Unit 3: Discussion

Experience Minority Status

Given the right social conditions, anyone can be either part of the majority or the minority. Your task this unit is to experience what it is like to be a minority. Think of all the different visible social groups to which you belong: gender, race and lifestyle are the most obvious categories, but there are others (such as “hippy” versus “biker” versus “preppy”).

Identify a place or situation in which you are a visible minority; for example a man in a lingerie store or day spa, or a woman at a classic car show or free weight room of the gym. Use your imagination! Identify a situation in which you are definitely out of place and everyone will know it. Once you have selected a situation, spend at least 30 minutes as a minority in that environment. Unless you feel you regularly experience being a minority and can clearly explain one of those experiences, please don’t just imagine one from the past but actually seek out a new situation where you will have the full experience of being treated like and responded to as a minority.  If you’ve had the unfairness of experiencing that a lot in your life then please describe that in detail to help educate the rest of your classmates who have not had that experience.

Reflect on your experience. How did you feel? How did others react to you? What stereotypes exist concerning your minority group? Did you experience prejudice or discrimination? To what extent did your experience reflect the research concerning stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination?