You know those “privilege walk” activities? Take one step forward if you attended college, take one step back if you skipped a meal because there was no food in the house, etc.

Well, we made one for the tech industry, with a focus on the United States.

How to use it

The goal of this activity is to raise awareness of privilege, and both the benefits and obstacles people can face in the tech industry.

• Used in a group setting, it requires trust already be present among participants. Standing in a line, participants acknowledge their privilege, or lack thereof, by stepping forward or back as a facilitator reads each statement out-loud.
• It can also be done more privately. Participants can be seated and tally their steps forward and back on index cards as each statement is read.

Afterwards, facilitate a conversation. Any thoughts on the activity? Who is surprised by where they landed? Did you come to any new realizations?

The questions

See the list of questions here.

Can I use or modify the list of questions?

Absolutely. We offer it under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the activity as long as you credit us for the original creation.

Please send us an email if you use it, with or without modifications. We’d like to hear about your experience.