The Race Game

I thought that Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege” brought up some really interesting dialogue in class today, most particularly towards the end of the class. When we brought up so many of the racial issues (and possible solutions,) it made me think of an activity I did on the Freshman Crossroads Retreat at Emory in August 2006. The retreat was about multiculturalism and learning to make new friends regardless of race at the beginning of college.

One particular activity called the “Race Game” that we did at the Crossroads Retreat single-handedly changed the way I think about race and affirmative action. The activity involved around thirty students and Office of Multicultural Programs and Services staff members and took place in a basketball court in a gymnasium (at Georgia’s Future Farmers of America retreat site in Jackson, if anyone’s wondering.) All thirty of us stood in a line on the half court line all facing one direction. An OMPS staff member stood on the sidelines and instructed us to listen to his questions and take a step forward if our answer to the question was “yes” and take a step backward if our answer was “no.” Some of the questions included: “Did your parents attend college? Did your grandparents attend college?” “Can you say you have never been a victim of discrimination based on your skin color?” “Are the policemen in your town the same race as you?” Many of the other questions were similar to the propositions in McIntosh’s “White Privilege” article. At the end of the game (after about ten to fifteen questions,) we were told to stop and stand in place. Most of the white students (and some Asian students) were standing at the front, while many people of color stood at the back, including the then-Director of the OMPS office.

The leader of the activity explained that the “game” was about to change. We were told to race to the boundary line in the front of the room, which was just inches from many of the white people standing in the front. As I reached the front fairly quickly, I turned around and saw many people that had been in the back still running down the basketball court. As everyone finally reached the finish line, the leader of the activity summed the meaning up fairly well, telling us “now you see how hard it is for some people to try to win the race.”

I think that this activity could have been played using all of McIntosh’s questions and that it gave a really powerful physical representation of why some affirmative action measures are needed due to society’s obstacles that are placed in the paths of many minority groups.