Theme II: Social Position

To explore the social space that we occupy today, this section presents an activity, Privilege Walk, in two variations.

Objective

To analyze the complexity of our identities consisting of varying forms and levels of privilege and the implications of historical processes for our identities.

Note to Facilitator

  • This activity does not require the timeline. You can facilitate this activity after reviewing the timeline as a way to explore the social space that we occupy today and how it is related to history.
  • If participants are unfamiliar with the concepts of privilege and marginalization or have limited or no experience with exploring their social identities, we recommend you assign them to work on the Social Identity Worksheet (Appendix 2) individually prior to facilitating this activity.
  • You need to carefully assess how comfortable or uncomfortable participants may feel about disclosing different aspects of their social identities to other participants. If they have a good rapport with one another and are ready to take some risks to explore their identities in depth, you may choose to facilitate the Variation 1 of this activity. Otherwise, you may choose the Variation 2 to lower, if not to completely eliminate, the risk.