness,
difference. They consider the significance of borders.
The game always works well for my students, most of whom are white
middle/upper-middle class students from relatively traditional backgrounds.
When times with the appropriate readings, it becomes doubly powerful.