Talk about your experience with the activity we did in class. What did you feel or experience? What did you learn? Does this activity apply to our world now? Why or why not? Reflect on what you learned about the concepts of social justice, privilege, and oppression.
Blog posts should be 200-400 words in length.
Please email kualbreaks@gmail.com if you have any questions. This post is due Thursday, April 23, before 5:30 pm.
The activity focused on a Hunger Games style way of producing an end goal. There was no reward for creating the most similar figure to what remained behind the shut door, which surprised me, but really shouldn’t have because of how the Hunger Games books played out. The activity spoke to marginalized groups and the different sort of biases they face on a daily basis.
I work with a student group called Jayhawks DREAM, which tutors incarcerated youth at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Center in Topeka through their high school classes in the facility. The activity specifically highlighted the relationship between people of color and the prison industrial complex for me because that is a population I work with regularly through DREAM.
If anything, the activity forced me to rethink my own privileges. I am less likely to be pulled over or stopped on the street or experience police brutality because of the pigment of my skin. I am more likely to be murdered in cold blood because I am queer. We discussed intersectionality, which is a huge tenet of current third social justice discussions. Basically, intersectionality asserts that I am not solely white or solely queer. I exist as both at the same time, along with all of my other identities, creating a unique reality that only I experience. This goes along for every other person in the world with the assumption that we are all individuals. Intersectionality allows us to examine oppressed and privileged positions anyone can occupy simultaneously. This allows for a very broad scope of experiences and gives us the chance to see how different communities under one identity outline their needs based on their current oppressions.
In this group activity, we were divided into groups and told to construct whatever one person from our group saw in the closet. There were many rules given beforehand and we knew the consequences of not following the rules would be jail. Initially, I believed this activity was a bonding experience to get to know different people and to teach us to work together.
I was in District three and everyone in our group was focused on the activity and on winning. I counted the money we received and told our group we had $3000. I assumed all the other groups received the same money and continued on with the project. When our group member who saw the object in the closet went to tell our other group member to purchase something he was sent to jail. We were very upset because without him we had no idea what we would be building. Fortunately, he was able to sneak off and help us put together what he saw. When the activity was over, our group was very happy with what we built and our chances of winning were looking bright. However, when we got to our seats and the project was explained, I was very surprised to learn that the project was about social justice.
I was very oblivious to the fact that different groups received different amount of resources and were being treated differently. I felt really bad that I focused on winning and didn’t realize how the other groups were being treated. I learned a lot about privilege and oppression from this project. It was very profound to see how privilege is blind. It’s hard to see how unfair the system is when the system treats you fair. Perception depends on which end of the spectrum you fall on. The groups that were oppressed clearly knew they were being mistreated and became frustrated. On the other hand, the groups that were privileged were either oblivious to the fact or became more greedy. This project is very relevant to society today. People are treated differently based on their race, sexual orientation, gender and religion. To ensure equality we all need to be aware of how different groups are being treated. We need to be involved in the communication of social justice to help create a society that treats all people equally regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Last class we participated in an activity that simulated what it is like to be oppressed or privileged in a society. My “district” was targeted, and every single thing that we did was “illegal.” We had no idea why we were targeted when we weren’t breaking any of the laws that we were told in the beginning. During the activity, I felt extremely frustrated and confused. We could do nothing right, and there was no basis for our crimes, which frustrated me even more. This activity absolutely applies to our world today. Society still oppresses some groups and favors others today. Each “district” represented a different group in society. Some groups in society are extremely privileged and are helped through life, and other groups, like the group my district represented, are extremely oppressed and are not treated equally at all. And, the basis for the most part is arbitrary, or that some religious and ethnic groups are better than other. There is still racism in our society. Though we do not like to think of it, African Americans are often not given the same opportunities as white people are. Also, especially today and after 9-11, Muslims or Middle Eastern people are targeted and oppressed in America today. Privilege and oppression are kind of unspoken and unfortunately the status quo in society, which makes them extremely sneaky and difficult to change. In the activity, I learned what it was like to be oppressed, which I had not really experienced before. It also made me re-asses how privileged I really am. I am an adopted Chinese-American girl who is attending college. There are hardly any doors that are not open to me. Nobody questions me when I go through airport security. Everyone thinks I can succeed in school. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be treated everyday like I was in the activity. It is extremely frustrating to try your very hardest to follow society’s rules, and still be harassed by the law. There is almost no way to do right when you are part of an oppressed group. I also learned that sometimes the privileged do not wish to be privileged, which can lead to guilt. For example, white guilt is a very prevalent issue today. White people are hardly oppressed and some feel guilty that they have more opportunities than other racial or ethnic groups. This activity was extremely beneficial to helping me understand oppression and privilege.
