Who is who?

Invisible racism Stereotypes and prejudices

Summary

Participants work with pictures and explore biases connected to physical appearances.

Materials

Set of photos (annexed), printed copies of a list of questions (annexed)

Procedure

1. Divide the participants in small groups of three or four people and give each group a set of eight pictures. 2. Ask participants to look at all the pictures carefully and then select one which resonates with them the most, and whose story they would like to discover. (Alternatively, to save resources you can just allocate one photo per group randomly or on your own choosing). 3. Whenever all groups have selected a photo, distribute the list of questions. Explain that the questions will help the participants to create a story about the person after carefully studying their photo. 4. Ask the groups to present their stories in plenary and move to debriefing.

Debriefing questions:

• Which photos did you choose and why? • What information did you find in the photo that helped you to develop the story? • What was the level of difficulty to answer questions about this person? • How probable is it that your story is true? Why do you think so? • Why do you think we associate certain stories with certain physical characteristics? • In which situations do we use physical characteristics to create an opinion about other people in real life? • What kind of consequences basing our judgement on physical characteristics could have?

Annex: List of questions

• What is this person’s name? • How many siblings does this person have? • What does this person’s home look like? Who do they live with? • Where would this person go on holiday? • What would this person do in their free time? • How does this person make a living? • What languages would this person speak? • What level of education would this person have? • Would this person have a partner, or children? • What are this person ‘s dreams and goals?

Annex: Photos

https://unsplash.com/collections/10024483/activity-who-is-who