MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
FOUR LAYERS OF DIVERSITY WHEEL
From University of Massachusetts Medical School, www.umassmed.edu/dio/strategy/layers/
This diagram shows different kinds
of ways people are diverse. We all
have identity perspectives from
multiple categories listed above.
And there are many more ways we
are diverse beyond these examples.
Based on these ways of identifying
and interacting in society, there are
various ways power and control are
sought to benefit certain groups.
This is power and control is how
certain groups gain privileges they
eventually receive automatically. POWER AND CONTROL WHEEL
From EVE Ending Violent Encounters ©, www.eveinc.org/main/index.php/about-dating-violence
This diagram shows different kinds
of ways people impose power and
control on others. It is more likely
that we have all experienced being
both the perpetrator and the target of
disempowering behavior. Based on
these different forms of power of
control (which can, especially in
extreme cases, be considered
violent behavior), some individuals,
groups and systems use power and
control are sought to benefit
themselves. Page 1 of 6
MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
CONVERSATION THROUGH A WORLD CAFÉ
From The Art of Hosting ©, www.theworldcafe.com/method
* Note: This is a much-abbreviated version of a world café, which usually runs about 2 hours
WORLD CAFÉ OPERATING PRINCIPLES
 Set the context for the conversation
 Create hospitable space
 Explore questions that matter
 Encourage each person’s contribution
 Connect diverse people and ideas
 Listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions
 Make collective knowledge visible
WORLD CAFÉ FACILITATION LOGISTICS
 Seat 4-5 people in conversation clusters
 Ask one person to stay at the cluster location as the “host” and invite other members to
move to a new cluster after each question for new ideas and insights
 At the end, ask students to write down 6 words on a sheet of paper that *may* be
included in an artistic mural of notes about the conversation (this is called a “harvest”)
 Follow the suggested time allotment for rounds of conversation:
Duration
5 min
1 min
10 min
3 min
10 min
3 min
10 min
3 min
5 min
Activity
Introduction of extended HR “world café”
Get volunteers for “Hosts” and pass out
packets
Students take turns responding to question
1 (allocate ~90 sec. per student)
Explanation
Listed on page 1 pf packet
Select 1 student per each conversation cluster area
Q1: What am I curious to understand about privilege
or diversity that I don’t want or am afraid to ask?
Find new cluster (except for “Host”)
Students take turns responding to question
2 (allocate ~90 sec. per student)
Find new cluster (except for “Host”)
Students take turns responding to question
3 (allocate ~90 sec. per student)
N/A if no time or space
Q2: who do I need to be courageous enough to ask –
and why her/him?
N/A if no time or space
Q3: Which tool would help me most to ask my
question – and why? a) self-awareness, b) a safe
space or c) tense conversation tools
Quick thoughts from whole group
Write a 6-word memoir about your thoughts
on diversity or privilege after world café
Discoveries or “Ahas”
Paper to be provided. Info here:
www.sixwordmemoirs.com/schools/
WORLD CAFÉ ETIQUETTE (safe space rules for the conversation)
 Focus on what matters
 Listen to be understood
 Contribute to your thinking
 Speak your mind and heart
 Link and connect ideas
 Listen together for themes, insights and deeper questions
WORLD CAFÉ MATERIALS DESIRED
 Desks or chairs in clusters
 Paper to scribble on at desks or tables
 Markers, pens or other writing utensils
 Flip chart or white board to write group insights
 Handout packet for conversation facilitation
Page 2 of 6
MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
THREE ACTION TOOLS FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
From Pono Stories ©, www.ourponospace.com
THE QUESTIONS WE'LL SEEK TO ANSWER WITH SELF-AWARENESS
* Use this tool when the thing you want to change is out of your power and
control or is YOU
1. What am I believing?
2. Is it the truth?
3. What does it feel like to believe this?
4. How has this belief affected your life?
5. What does that belief feel like in your body?
6. What does that feeling need (to feel better)?
7. What would life be like without this belief?
8. Who would you be without this belief?
THE QUESTIONS WE'LL SEEK TO ANSWER WITH SAFE SPACE
* Use this tool when the thing you want to change is a physical space or the
people in the space
1. Is the space warm and comfortable?
2. Can I make the rules for engaging in this space?
3. Can I "be here now"?
4. How do I know people really want to connect with me?
5. Will I be allowed to tell my story?
6. Can I trust the people in this space?
7. Do I have the power to "name" what makes me feel threatened?
8. Will I be rewarded for being vulnerable?
9. How will my story be recorded or documented?
10. How will I remember this experience?
11. How will you fight for my story?
THE CHALLENGES WE'LL SEEK TO TAKE ON WITH TENSE CONVERSATION
* Use this tool when the thing you want to change is a person’s perspective
and it requires a difficult conversation
1. Choose to have the conversation you've been avoiding.
2. Negotiate your needs and deal breakers for talking.
3. Share the facts and your feelings as you see it.
4. If you/they don't "get it, ask questions.
5. If you're offended, say "OUCH!"
6. Tell your "OUCH" story.
7. Switch places; tell each other’s "OUCH" stories like they were your own.
8. If it gets intense, don't talk; just listen (recognizing that silence is a voice,
too).
9. Say sorry for the pain you caused ...and mean it.
10. Take a time out with your reference group.
11. When you go back to the main group, remind them that folks in your
reference group are not all the same.
