Step 7: Debrief

The facilitator asks the small groups to form a full group, then asks the following question while encouraging the participants to share their experience and listen to the experiences of others. It is important to validate people’s emotions as the facilitator and highlight biases (45 minutes).

• How did this exercise make you feel?
• How did you go about picking privileges?
• What on this sheet of privilege surprised you?
• Why do you think we choose money as a currency? We could have easily said that each privilege was worth a token, and you have 5 tokens, what does money represent?
  • Point to clarify if participants fail to answer the question:
    Money is a form of privilege. When you have money, you may not be as concerned about potentially losing your job or being rejected from housing, or you might be able to move to another location and get easier access to certain services like hiring a lawyer, etc. So, money also means you can buy certain privileges. Money can also affect our priorities and decision-making process.
• What was it like to know other groups were given way more or way less amount of money?
• Why do you think groups were given different amounts of money?
  • Point to clarify if participants fail to answer the question: The reality is that not everyone has the same financial or social-economic privileges, and we wanted to make you aware of that too.
  • This economic disparity can create animosity between groups even though the groups were simply assigned the money and it was really the facilitator who should be receiving the animosity.
• What was it like to do this exercise within a group? What was the point of that?
• What have you learned from this exercise?
• How does this exercise and what you are learning from this exercise translate into your job or work?