Discrimination Role-Plays

• Create your own or use any of the following role-play situations for this activity. Prepare a separate index card, describing each situation you decide to use. Examples:

1) You are a first-year teacher who has just been hired to teach in an all-black school. You happen to be white. On your first day of school you overhear a group of students referring to your skin color in a not-so-nice way. How do you deal with it? (If more appropriate, make the situation a Middle Eastern, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American in an all-white school.)

2) Your friend is very athletic and loves volleyball. She's also deaf. Yesterday she told you that she wants to join the volleyball team but doesn't think the other children would want her to play because of her hearing impairment. What do you do?

3) At lunch a few days ago, you and your friend noticed a new student at school who quietly made the Sign of the Cross and then seemed to say a prayer before he started eating. The other children started to smirk and make fun of him. What do you do?

4) Last spring the house next door went on sale. All summer you and your sister were hoping that a family with children close to your age would buy the house. Instead, last weekend an elderly couple with two dogs moved in. What do you do?

5) You and your sisters/brothers live in a small apartment with your mom. In spite of the fact that she works as hard as she can, money is tight in your family. You'd like to try out for the basketball team and think that you've got a good chance of making it, but you know that your mom could never afford to get you the shoes that the team wore last year. What do you do?

6) Your parents have decided that what works best for your family is for your dad to stay home with your younger brother and sister while your mom works at her job as an office manager. You've just started at a new school, and secretly hope that none of the other kids ever ask you what your dad does for a living. Yesterday, someone almost did. What do you do?

• List the following types of discrimination on the board or chart:

Discrimination based on 1) Age 2) Race 3) Ability 4) Religion 5) Economics 6) Sex

• Ask the children to define discrimination and then to give an example of the different kinds of discrimination you've listed.
• Divide the children into small groups and give each group one of the index cards that you've prepared. Ask each group to plan a short, two-to- three-minute skit based on the situation they were given. Instruct each group to act out their particular situation, showing by their words and/or actions the kind of discrimination described on their card. End the skit by resolving the conflict in a truly Christian way.
• As each group performs their skit, ask the rest of the children to try to identify the kind of discrimination portrayed in each role-play situation and decide if the final resolution of the conflict was a Christian response.