Becoming a Member of Another Culture: A Fantasy

Gary Block                                                                      Sarah Motzko

Professional School Counselor                                         MSUM Intern 2000/01

Osseo Senior High                                                           Osseo Senior High

Osseo, Minnesota                                                            Osseo, Minnesota

Description of the Lesson(s) or Program

The idea for this guidance lesson came from a series of lessons on cross-cultural awareness and communication included in Large Group Guidance Activities: A K-12 Sourcebook by Joe Wittmer and Diane W. Thompson.  The visualization activity used in this lesson was developed by The Education Trust (1998), Washington D.C.  The purpose of this activity is to help students learn what it would be like to suddenly find themselves as a member of another culture.  The visualization exercise gives students the opportunity to imagine life as a member of a non-majority group of people.  This lesson would be most appropriate for students at the senior high level.

Time:  This lesson was designed to be used within a 45-50 minute time period.

Materials:  The visualization exercise handout.

Lesson:

Ask the students to relax and to close their eyes.  (You may wish to conduct a brief relaxation activity before beginning).  Read the following fantasy aloud, pausing where necessary and deemed appropriate.  The more feeling and emphasis used the more vivid the visualization will be for the students.

Fantasy

Please close your eyes... relax... imagine the world that I will be describing.  You live in a world where people of color have the control.  African Americans, Native Americans, Latin/os, Asian Americans... are the leaders, they make the laws, they control the economy.  People of color are our senators, our congresspersons, and the head of all the major corporations.  They are our university presidents, our school administrators, most of our church leaders.  The President of the United States is a man of color and 90% of his cabinet are composed of people of color.  This has been true of all previous presidents as well.

Our neighborhoods and all of our communities are made up of people of color.  There are small, isolated pockets of white communities – usually in the poorer sections of towns and cities.

People of color are everywhere.  When you go to your bank, you will know that a person of color is in charge and will make a decision about your loan.  When you take your clothes to the dry cleaner, your shoes to the repair shop, when you put gas in your car, it is a person of color with whom you are interacting for these services.  Indeed, almost everyone you encounter in the course of your day to day routine is a person of color.

Your local supermarket stocks food that reflects the diet and customs of people of color.  White people have to search to find foods that are more to their liking...although recently some of the major food chains have set aside one aisle for the kind of foods white people eat.

Drug stores carry medications and products geared toward people of color.  Bandages for instance, are available only in shades of brown.  The color “flesh” is a range – from tan to black.  Cosmetics are made only for skin tones ranging from yellows to browns.  It is very hard to find products for the “white” skin.

When you turn on the TV, you see people of color.  The ads in newspapers, TV commercials, and fashion magazines show people of color.  TV sit-coms, dramas, soap operas and family shows depict the tragedies, comedies, and ordinary lives of people of color – occasionally letting someone white be a part of the experience of people of color.  At the movies, people of color have most of the leading roles – and supporting roles.  It is not common to see white actors (except in the role of a criminal) and pretty rare for there to be a “white” movie.  Most people of color would rather watch people of color on TV and in the movies, and since they control the industry, they are the producers and directors and the scriptwriters, that’s the way it is.

When you turn on the news you learn about people of color.  When you see newscasts about crime and drugs in the inner cities, it is white people you see.  In fact, when newspapers report crime, they always point out the color of the perpetrator if he/she is white.  White people complain that the news and media are biased against them.  They are allowed to complain – people of color believe in free speech – but their complaints are seen as whining and mostly they are not taken seriously, so very little is ever done about the complaints.

People of color are considered the model for being handsome and beautiful.  Dark hair, dark eyes, and all the various shades of skin from yellow to red to tan to browns are seen as beautiful.  Women of color are considered to be the most desirable and have always been held up as the standard for female attractiveness.  White people are seen as pale and unattractive.  Once in a while, a white person comes along who has dark, curly hair and resembles a person of color- usually biracial – and s/he might get a job as a model or actor – but usually only if the person’s features could pass for a person of color.

People of color are not only considered to be the most attractive, but also are the most intelligent, most industrious, and the most creative.  You know very little about European history – contributions of whites to the development of this country – this world.  You know a lot about the history of people of color.  All through school, the teachers paid more attention to the students of color.  They were seen as the brightest and most gifted.  Teachers reinforced them for their achievements and pretty much ignored white students.  Even if you did as well as the student of color – it was a “fluke.”

Psychologists have even conducted research confirming the inferiority of white people.  White people just can’t seem to get it together.  Scholars have tried to figure out why.  White people say they know what the problem is – it is racism and discrimination.  Most people of color just don’t buy it – they claim that everything is equal.  All this business about racism really irks a lot of people of color – after all they have done for white people.  If white people are so damn unhappy here, why don’t they just go back to Europe where they came from.

Allow yourself to spend a few minutes continuing to imagine this world you live in.  Notice what feelings have come up for you.

Follow-up

Now, place the students into groups of five or six and request that they take turns sharing the thoughts and feelings they had during the visualization.  Suggest that the students use facilitative responses – tuning in to feelings, clarifying/summarizing, and lead with open-ended questions.  Specifically, request that students not “interpret” another’s fantasy.  However, self-interpretation may be appropriate. 

During the discussion non-majority students should share what it was like to be setting the standards for everyone, and majority students should discuss what it was like for them to not have their traditions, beliefs, attitudes, and personal qualities valued by the majority.  

Closure:

Lead a discussion with the entire class for the purpose of bringing out the various themes found in the student’s fantasies and their specific reactions to suddenly being a member of a different culture.

Connections to Related Standards, Competencies, and Domains

The primary domains within which this lesson fits are the personal/social and educational domains.  Based on the Minnesota School Counselors’ Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling, this lesson meets the student learner outcome that applies to developing awareness and a positive attitude toward others, particularly those from cultures different from one’s own.  In relation to the ten learning areas of the high standards Profile of Learning in the state of Minnesota, this lesson falls into area seven (People and Cultures/Diverse Perspectives). This guidance activity gives students an opportunity to understand the societal concepts, values, traditions, and roles that exist within their culture.  Students are encouraged to consider how these variables impact those who are not typically included in positions of power.     

This guidance lesson could be a component of a cultural diversity awareness seminar/workshop, as part of the curriculum in a social studies class, or as a lesson intended to meet a specific classroom need.  The visualization exercise gives both non-majority and majority students an opportunity to visualize how they would fit into a culture that is the reverse of what they experience in their reality.  This lesson can be very enlightening for majority students because it gives them a glimpse into what it would be like to not be a part of the power-decision-making group.  If the visualization exercise is successful, individuals should hopefully gain some insight into the inequality of power and resources that exist in our culture and how this impacts non-majority members. The intention of this visualization exercise is to increase students’ sensitivity to discrimination that exists in our culture.

References and Resources

Wittmar, J, & Thomson, D. (2000).  Large Group Guidance Actvities: A K-12 Sourcebook.  Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation.

Visualization Activity.  The Education Trust (1998). Washington DC.

Rief, J.M., & Enestvedt, J.K. (1993). The Minnesota School Counselors’ Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling.  Minnesota School Counselors’ Association.

Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning:  Minnesota Profile of Learning Content Standard – People and Cultures/Diverse Perspectives.