Activity Name & Description
Privilege Walk
Date/Semester
Summer Semester
Learning Domains Addressed
o Leadership
o Social Justice and Advocacy
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to participate in a privilege walk, and will demonstrate a more complex awareness of their own privileged identities or lack thereof.
Students will be able develop a more complex awareness of their classmates privilege or lack thereof, and will have an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with their
classmates in small group settings lead by program alumni and faculty.
Students will be able to engage in large group discussions lead by faculty and alumni and develop a greater understanding of how activities like a privilege walk can help create more in depth dialogue about identities in privilege and oppression.
Assessment Rubric
Advanced:
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify and describe 5 or more of their own privileged or oppressed Identities.
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify 2 privileged or oppressed identity of 2 other classmates and did provide 1 or more statements of support or validation to each classmate regarding their observations.
During the group discussion, the student did ask 2 or more questions and provided 2 ore more reflections based off their observations of the privilege walk and small group discussion.
Competent:
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify and describe 3 of their own privileged or oppressed Identities.
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify 2 privileged or oppressed identity of 1 other classmate and did provide 2 or more statements of support or validation to a classmate regarding their observations.
During the group discussion, the student did ask 2 questions and provided 1 reflection based off their observations of the privilege walk and small group discussion.
Basic:
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify and describe 1 of their own privileged or oppressed Identities.
After the privilege walk, the student was able to identify 1 privileged or oppressed identity of 1 other classmate and did provide 1 statement of support or validation to a classmate regarding their observations.
During the group discussion, the student did ask 1 question or provide 1 reflection based off their observations of the privilege walk and small group discussion.
Poor:
After the privilege walk, the student was unable to identify and describe 1 of their own privileged or oppressed Identities.
After the privilege walk, the student was unable to identify 1 privileged or oppressed identity of 1 other classmate and did not provide 1 statement of support or validation to a classmate regarding their observations.
During the group discussion, the student did not ask 1 question or provide 1 reflection based off their observations of the privilege walk and small group discussion.
Evidence
To confirm my participation in the Privilege walk on June 6th, 2018, here is a picture of myself and three of my classmates as we were waiting to begin the walk. The line was in fact much longer, with all 30 + students stretching out waiting instruction from our faculty - lead by Dr. Moss.
Reflection
The Privilege Walk had a bit of mystique around it for many of us in the class as we had not participated in one before. Some of us who had gone through it before did a great job at not influencing the others prior to the walk. I remember thinking that this line of students was quite long and Dr. Moss would have a hard time being loud enough for all of us to hear and that proved to be true but it made for a few good moments and she certainly did a great job nonetheless.
In the beginning of the activity it was clear that many of the questions were geared towards disabilities and this resulted in all of us staying together. This introduction I believe was one way of building a sense of camaraderie before the harder questions came. Then the questions became a bit more complex and went over a broad array of topics like socioeconomic status, family structures, mental health and generational education attainment.
Approximately half way through the activity the questions shifted more towards identities in race and ethnicity and how they were relevant to day to day life in America. One step at a time, the three white students in the cohort began to walk forward. At first it was a subtle distinction but the questions remained on this topic for sometime and by the end of the walk the disparity between the students of color and the white students was glaring.
At the end of the activity I ended up in the front and at this point we were all asked to look around and ingest the visual and how that made us feel. Shortly thereafter we were asked to break off into small groups with alumni and faculty.
During the large group discussion when we all returned to the classroom, everyone was silent at first, almost as if the activity had left them in an uncertain place and they did not know how they felt about it. Again, I believe this activity was geared to make these uneasy feelings manifest and it very much accomplished that goal. And yet, as our cohort always does, we came together and began discussing the activity in a sense of solidarity of our differences. We spoke about about how it made us feel and validated each response.
That is the beauty of this program; uncomfortable moments due occur but more often than not, we rally towards each other and really do a great job of supporting one another through tough conversations. People inherently understood their privilege and lack thereof, but sharing the visceral feelings of looking around at each other and choosing to support one another through those differences was really the highlight. I believe this is a great activity for team building.
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