Would you rather

Here is a game to play with yourself to help clarify your social justice values.

Imagine these are double-sided cards, you have to choose one – no middle ground, no waffling and saying ‘Well if I do this, I can have both’, you can only choose one.

A special thank you to Vivian for giving me this idea a while ago. We should get together to write another version based on school budget choices, yes?

How to play: You can only choose one option, either the choice in Column A or Column B. Rationalize with yourself why you made that choice — there is no right or wrong, but thinking through why is important.

Column A Column B

Listen to community members	Listen to ‘experts’
Fund a popular exclusive music program that has allowed many students to go college on music scholarships or at the very least access high quality music instruction	Fund a remedial reading program needed by students close to failing
Free lunch for public school students in low-income Title 1 schools across the state	Fund three student health centers in rural areas without access to medical centers
10 shelter beds	10 slots in a drug treatment program
Fund a school counselor or social worker	Fund a school resource officer (SRO) (law enforcement in school)
Continue an advancement placement class that only 12 students take but helps to propel them into top colleges	Start a new language class targeting newer immigrants potentially serving 30+ students
Fund school construction in an area that is overcrowded but affluent	Fund school construction in a heavily POC neighborhood for a building in desperate need of repair
Move fast and try different solutions	Slow down and listen to community members before trying something new
Scrap existing systems or programs to start over completely	Work at incremental changes and build on what is already in place
Create an emergency fund for families in need	Continue funding an afterschool program in an affluent part of town. If you take it away, you’ll face political backlash.
Work from the inside to make change	Advocate, agitate, organize from the outside to put pressure on an organization to change
Fund a youth program that continually deficits but is targeted at POC youth in lower income communities	Fund a profitable STEM program funded by corporate foundation money that is inclusive of POCs but open to all
Hire a staff member with excellent formal credentials (e.g. college degree, references from well-connected people, etc.) and is competent but not from the community being served	Hire a staff member who knows the community and has already done the job informally, but doesn’t have a degree
Provide staffing for a popular sports program that brings in donors and funding to the organization but most of the funding is restricted to sports, 20% of the donations can support other programs	Fund and staff an intergenerational learning program asked for by POC communities
Hire a company that is cheaper and fast	Hire a company that charges more and will take 3 days longer but is POC owned
Create a program on your own and launch it because it is faster and easier and force it on people	Take a longer time planning but include other voices in the process
Require staff to come back to an office because it promotes community and coming together	Invest in technology to allow people to work effectively remotely because it allows for geographic reach and it is what the staff want

As you were reading through these choices were you thinking about the potential racial implications of your choices? Were you thinking about who is impacted most by the decision? What about the political side of decision points – there are always political considerations, such as who will you hear from and not hear from, what are the power differentials, who has the time and energy to advocate for their side.

While I set this up as a binary choice, often these choices are multi-faceted and there is more information associated with the choice. You may have organizational culture or guiding principles to help a decision point become more clear, or there may be a set of other laws or policies that force a decision point.

I hope it was an interesting tabletop/computer screen activity to help you think through your values and nudge thinking a certain way.

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