The activity we did in class this week was over social justice and oppression using the Hunger Games as a metaphor. We were each randomly assigned a district and then were given a task. The purpose of the exercise was not to use teamwork to complete the task but to see how different systemic forms of oppression can influence different groups. I was in district 1, this meant that our group was treated really well, some of the rules were not enforced for us, we were given more money than we needed, some materials needed for the task were taken from other groups and given to us. Our group was meant to symbolize the privileged groups in society, those with money, power and influence. During this experience I felt uncomfortable with how our group was being treated. It was clear that the other groups were being treated poorly, many were going to jail and one group member even resorted to stealing our things. This activity helped highlight the differences between social groups especially when the authority or law enforcement favor one group over others. This can also be applied to groups in our society, for example the bias many law enforcement officials have against people of color and the high rates of young black men being incarcerated as opposed to young white men. I thought that this activity was difficult and a little stressful to do however I think it helped facilitate discussion on different forms of oppression and recognizing white privilege. Being in district 1 was a little unsettling. I am a half white half Puerto Rican woman, so the oppression I have experienced is mixed. The Puerto Rican side of me is not very physically evident so I can pass as a white woman, this has changed my experience and I have not felt discriminated against because of my race. I have however experienced different forms of oppression based on being a woman. I think this activity was well designed to facilitate a meaningful discussion on oppression in our modern society.
The hunger game activity that I participated in last class really opened my eyes. I never realized before how much people could be treated differently. During the activity I experienced people that were in charge of the activity offering me things that I knew I probably shouldn't accept, but wanted to accept. For instance in the rules of the activity it says your only allowed to see the building that you are recreating for 1 minuet, but my group was allowed to take a picture of the building to reference when we needed help recreating it. Through this activity I learned that not everyone has the same opportunities that you do. When we came back to a big group discussion I was amazed at how each group was treated differently, I saw people in "jail" during the activity but I just assumed that they all broke a rule that is why they were put in jail, when in reality they did nothing wrong. I think that the most important thing that I learned is that the higher up on the socioeconomic ladder you are, the more you can become oblivious to what is going on around them and below them.
What I learned does apply to our world now because we still have oppression along with privileges that are going on today. In the class there was a really good slide that showed who tended to be the most privileged people. For example white males that are christens are really privileged because they have more opportunities available to them such as education. Whereas if you were an African American, you might not have the ability to get a good education and you ail probably be treated a little differently. What is important to know is that many people judge a book by its cover, for instance they will look at someone and identify them as a certain type of person when in actuality that person could be something totally different than what they were identified as from the outside.
The hunger games activity was an illuminating experience for me. In the activity people were split into districts and given a task complete. We were also given a set of rules to follow. Once the game began the official almost immediately approached my district, and told us that we had to remain silent for the duration of the game. This was surprising to my district, we had been given a set of rules, and to our knowledge we didn’t violate any, yet we were being punished by extra restriction. It took us a while to decide weather we had misinterpreted the rules or not, but once we heard other groups talking we decided that we had been singled out—we began to speak again. Throughout the rest of the activity we noticed that we were treated unfairly at the store, through rules and even witnessed entire districts being thrown in jail. Being in the back of the auditorium gave my district what was probably one of the best vantage points in the room, so we were fairly attentive to the unfair events occurring around us. After listening to some post-activity reflections, I discovered that not every group had made the same observations. This activity demonstrated how unequal distribution of resources can make a significant difference in the ability of a group to carry out a task. In society this unequal distribution is rooted in the past. Some people are born in to privileged situations while others are not. Something that was striking to me while listening to people recount their experience with the activity was the consensus from the more privileged groups that they had hardly noticed the other groups struggles. They had been blinded by their own privilege. I believe that this inability or unwillingness of the privileged to both: realize what they have been given and observe what the less privileged so desperately need is a major source of oppression. For me, it put into perspective why some feel the need break the law. I saw it happen in the activity; even my group disobeyed our direction and talked after we were told not to. When people feel as though a system is rigged against them they are bound to act out. I believe that to resolve this issue it takes effort on both ends. The privileged need to realize what they have, and must give some of it up to work towards equality. I believe it is also of upmost importance that those less privileged obey laws of society. True equality comes when everyone decides to act equally in every situation; it is here that we will strike a reasonable balance between privilege and oppression.
