This activity is a role play of a young woman announcing to her family that she intends to live together with her boyfriend, and their prejudiced responses.

Did you see the 1967 film with Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn? It's never too late!
 

Issues addressed

• Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination
• The transmission of prejudice through the processes of socialisation and education
• Dealing with conflict

Aims

• To analyse the messages we have received from our own family about people with a different cultural or social background
• To analyse the values behind those messages
• To be aware of the role of the family in transmitting society's values

Preparation / Materials

• Copies of the role cards
• Paper and pens for the four special observers

Instructions

1. Explain to the group that this is a role play to explore the role of the family in transmitting images about people who belong to other social or cultural groups.
2. Ask for four volunteers to play the roles (preferably two of each sex) and for four others to be special observers. The rest of the group are general observers.
3. Tell each special observer to watch one of the role players and take note of all the arguments they used. Decide who is to watch whom.
4. Give one role card to each of the players and allow them 4 or 5 minutes to get into their role.
5. Prepare the scene: place 4 chairs in a semi-circle and explain to everyone that this is the living room of a house and that they are going to watch a family discussion. Give a signal, e.g. clap your hands, to start the role play.
6. Depending on the way it develops, you will have to decide how long to let the role play run. 15 minutes is a good length of time. Give a clear signal to indicate the end.

Debriefing and evaluation

Start the evaluation with a round of the actors saying how they felt. Then ask each observer in turn to read out the arguments used by each of the actors to persuade the others of their point of view.

Follow up with a general discussion with everyone. You can ask:

• Were the arguments used similar to those you have heard in your own families?
• What do you think about this story? Is it realistic?
• Does this sort of family conflict still happen or is it a thing of the past?
• Would it have been different if, instead of being an immigrant, the boyfriend was the same nationality as the girl?
• Would it have been different if the boy had not been disabled? Would it have been different if the boy, instead of being blind, had been in a wheelchair, for instance?
• Would the parents’ reactions have been different if, instead of bringing home a boyfriend, it was a girlfriend? Why?
• Consider if it had been the son bringing home a blind, immigrant girl friend? Or a boyfriend? Would the reactions have been different? Why?
• What if the partner had been black, but was born and brought up in your country?
• Daughter or son, straight or gay, blind or in a wheelchair, atheist or a believer, most people instinctively react differently to different forms of ”difference”. Why is this? Is it learnt? What is the basis for these differing responses?
• Have you, or do you know someone else who has, faced a similar challenge with your family?
• What strategies did you use to approach this challenge? Is it possible to overcome the conflict? How?
• Do you believe that this kind of conflict is still common nowadays or is it something from the past?
• What strategies did you use to approach this challenge? Is it possible to overcome the conflict? How?
• In general how can we change our own stereotypes and prejudices? And the stereotypes of the others? Is it possible to change them?

Tips for the facilitators

If you think that the roles are too prescriptive, or that they have nothing to do with your reality, you can make your own role cards giving an outline of four common attitudes typical of families in your culture. You can also change the scenario, for instance if you want to work on religious prejudices the girl's boyfriend might be Protestant if the family are staunch Catholics or the girl and her family might be atheists and the boyfriend Jewish.

If you want to adapt the idea and write more roles, do so. You may also like to consider using Forum Theatre technique (see ’Target and bystander’).

Suggestions for follow-up

Take action: Consider looking further into the prejudices that exist in your society and brainstorm ways the group could raise awareness and challenge them. Taking a suggestion from this activity, you may like to explore issues relating to being blind. For a start, did you know that January 4 is the UN World Braille Day?

Move on to another activity: If you want to explore your attitudes and reactions to people of different nationalities further you may like to do the activity Euro-rail. Are you really as open to people who are different as you think you are? Find out how difficult it might be in practice to be as tolerant as you would wish.