Color Line Line Quiz:
Unpacking White Privilege
This exercise is an effective facilitation and self-reflection tool to think through unacknowledged white privileges. For participants of color this exercise can be helpful to unpack the presence and impacts of the 4 types of Racism.
Do not facilitate this exercise if you are not trained in holding groups with cultural competency and racial consciousness. Take the time to build the relationships and shared language necessary to navigate the conversation and the emotions that arise in the exercise.
Rate your answers from 1-5.
1 I can not | 3 Sometimes | 5 I can/I am sure
If I want to I can be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
I can go shopping alone most of the time, assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
I can turn on the television, go on social media or open to the front page of a magazine and see people of my race widely represented.
When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race available.
I can go into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes, or not answer emails, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
I can speak in public without putting my race on trial.
I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as an outsider.
I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race.
If a cop pulls me over I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in and welcome; rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.
I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.
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.
I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.
I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more less match my skin.
Now go back and turn all of you 3’s into a 1 or a 5. Total up your score.
If you are facilitating this exercise for a group have participants record their score, stand and silently place themselves in sequential order. Consider offering questions about proximity to whiteness or colorism.