The activity focused on a Hunger Games style way of producing an end goal. There was no reward for creating the most similar figure to what remained behind the shut door, which surprised me, but really shouldn’t have because of how the Hunger Games books played out. The activity spoke to marginalized groups and the different sort of biases they face on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteI work with a student group called Jayhawks DREAM, which tutors incarcerated youth at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Center in Topeka through their high school classes in the facility. The activity specifically highlighted the relationship between people of color and the prison industrial complex for me because that is a population I work with regularly through DREAM.
If anything, the activity forced me to rethink my own privileges. I am less likely to be pulled over or stopped on the street or experience police brutality because of the pigment of my skin. I am more likely to be murdered in cold blood because I am queer. We discussed intersectionality, which is a huge tenet of current third social justice discussions. Basically, intersectionality asserts that I am not solely white or solely queer. I exist as both at the same time, along with all of my other identities, creating a unique reality that only I experience. This goes along for every other person in the world with the assumption that we are all individuals. Intersectionality allows us to examine oppressed and privileged positions anyone can occupy simultaneously. This allows for a very broad scope of experiences and gives us the chance to see how different communities under one identity outline their needs based on their current oppressions.
In this group activity, we were divided into groups and told to construct whatever one person from our group saw in the closet. There were many rules given beforehand and we knew the consequences of not following the rules would be jail. Initially, I believed this activity was a bonding experience to get to know different people and to teach us to work together.
ReplyDeleteI was in District three and everyone in our group was focused on the activity and on winning. I counted the money we received and told our group we had $3000. I assumed all the other groups received the same money and continued on with the project. When our group member who saw the object in the closet went to tell our other group member to purchase something he was sent to jail. We were very upset because without him we had no idea what we would be building. Fortunately, he was able to sneak off and help us put together what he saw. When the activity was over, our group was very happy with what we built and our chances of winning were looking bright. However, when we got to our seats and the project was explained, I was very surprised to learn that the project was about social justice.
I was very oblivious to the fact that different groups received different amount of resources and were being treated differently. I felt really bad that I focused on winning and didn’t realize how the other groups were being treated. I learned a lot about privilege and oppression from this project. It was very profound to see how privilege is blind. It’s hard to see how unfair the system is when the system treats you fair. Perception depends on which end of the spectrum you fall on. The groups that were oppressed clearly knew they were being mistreated and became frustrated. On the other hand, the groups that were privileged were either oblivious to the fact or became more greedy. This project is very relevant to society today. People are treated differently based on their race, sexual orientation, gender and religion. To ensure equality we all need to be aware of how different groups are being treated. We need to be involved in the communication of social justice to help create a society that treats all people equally regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Last class we participated in an activity that simulated what it is like to be oppressed or privileged in a society. My “district” was targeted, and every single thing that we did was “illegal.” We had no idea why we were targeted when we weren’t breaking any of the laws that we were told in the beginning. During the activity, I felt extremely frustrated and confused. We could do nothing right, and there was no basis for our crimes, which frustrated me even more.
ReplyDeleteThis activity absolutely applies to our world today. Society still oppresses some groups and favors others today. Each “district” represented a different group in society. Some groups in society are extremely privileged and are helped through life, and other groups, like the group my district represented, are extremely oppressed and are not treated equally at all. And, the basis for the most part is arbitrary, or that some religious and ethnic groups are better than other. There is still racism in our society. Though we do not like to think of it, African Americans are often not given the same opportunities as white people are. Also, especially today and after 9-11, Muslims or Middle Eastern people are targeted and oppressed in America today. Privilege and oppression are kind of unspoken and unfortunately the status quo in society, which makes them extremely sneaky and difficult to change.
In the activity, I learned what it was like to be oppressed, which I had not really experienced before. It also made me re-asses how privileged I really am. I am an adopted Chinese-American girl who is attending college. There are hardly any doors that are not open to me. Nobody questions me when I go through airport security. Everyone thinks I can succeed in school. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be treated everyday like I was in the activity. It is extremely frustrating to try your very hardest to follow society’s rules, and still be harassed by the law. There is almost no way to do right when you are part of an oppressed group.
I also learned that sometimes the privileged do not wish to be privileged, which can lead to guilt. For example, white guilt is a very prevalent issue today. White people are hardly oppressed and some feel guilty that they have more opportunities than other racial or ethnic groups.
