Social Responsibility
What is social responsibility? Commitment to uplifting and supporting your community and the world and environment at large.
- The world is not equal
- Gender inequality
- Race/ethnic inequality
- Economic inequality
- Inequality based on sexual orientation/gender identity
- Social responsibility to help minimize and eventually end inequality
Activity: Privilege Walk (privilege and social Responsibility)
We used the privilege walk activity to engage the class and make them think about the connections between social responsibility and privilege. The activity helps bring awareness to different types of privilege or lack thereof and how all of those interact. One might privileged in certain ways, while not in others. Privilege can be based on socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and other factors.
The privilege walk: (from https://edge.psu.edu/workshops/mc/power/privilegewalk.shtml with edits)
The typical classroom version of this activity involves between 10-40 participants. Throughout the privilege walk, the following statements are read by the facilitator and the participants are asked to take a step forward or backward based on their responses. This activity forces participants to confront the ways in which society privileges some individuals over others. It is designed to get participants to reflect on the different areas in their lives where they have privilege as well as the areas where they don't.
***Before starting the activity make sure it is understood that if anyone does not feel comfortable responding to any of the prompts, they can choose to not take a step forward or back.***
Break into small groups of 3-5 people initially to give everyone the chance to share and participate. Come back as a large group in the end to share different things that came up in the small group discussions.
Key Points from Our Discussion:
The privilege walk: (from https://edge.psu.edu/workshops/mc/power/privilegewalk.shtml with edits)
The typical classroom version of this activity involves between 10-40 participants. Throughout the privilege walk, the following statements are read by the facilitator and the participants are asked to take a step forward or backward based on their responses. This activity forces participants to confront the ways in which society privileges some individuals over others. It is designed to get participants to reflect on the different areas in their lives where they have privilege as well as the areas where they don't.
***Before starting the activity make sure it is understood that if anyone does not feel comfortable responding to any of the prompts, they can choose to not take a step forward or back.***
- If your ancestors were forced to come to the USA not by choice, take one step back.
- If you were ever called names because of your race, class, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If there were people who worked for your family as servants, gardeners, nannies, etc. take one step forward.
- If you normally received new clothes a child take one step forward.
- If one or both of your parents were "white collar" professionals: doctors, lawyers, etc. take one step forward.
- If you were raised in an area where there was prostitution, drug activity, etc., take one step back.
- If you ever tried to change your appearance, mannerisms, or behavior to avoid being judged or ridiculed, take one step back.
- If the culture of your ancestors in elementary school wasn’t taught or covered thoroughly, take one step back.
- If you ever had to skip a meal or were hungry because there was not enough money to buy food when you were growing up, take one step back.
- If you were taken to art galleries or plays by your parents, take one step forward.
- If one of your parents was unemployed or laid off, not by choice, take one step back.
- If you attended private school, take one step forward.
- If you were ever discouraged from academics or jobs because of race, class, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If you have a disability (physical, mental, health related, etc.) take one step backward.
- If you were raised in a single parent household, take one step back.
- If your family owned the house where you grew up, take one step forward.
- If you saw members of your race, ethnic group, gender or sexual orientation portrayed on television in degrading roles, take one step back.
- If you own a car take one step forward.
- If you were ever offered a good job because of your association with a friend or family member, take one step forward.
- If you were paid less, treated less fairly because of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If you were ever accused of cheating or lying because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If you ever inherited money or property, take one step forward.
- If you had to rely primarily on public transportation, take one step back.
- If you were ever stopped or questioned because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If you were ever afraid of violence because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If your parents own their own business take one step forward.
- If you were generally able to avoid places that were dangerous, take one step forward.
- If you were ever uncomfortable about a joke related to your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation but felt unsafe to confront the situation, take one step back.
- If you use a TDD Phone system take one step backward.
- If you were ever the victim of violence/harassment related to your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
- If you sometimes feel uncomfortable being in public with a romantic partner take one step back.
- If your parents did not grow up in the United States, take one step back.
- If your parents attended college take one step forward.
