Materials for Center on Aging

Activity #1

Who would you select to join your team?

Activity #2

What would be the hidden message behind each statement?

  1. A White man or woman clutches her purse or checks his wallet as a Black or Latino man approaches or passes them.
  2. An assertive female manager is labeled as a “bitch,” while her male counterpart is described as “a forceful leader.”
  3. Students use the term “gay” to describe a fellow student who is socially ostracized.
  4. A blind man reports that people often raise their voices when speaking to him. He responds by saying, “Please don’t raise your voice; I can hear you perfectly well.”
  5. The outfit worn by a TV reality-show mom is described as “classless and trashy.”
  6. A lesbian client in therapy reluctantly discloses her sexual orientation to a straight therapist by stating she is “into women.” The therapist indicates he is not shocked by the disclosure because he once had a client who was “into dogs.”
  7. A female physician wearing a stethoscope is mistaken for a nurse.
  8. A Black couple is seated at a table in the restaurant next to the kitchen despite there being other empty and more desirable tables located at the front.
  9. An Asian American born and raised in the United States is complimented for speaking “good English.”


  1. Types of Bias 
  2. Microaggressions