Exercises to Build Multicultural Awareness - Brief Article

Camping Magazine, May, 2000 by Teresa Nicodemus

The following activities are designed to help campers recognize stereotypes and to prompt understanding and communication between culturally diverse campers.

Potato Friends

This activity encourages campers to view each person as an individual by introducing the concept of generalization. Campers will recognize how stereotyping can cause them to lump people together based on unfair biases.

The activity is best done with five to fifty youths aged twelve or older. You will need one potato for each participant and a large bag. Begin the activity by holding up one potato and stating, "I have here a potato. I don't know about you, but I've never thought much about potatoes; I've always taken them for granted. To me, potatoes are all alike. Sometimes I wonder if potatoes aren't a lot like people."

Ask each participant to pick a potato and closely examine it for three minutes, getting to know its spots, bumps, and scars. Tell them they need to be able to introduce their potato friend to the group. After the silent period, introduce your potato to the group by naming it and telling a story about it. The story could describe specific characteristics of your potato or where the potato came from (i.e., fictitious city and country). After your introduction, ask the campers if there is any difference between how they are handling their potato friend now compared to the way they handled it in the beginning of the activity.

Tell campers to place their potatoes back into the bag. Ask with the group whether they agree with the comment, "All potatoes are the same." Why do they agree or disagree? Ask participants if they think they could find their friend in the bag of potatoes. Empty the bag again and invite participants to pick out their potato friend. This will cause a flurry of activity and exchanging as campers make sure to get the correct potato. Have participants introduce their potato friend to the group and then place it back in the bag.

As a final discussion point, make the connection that it is possible to lump people into the same group and think they are all alike; when in reality, if you take time to get to know and understand a person, you discover that each person is an individual, having a distinctive personality, background, and special ability.

Mapping Stereotypes

Stereotypes can stem from not only a person's physical characteristics but also from the area of the country where he lives. This activity increases awareness of stereotyping within geographic regions. For this session, which is geared toward a group of up to fifty youth aged twelve or older, you will need a large map of the United States for participants to view.

Ask participants the following questions to help them start thinking about behaviors that promote stereotyping:

* Have you ever felt stereotyped?

* Did you ever feel that someone saw you not as an individual but in terms of what group they classified you in? Can you share an episode you clearly remember and how you felt?

* Does anyone here think they use stereotypes?

Explain that recognizing stereotypes is the first step to ending that type of behavior. Show campers a map of the United States and identify specific regions. Give them some examples of regional stereotypes. For instance, "People from the South are always friendly; people from the Midwest live on farms."

Divide campers into groups of five or six people, depending on your group size. Assign each group a different region of the country. Camps with international participants may want to use regions from other countries. Pass out paper and pens and tell the groups they have seven minutes to create a list of positive and negative stereotypes for that region that they will share with the rest of the participants.

After the timed group period is completed, begin a discussion by asking a series of questions. Try to involve as many people as you can from all of the groups.

* What were some feelings you had about the negative stereotypes and the positive ones?

* How did you feel when people from outside your region shared their stereotypes of your region?

Sum up this activity by reminding campers that assumptions about people based on where they live are clearly judgmental and, at times, create barriers between how they communicate and respond to others.

Teresa Nicodemus is the assistant editor of Camping Magazine. Activities in this article were adapted from the 4-H Multicultural Training Guide.