12. Say how you're doing/feeling and ask for help if you need it.
13. Do the next right thing and don't keep score.
14. Give a compliment on something they wouldn't expect you to notice.
15. Take part in something new that makes you uncomfortable.
16. Use your privilege to be honest with your privilege reference group about
something that isn't right.
Page 3 of 6
MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
WORKING DEFINITIONS OF POWER & PRIVILEGE
From © Leaven 2003 Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White Women and ©
Visions, Inc. and the MSU Extension Multicultural Awareness Workshop
INSTITUTIONAL POWER
The ability or official authority to decide what is best for others. The ability to decide who will
have access to resources. The capacity to exercise control over others.
PREJUDICE
A judgment or opinion that is formed on insufficient grounds before facts are known or in
disregard of facts that contradict it. Prejudices are learned and can be unlearned.
STEREOTYPE
An exaggerated or distorted belief that attributes characteristics to members of a particular
group, simplistically lumping them together and refusing to acknowledge differences among
members of the group.
OPPRESSION
The combination of prejudice and institutional power which creates a system that discriminates
against some groups (often called “target groups”) and benefits other groups (often called
“dominant groups”). Examples of these systems are racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism,
classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism. These systems enable dominant groups to exert control
over target groups by limiting their rights, freedom, and access to basic resources such as
health care, education, employment, and housing.
 Four Levels of Oppression/”isms” and Change:
o Personal: Values, Beliefs, Feelings
o Interpersonal: Actions, Behaviors, Language
o Institutional: Rules, Policies, Procedures
o Cultural: Beauty, Truth, Right
PRIVILEGE
Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives
advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of
target groups. In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one
or more of these social identity groups:
 White people;
 Able-bodied people;
 Heterosexuals;
 Males;
 Christians;
 Middle or owning class people;
 Middle-aged people;
 English-speaking people
Privilege is characteristically invisible to people who have it. People in dominant groups often
believe that they have earned the privileges that they enjoy or that everyone could have access
to these privileges if only they worked to earn them. In fact, privileges are unearned and they
are granted to people in the dominant groups whether they want those privileges or not, and
regardless of their stated intent.
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MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
Unlike targets of oppression, people in dominant groups are frequently unaware that they are
members of the dominant group due to the privilege of being able to see themselves as persons
rather than stereotypes.
RACE
Someone has said that “race is a pigment of our imagination”. That is a clever way of saying
that race is actually an invention. It is a way of arbitrarily dividing humankind into different
groups for the purpose of keeping some on top and some at the bottom; some in and some out.
Ant its invention has very clear historical roots; namely, colonialism. “Race is an arbitrary sociobiological classification created by Europeans during the time of worldwide colonial expansion,
to assign human worth and social status, using themselves as the model of humanity, for the
purpose of legitimizing white power and white skin privilege” (Crossroads-Interfaith Ministry for
Social Justice).
To acknowledge that race is a historical arbitrary invention does not mean that it can be,
thereby, easily dispensed with as a reality in people’s lives. To acknowledge race as an
invention of colonialism is not the same as pretending to be color blind or declaring, “I don’t
notice people’s race!” Our world has been ordered and structured on the basis of skin color and
that oppressive ordering and structuring is RACISM.
RACISM
Racism is a system in which one race maintains supremacy over another race through a set of
attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and institutional power. Racism is a “system of structured
dis-equality where the goods, services, rewards, privileges, and benefits of the society are
available to individuals according to their presumed membership in” particular racial groups
(Barbara Love, 1994. Understanding Internalized Oppression). A person of any race can have
prejudices about people of other races, but only members of the dominant social group can
exhibit racism because racism is prejudice plus the institutional power to enforce it.
ALLY
An ally is a person whose commitment to dismantling oppression is reflected in a willingness to
do the following:
 Educate oneself about oppression;
 Learn from and listen to people who are targets of oppression;
 Examine and challenge one’s own prejudices, stereotypes, and assumptions;
 Work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath
them and what needs to be healed;
 Learn and practice the skills of challenging oppressive remarks, behaviors, policies, and
institutional structures;
 Act collaboratively with members of the target group to dismantle oppression.
INTERNALIZED OPPRESSION
The process whereby people in the target group make oppression internal and personal by
coming to believe that the lies, prejudices, and stereotypes about them are true. Members of
target groups exhibit internalized oppression when they alter their attitudes, behaviors, speech,
and self-confidence to reflect the stereotypes and norms of the dominant group. Internalized
oppression can create low self-esteem, self-doubt, and even self-loathing. It can also be
projected outward as fear, criticism, and distrust of members of one’s target group.
Page 5 of 6
MS Mini World Café ▪ Diversity & Privilege, DATE TBA
RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE
Relationship (or domestic) violence is a pattern of power and control that one person exercises
over another in an ongoing, intimate relationship. Many tactics can be used, including
emotional, physical or sexual abuse; isolation; economic control; threats; abuse of animals; and
using children.
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Sexual assault includes any type of sexual conduct, or sexual contact that is nonconsensual,
forced, or coerced when the victim is incapable of giving consent because of her or his
temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity or because of her or his youth.
RAPE
Rape is defined as nonconsensual, forced, or coerced sexual penetration against the will of the
victim or when the victim is incapable of giving consent because of her or his temporary or
permanent mental or physical incapacity or because of her or his youth.
GENDER
Refers to those rules, norms, customs, and practices by which biologically associated
differences between the male and female of the human species are translated into socially
constructed differences between men and women, boys and girls which give them unequal
value, opportunities and life chances.
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