Extension Activities
1. Generate a list of actions (verbs) and personality attributes (characteristics) that people in various occupations perform and have.
For example:
Teacher Environmentalist Police officer Dentist Soldier Counselor Librarian Stay-at-home parent Scientist Housekeeper Farmer Car wash attendant
What is the picture in your mind that you have of the person who holds that occupation? What gender, race, and class is that person? Does the person have a visible disability? Is she or he someone who will observe religious/holy days? If so, which ones?
Then compare your list with others’ lists. What are the implications of these pictures in our minds for the ways we might behave toward the person? And what are the implications of the awareness of these pictures in our mind for the ways we might behave toward the person?
2. Get a magazine and choose 10 photos of people. Swap your photos with others (so you are working with a different set). Sort the people in the photos according to each of these questions. Then pick one question, and rank all 10 photographs for that attribute, for example, from “smartest” to “not the smartest.”
1. Who’s the smartest? 2. Who’s the wealthiest? 3. Who’s the most religious? 4. Who reads a lot? 5. Who’s careful with money? 6. Who’s a stay-at-home parent? 7. Who’s the most likely to feel included in society? 8. Who’s the most likely to feel isolated? 9. Who’s the most likely to be put in charge?
10. Who’s the most likely to travel freely anywhere in the world?
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Now interview two people (other than those engaged in the activity with you), asking them to do what you did.
What patterns do you notice in the responses? How did an awareness of your prejudices (or preconceived ideas) influence the decisions you made in response to each of the questions?
Patterns to Practice Seeing
1. How do people often respond when their prejudices are pointed out? 2. What kind of person is most often depicted in media as prejudiced?
How are they depicted? What kinds of people are depicted as free from prejudice?