Illuminating the relationship between human difference and structural inequality [Activity]

Before they develop a sociological mindset, students often see the world as one where human difference is the cause of structural differences and inequalities.   As sociologists, our goal is to help them see that this relationship might work the other way around.  Perhaps human difference is the RESULT of structural differences.   Could it be that structural inequalities actually CREATE and REINFORCE human differences?   In other words, maybe people are born alike, but systems and structures that are in place give advantages to some groups over others.

I use this activity to make this point in a Gender studies course, but it would be easy to adapt for a race course as well (or any other stratification course for that matter).


Rubberband Hands

1. Ask the students to line up from shortest to tallest.  The line typically winds up having most (but not all) of the men on the tall side, with a few shorter men scattered among the women).
2. Once they have created one line, use it to point out the impressive variation of human beings.  I usually explain that men are ON AVERAGE taller and clustered towards the front of the line, but that there are some men who are shorter and some women who are tall. (And here is where the tall women will usually voice their displeasure at not finding enough men to date. Topic for another day!)  I will even point out that the difference between the shortest and the tallest female is often larger than the difference between an average female (about 5'5" or 5'6") and an average male (5'10"-ish).
3. I then say that despite this impressive variation, I want to divide the class into two and only two groups: tall people and short people.  I divide the line exactly in half and ask all of the tall people to find a partner from the short group and to sit down together.
4. As the groups begin to pair off, I begin to speak highly of short people and start saying negative things about tall people, such as "short people are more determined and work harder" and "tall people can't follow directions well."
5. I give each group a rubberband and ask them to tie their hands together so that the shorter person has his/her dominant writing hand free and the taller person in the pair has his/her dominant writing hand tied up.
6. Once I do this, I give the students a series of tasks. For example, I will ask the tall person to take out a piece of paper and rip it completely in half without any help from the short person and I will ask each person to write their name as neatly as possible.
7. I then tell the students that I am giving them a quiz (If you want to raise the stakes, tell them it is being graded!).   I usually give them a few easy questions and ask them to list reasons that short people are so awesome. I time the test and tell them I won't accept them late. This is simple- 3 or 4 easy questions that they have about 2 or 3 minutes to complete. The harder you can make this for tall people the better, but don't make it so hard that the short people will fail.  They should be able to easily complete the exercise.
8. Most short people will finish quickly and get all of the questions correct. Most tall people will either not finish or write so sloppily that you can't make out their answers.  I read the answers out in front of class and try to gently poke fun at the "talls"  and praise the "shorts"

Once I have finished the activity and assured them that I wasn't actually grading them, we have a conversation about how the STRUCTURE (the rubberbands) and IDEOLOGY (my praising of short people) were set up in a way to give advantages to the shorts.  All students had the ability to write and to rip paper, but their completion of the tasks depended on the advantages or disadvantages that were assigned to them because of the social category (height) that they were born into.

I ask them to envision how the course would turn out if they took every exam tied up in that way.  The shorts would on average get better grades! (Though would not be guaranteed those grades if they did not study). The talls would on average get lousy grades. Some  might adapt  to the disadvantages and others might give up or drop out. Short people would rule the world and thus seem worthy of the advantages that were arbitrarily given to them.   Tall people would occasionally succeed.  But either way, the system actually created the difference.

Students usually enjoy this experience and get a lot of laughs from it, but more importantly,  I think it helps them shift their sense of what we mean by the relationship between inequality and difference.