RACIAL INJUSTICE AWARENESS ACTIVITY

Circle the statements that are accurate to your life (race).

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured store personnel will not follow me.
3. I can turn on the television or open the front page of the newspaper and see people of my race widely represented.
4. When I am told about our national heritage and about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
5. I can be sure that I will be given materials in school that represent my race.
6. I can go into a music shop and find music of my race represented, or into a supermarket and find staple foods that fit with my cultural tradition, or into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
7. I can do well in a challenging situation without being told that I am a credit to my race.
8. I can remain ignorant of the language and customs of persons of color who are the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such ignorance.
9. If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be sure it is not because of my race.
10. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling something in common with others, rather than feeling isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.
11. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-seeking or self-interested.
12. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
13. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or buying in an area which I could afford and in which I would want to live.
14. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
15. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
16. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
17. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes, or not answer letters without having people attribute those choices to bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
18. I can be pretty sure if I ask to talk to the “person in charge” I will be facing a person of my race.
19. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
20. I can be late to a meeting without having my lateness reflect on my race.
21. I can choose public accommodations without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
22. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
23. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
24. I can easily find academic courses and institutions that give attention to people of my race.
25. I can choose blemish cover or band-aids in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.