Blog

Interviewing Multicultural Groups

You are required to interview someone who is different from you on at least one of the following social identity groups to which you belong: age, disability, religion, nationality, gender, gender identity, race/ethnicity, weight, sexual orientation, and social class. This person can be a friend, family member, partner, or other acquaintance. The interview should take place over the course of an hour and you should prepare 10-15 questions to ask in advance of the interview.

1. You should ask the interviewee about the social identities s/he feels comfortable discussing (must include the social identity that you differ on) and how his/her group memberships influence his/her life experiences and how s/he views the world. You can feel free to consider some of the same topics and questions you reflected on in completing the identity paper earlier this semester.
2. You should ask the interviewee about how his/her social identities influence his/her experiences of subtle and overt prejudice, discrimination and/or privilege .
3. You should ask the interviewee about how his/her social identities have influenced (or will influence) his/her career plans and any issues s/he has faced (or expects to face) in the workforce.
4. You should write an informal 3-4 page paper summarizing the interview (be sure to cover points 1-3 above in your summary).
5. Please also discuss your reactions to the interview (i.e., what you learned, what surprised you, what gave you concern or bothered you, and whether this exercise was comfortable).
6. Please attach your interview questions as an Appendix (not included in the 3-4 pages).
   Submit your paper through Canvas by the due date. Please put your full name and FIU e-mail at the top of the first page.

Note: Before conducting the interview, please obtain permission to quote them in your paper. Please inform them that you will be summarizing the interview in a paper and discussing the interview on the class discussion board. Please keep the identity of the interviewee anonymous.

Additional Note: Note that your discussion of privilege should be based on its definition (i.e., unearned advantage derived from one’s group membership). This would come from being a majority group member of whatever identities you choose to discuss (i.e., for gender the majority group is men, for race the majority group is White people, for sexual orientation the majority group is heterosexual people, etc.). Also note that the “majority group” in this sense is defined in terms of access to power, which in most cases is associated with being the numeric majority (e.g., [in the U.S.] White people, heterosexual people, etc.), but in some cases is just based on access to power (e.g., gender since men and women are generally equal in numbers). Group-identity based privilege does not refer to being financially well off unless you are specifically discussing the privilege associated with being from a higher social class/socio-economic status.