- If you ever had to come out of the closet (in regards to sexual orientation or gender identity) take one step back.
- If you have ever had people misgender or use incorrect pronouns for you take one step back.
- If you have ever been paid less for a job because of your gender, take one step back.
- If you have ever been called a derogatory name because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.
Break into small groups of 3-5 people initially to give everyone the chance to share and participate. Come back as a large group in the end to share different things that came up in the small group discussions.
- How is privilege related to social responsibility?
- Should the amount of privilege you have make you feel bad? If you are in a position of privilege should you feel guilt over that privilege? Does having guilt help or create change to make a more equal world?
- What is white guilt? Is white guilt self-indulgent?
- How is intersectionality related to one’s privilege status?
- Do those with higher positions of privilege have the moral obligation to use that privilege to help create a more equal world? How can people in these positions of privilege empower marginalized communities and give them voices without overpowering them with their own ideas and voices?
- In a more global context, how can intervention avoid tropes like the white savior complex?
- If you took a step back during the game and want to share about that experience with the group, please share!
Key Points from Our Discussion:
- Those with lots of privilege are in positions of power
- With this comes responsibility to be aware of the advantages that come with that/responsibility to advocate and give voice to those in more vulnerable positions
- Those with privilege are often unaware of that privilege
- Though, sometimes people are aware of their privilege and position of power and work to maintain that at the cost of others
- Privilege or lack thereof is caused by things outside of a person’s control
- Ex. People do not choose their race or ethnicity, but your race affects the amount of privilege you have.
- Ex. A person does not have any control over the socioeconomic status of their parents, but if someone is born into an upper class family, that puts them in an advantageous privileged position.
Activity: Ball Juggle
The purpose of this activity was to physically and visually represent social responsibility, while also engaging people in an act of social responsibility.
Each ball represents different responsibilities, as each ball is introduced, it gets more complicated for everyone to manage their own responsibilities. This is why it requires collaboration, between each person in the group.
Process:
Each ball represents different responsibilities, as each ball is introduced, it gets more complicated for everyone to manage their own responsibilities. This is why it requires collaboration, between each person in the group.
Process:
- Have the group gather in a circle
- Give one person a ball, and have them pass it back and forth continuously with another person across the circle from them
- Introduce another ball and have a person begin to pass it to someone else, like the first two people
- Continue adding balls until everyone is passing to someone else
- If the group is unable to continuously pass the ball, ask them how they can keep all the balls moving.
- The goal is to have everyone passing a ball back and forth, without dropping any balls , once this happens for a minute or two, end the activity
- What did you think of this activity?
- What worked to keep the balls going?
- In what ways does this reflect community?
- How is this related to social responsibility?
- In society, everyone is trying to maintain their own responsibilities. This excercise shows that when we consider each other, we can function as a whole, while working on ourselves. If we only focus on ourselves, then eventually our roles collide with someone elses and disrupts the flow, whereas if we had been considerate of others, or communicated with them then the disruption could have been avoided.
social_responsibility_ball_juggle_activity_.pdf |
Video: what would you do?
This video consisted of two actors, one was a women who was transgender who was trying on clothes inside a store, the other being the sales associate. The women trying on clothes was being harassed by the sales associate and the customers (who were real people) actions were being recorded.
After we watched the video we had a discussion on the video involving questions such as:
There are many what would you do? videos and a lot of them have to do with homophobia, racism, sexism, and abuse. I choose to show this series to the class because I found it to be a good representation of social responsibility. As humans the actions we act out on can have an effect our society and its our responsibly to take action on things we feel aren't right or need help.
After we watched the video we had a discussion on the video involving questions such as:
- How would you respond to this situation?
- how did the video make you feel?
- what could've been done diferently
- Have you/or someone you know experienced a similar situation
There are many what would you do? videos and a lot of them have to do with homophobia, racism, sexism, and abuse. I choose to show this series to the class because I found it to be a good representation of social responsibility. As humans the actions we act out on can have an effect our society and its our responsibly to take action on things we feel aren't right or need help.