Take aways may include: remembering sensations of belonging and being othered.

Parameters: 1 or more people in person or online. Remind people that the way an unjust society views/values them is not a reflection of their worthiness.

Materials: paper, writing utensils

Write, doodle and/or daydream about the following prompts. Then reflect in pairs, quads and/or as a group.

• Consider a time in your life when your presence really mattered. What were the circumstances? How did you know? How did you respond?
• Consider a time in your life when you felt marginalized, when you thought or were told your presence wasn’t all that important. What were the circumstances? How did you know? How did you respond?
• What are differences between the two? What was your level of engagement, energy, creativity, and imagination in each case? What do you know to be true based on your experience?
• How was power involved?

This activity is adapted from an exercise developed by Dr. L. Lee Knefelkamp, described in “Integrating Jewish Issues into the Teaching of Psychology” by Evelyn Torton Beck, Julie L. Goldberg, and L. Lee Knefelkamp, Chapter 17 in Teaching Gender and Multicultural Awareness (edited by Phyllis Bronstein and Kathryn Quina, Washington, DC: APA Press, 2003).