ME AND THE OTHER
Tip There is a set of role-cards at the end of the booklet. They were devised by someone whose social and cultural reality is in urban England, but of course you can adapt the role play cards to suit the particular social reality you are dealing with. Even better, you could choose to design your own role-cards, even make an activity of it with young people.
Thinking back to Julie and Brian, at the end of the first part of the activity, after about 15 questions relating to different social circumstances (e.g. education, gender, sexuality, employment), Julie will almost certainly have more sweets than Brian, who may well run out of sweets completely (and therefore be thrown out of the activity altogether). There will be similar experiences for all those who participate in the activity, with some accumulating many sweets in their role, some a few sweets and others finding themselves with no sweets left at all. The parallel with society and the reality of social privilege, the power of being “included” instead of “excluded”, is clearly reflected in this activity. This is why we have chosen to call the activity “IN-E-Quality Street”, because it demonstrates inequality in society, as well as the social reward of inclusion (and the “quality” of life this can bring). More than simply enabling someone to reflect on the issues of social inclusion and exclusion though, this activity is intended to enable participants to “feel” this. So the activity should be continued as below.
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