Living with History / Making Social Change

APPENDIX C. Group Exercises for Workshop on the Construction of Deviant Out-Groups (Chapter 7)

appendix c Group Exercises for Workshop on the Construction of Deviant Out-Groups (Chapter 7) Exercise I. What’s Your Name? Give each participant a piece of paper and ask him/her to fold it in half vertically. Each person puts his/her first name at the top of the page. Write on the left side whatever you can think of regarding your name. Don’t re-read it. (2 minutes) Then read it over and comment on what you’ve written, using the right side of the page. (3 minutes) Turn to the person on your left, who will be your partner. It is important that this be a person you do not already know. Adjust the seating if necessary in order to accomplish this. Each twosome goes into a corner or separate space. The first person reads her/ his comments from the left side of the page. The partner repeats what he/she heard. Then do the same for the right side of the page. Repeat this process for the other partner, then discuss what you have learned. (10 minutes) Return to circle (whole group). Each person reports not on her/his own paper, but on that of the partner.The group discusses reactions.What is the basis for each identity? What is determined by the naming parents, what by the child? Does one’s name determine one’s self-regard? Why is naming so powerful? Note: This exercise accomplishes two aims. It makes the group acquainted with each person and builds group cohesion. It also powerfully raises the matter of identity, name-calling, naming, and their consequences. Exercise II. How Have I Experienced Being “Different” in a Way That Implies Inferiority? Each participant tells an anecdote in response to this question. This is followed by taking three anecdotes at a time as a topic for class discussion. Note: This exercise serves to provide the basis for emotional empathy with oppressed target groups by showing the ubiquity of oppressive experiences. It also helps to create trust in the group. Ground rules to be followed: Do not interpret another person’s experience for him/her; no hurtful or critical comments; share, if you have had a similar experience; no competition in victimization; give people space to draw their own conclusions. 216 APPENDIX C Exercise III. A) Re-Definition Start out with an empty bottle. Ask each person to mime different ways the bottle can be used (examples: The bottle is a baby—rock it. The bottle is a gun—aim it). Other people find their own use of the bottle. No talking. Then move on to Chair exercise. Exercise III. B) Chairs and the Structure of Power Who is the Boss? Use five chairs, arrange them randomly in space. Ask one person to rearrange them so as to make one chair more powerful than the others. Other people improvise and improve on that arrangement. Now put people with the chairs, one after the other, in such a way that each person becomes most powerful. After a person has chosen a position, he/she stays in it. Then the next person enters and makes himself the most powerful. No talking . Other people have to leave the arrangement as is, then find their own way of becoming the boss. Discuss the redefining of objects. One can rewrite the script. One is not bound to follow the script. Ritual and placement can enhance power. Examples: the boss behind the big desk; having to stand, while another person sits; the teacher on an elevated platform in front of the students; the speaker at the lectern. Note: This is a fun exercise with serious implications. It frees up creativity and illuminates the absurdity of some well-accepted rules and practices. It opens up the group to the need for re-definition. Exercise IV. Target Groups: Where Do I Fit In? DEFINING GROUPS TARGET GROUPS male female white, U.S., Christian other races or ethnicities middle-class or above lower-middle-class or poor healthy ailing or disabled traditional radical heterosexual homosexual, transgendered sober alcoholic, now or earlier normal weight fat never in trouble with law ex-offender legal immigrant illegal immigrant adult, below 70 years above 70 years APPENDIX C 217 The class can add categories. Then ask each participant to write down to which target group he or she now belongs or conceivably might belong in the future. It is possible...