This activity was extremely beneficial to helping me understand oppression and privilege.
The activity we did in class this week was over social justice and oppression using the Hunger Games as a metaphor. We were each randomly assigned a district and then were given a task. The purpose of the exercise was not to use teamwork to complete the task but to see how different systemic forms of oppression can influence different groups. I was in district 1, this meant that our group was treated really well, some of the rules were not enforced for us, we were given more money than we needed, some materials needed for the task were taken from other groups and given to us. Our group was meant to symbolize the privileged groups in society, those with money, power and influence. During this experience I felt uncomfortable with how our group was being treated. It was clear that the other groups were being treated poorly, many were going to jail and one group member even resorted to stealing our things. This activity helped highlight the differences between social groups especially when the authority or law enforcement favor one group over others. This can also be applied to groups in our society, for example the bias many law enforcement officials have against people of color and the high rates of young black men being incarcerated as opposed to young white men. I thought that this activity was difficult and a little stressful to do however I think it helped facilitate discussion on different forms of oppression and recognizing white privilege. Being in district 1 was a little unsettling. I am a half white half Puerto Rican woman, so the oppression I have experienced is mixed. The Puerto Rican side of me is not very physically evident so I can pass as a white woman, this has changed my experience and I have not felt discriminated against because of my race. I have however experienced different forms of oppression based on being a woman. I think this activity was well designed to facilitate a meaningful discussion on oppression in our modern society.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe hunger game activity that I participated in last class really opened my eyes. I never realized before how much people could be treated differently. During the activity I experienced people that were in charge of the activity offering me things that I knew I probably shouldn't accept, but wanted to accept. For instance in the rules of the activity it says your only allowed to see the building that you are recreating for 1 minuet, but my group was allowed to take a picture of the building to reference when we needed help recreating it. Through this activity I learned that not everyone has the same opportunities that you do. When we came back to a big group discussion I was amazed at how each group was treated differently, I saw people in "jail" during the activity but I just assumed that they all broke a rule that is why they were put in jail, when in reality they did nothing wrong. I think that the most important thing that I learned is that the higher up on the socioeconomic ladder you are, the more you can become oblivious to what is going on around them and below them.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned does apply to our world now because we still have oppression along with privileges that are going on today. In the class there was a really good slide that showed who tended to be the most privileged people. For example white males that are christens are really privileged because they have more opportunities available to them such as education. Whereas if you were an African American, you might not have the ability to get a good education and you ail probably be treated a little differently. What is important to know is that many people judge a book by its cover, for instance they will look at someone and identify them as a certain type of person when in actuality that person could be something totally different than what they were identified as from the outside.
The hunger games activity was an illuminating experience for me. In the activity people were split into districts and given a task complete. We were also given a set of rules to follow. Once the game began the official almost immediately approached my district, and told us that we had to remain silent for the duration of the game. This was surprising to my district, we had been given a set of rules, and to our knowledge we didn’t violate any, yet we were being punished by extra restriction. It took us a while to decide weather we had misinterpreted the rules or not, but once we heard other groups talking we decided that we had been singled out—we began to speak again. Throughout the rest of the activity we noticed that we were treated unfairly at the store, through rules and even witnessed entire districts being thrown in jail. Being in the back of the auditorium gave my district what was probably one of the best vantage points in the room, so we were fairly attentive to the unfair events occurring around us. After listening to some post-activity reflections, I discovered that not every group had made the same observations.
ReplyDeleteThis activity demonstrated how unequal distribution of resources can make a significant difference in the ability of a group to carry out a task. In society this unequal distribution is rooted in the past. Some people are born in to privileged situations while others are not. Something that was striking to me while listening to people recount their experience with the activity was the consensus from the more privileged groups that they had hardly noticed the other groups struggles. They had been blinded by their own privilege. I believe that this inability or unwillingness of the privileged to both: realize what they have been given and observe what the less privileged so desperately need is a major source of oppression. For me, it put into perspective why some feel the need break the law. I saw it happen in the activity; even my group disobeyed our direction and talked after we were told not to. When people feel as though a system is rigged against them they are bound to act out. I believe that to resolve this issue it takes effort on both ends. The privileged need to realize what they have, and must give some of it up to work towards equality. I believe it is also of upmost importance that those less privileged obey laws of society. True equality comes when everyone decides to act equally in every situation; it is here that we will strike a reasonable balance between privilege and oppression.