Intercultural in the SCP

Managing interculturality and prejudice

The management of intercultural and prejudice is a key factor in the collaboration between the organization of the South and the professional of the North. During the SCP / EED launch workshop in the Great Lakes Countries (March 2007), participants trained in an intercultural game on prejudice between blacks and whites.

The results of this game revealed the strength of prejudices, endangering the richness of the intercultural. The game consisted in highlighting some characteristics or perceptions related to “Blacks” and “Whites”. Each participant was asked to give an example by category. Here is what emerged:

Characteristic Elements of Blacks: (written by Blacks and Whites) Characteristic Elements of Whites: (written by Blacks and Whites)
  • Hurt a lot by the word Sincerity
  • They always accuse their brothers and sisters to us very religious
  • Non-respect of time, elasticity of time
  • Not organized, lots of chaos Attentiste
  • Lack of initiative
  • malignant
  • Begging
  • Beggar
  • liars
  • Hypocritical
  • Black does not read Act before thinking irrational
  • Always late They are always late Blacks / Africans like to laugh and dance
  • Spirit of Domination of Poor Blacks
  • Lack of self-confidence
  • Strict
  • indiscreet
  • Le Blanc is not direct
  • Punctual and rich
  • Lack of flexibility
  • Arrogant
  • Project money belongs to white
  • Very strict,
  • too organized
  • Lack of confidence
  • Have prejudices
  • Always pressured Workers
  • They want to know all of us but they do not tell us everything about them Lack of respect
  • Interests before anything else They think they “know everything” They have a bad odor

 Interpretation of this table has shown how stereotypes related to skin color are still perennial and are likely to move away from partners rather than bring them closer together if we are not aware of them.

The predominance of the “negative” in the overall picture shows little interest in the qualities of each other. It is these types of elements that are sometimes used in a situation of tension and which easily cause climbing.