Cultural Sharing/ awareness

Last week in Americorps:

Our meeting last Friday was a meeting of Study Circles. One of the Project Change non-profits. The objective of Study Circles is to raise awareness about differences between cultures and negative things that people think about other peoples backgrounds.

It started off easy. We went around sharing things from their families or their cultures and talked about what it meant to them and where they come from. the topics gradually got more intense though, one of the things the Study Circles instructors had us do was write down negative and positive things about our culture or what we identified our selves as. Then we went around the room and everyone listed what they wrote.

The day ended with "White Privilege". This is apparently a common thing to do in these workshops. But it was also without a doubt the most intense. We were all told to fill out this sheet of paper that asked about 20 questions about our every day life. "When you pick up a book do you feel certain that you will see someone that looks like you?" "Do you feel that your skin color has an effect on your getting into school?" and other things along those lines. We were asked to mark the questions with a 5 if they were true for us and a 0 if they were not. When we finished we were asked to line up in order from who scored the highest to who scored the lowest. With two exceptions, and no surprises all of the white members were on one end and all of the people of color ended up on the other.

Then we were given time to go around and talk about it and discuss the problems that people faced and the impact that color still has on society.

My only criticism of the day is that there wasn't enough time given for the most important conversation. A lot of people on the white side had things to say and a lot of women put in that there was no question or debate that  people of color still struggle in society and women do too though... It wasn't until the absolute last minute that a member on the opposite side said told everyone the group that he was upset by the fact that so many people with high scores on the "white privilege" worksheet were talking. He added that we (being white) have no idea what he goes through, and really can't talk.

This comment caused a big stirr with me and several members in my group both white and African American. We couldn't stop thinking about it and for days we talked about it and tried to understand why our fellow Americorps member, who is part of this non profit, was that offended. It wasn't until an alum offered some insight that the comment could have been fixed that it finally made sense.

He forced us to think about it for days and go over and over everything that happened and what he said and really think about what it meant to be in his position. Even though no one was trying to deny that nothing compares to the problems he or someone of color faces no matter what the gender, I realized from that exercise and the day how much I forget sometimes. Which is the point, to remember that there are still problems.

My only hope is that at the next meeting we talk about how to change.

Team Building

This week Project CHANGE 2010 went to the Smith Center in Rockville to do various team building exercises, which of course were related back to our respective work environments. 

The key element in all of the exercises that we did seemed to be communication. Which is not surprising I guess, given that it is key in any type of relationship with any amount of people, but the most difficult to conquer.

We started out with easy games. We got into a big circle, ( all 29 or 30 of us) held hands and at various points in the circle the Smith Center leader put hoola hoops over two people's hands. She told us, without letting go of our hands (breaking the circuit) to transfer all of the hoola hoops throughout the circle. Each hoola hoop had a different direction that it had to go in though so at various points in the game the hoops had to cross over each other. And that took some communication but we figured it out pretty quickly. 

The games continued throughout the morning each one a little more complicated and requiring a little bit more communication skills and patience with each other.

Our last exercise was on a big wooden board built to tip back and forth like a low see-saw. We were told that we had to all get on the board while constantly keeping it balanced. This was hard. We started out agreeing that we had to keep weight on the ends to get people on at first. But when more and more people got on the board it got harder to communicate and figure out what to do when there weren't enough people to keep weight on the end. 

This was the point where I realized how important clear and detailed communication is. No one could see everyone or hear everything that was going on and we all ended up doing different things or not reacting when we needed to. 

I am probably the only person who really loves learning things in the form of a game. Although I consider myself a people person and I think I work pretty well with other people things like this are always useful as a way to remind yourself exactly how important it is to constantly communicate and how easy it is for confusion and miscommunication to happen.