Cross-Cultural Role-Play:

Grocery Store

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$0.00 – $6.50

David Eun and Bruce Patton

Two-party negotiation between a minister and a school principal over how to address racial tensions arising from alleged shoplifting at a local grocery store

Quantity

Please note: you must order a copy (a.k.a. license/usage fee) for every person participating in the simulation in your course. This simulation has multiple roles, so you will be unable to complete your purchase without meeting the minimum quantity requirement of copies per role.

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SCENARIO:

Tensions between the Korean and African-American communities of economically-depressed Urbana have been growing for some time now. Korean-Americans own most of the grocery stores in the area. The African-Americans that make up most of their customer base have complained for a long time that they are ill-treated by the store owners. The owners in turn complain that their customers frequently steal items from the stores.

Recently, an elderly African-American woman's visit to her local grocery store erupted into a city-wide incident. The store owners allege that she was attempting to shoplift. The woman denies this, and claims that she was beaten by one of the owners. Activists on both sides have made grandiose claims on television. The customer and owners have taken legal action. Tensions continue to mount.

Now, a deacon from the local African-American church is meeting with the principal from the Korean-American school to see if they can find a way to lessen the tension surrounding the incident, and the history of such incidents.

 

MAJOR LESSONS:

  • This exercise can provide a forum for discussing many issues, including the effect of culture and ethnicity on partisan formation, the influence of race on conflict, the use of negotiation in the shadow of legal action, choosing representatives for a community, and dealing with one conflict when it is part of a pattern of conflicts.

 

TEACHING MATERIALS:

For all parties:

  • General information

 

Confidential instructions for:

  • Deacon of the African-American Church
  • High School Principal

 

Teacher's package includes:

  • All of the above
  • No teaching note available at this time

 

NOTE: The fact pattern of this simulation is similar to that of Seoul Food in Urbana; the latter is a mediation involving legal representatives of the African-American and Korean-American communities, rather than the community members themselves.

Grocery Store Attributes

Time required: 1-2 hours
Number of participants: 2
Teams involved: No
Agent present: Non-lawyer
Neutral third party present: None
Scoreable: No
Teaching notes available: No
Filed in:
Community Dispute Resolution, Cross-Cultural, Eun, David, Patton, Bruce, Role Simulations
Tags:
conflict, conflicts, HNI, Mediation, negotiation, Seoul Food in Urbana