Frontline's production of A Class Divided features a two-part documentary. The first, Eye of the Storm follows the experiment in discrimination that Jane Elliot conducted in Riceville, IA the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated as well as their class reunion several decades later. The second part of the program introduces us to a contemporary exercise used in the Iowa Department of Corrections too train prison staff. Briefly explain the effects of discrimination differentiating between the children and the adults. Why did Elliot chose to set up her experiment with the blues-eyes on the bottom in the prison? How would it have been different if blues had been on top in the example with the adults? Relate the examples with the adults to Antonio Gramsci's notions of hegemony with particular examples that illustrate the imbalance of power, the use of ideology, the ways power is maintained, and the way that consent and resistance to the status-quo occur. Last, provide an example from this video that surprised you or was most memorable. Please use language from our last lecture to strengthen your entry. Please post your response as a comment.
Elliot’s discrimination experiment had great effects on both her third grade class and the prison staff. The lesson really seemed to resonate with both groups, but I think the biggest difference in how it was perceived was due to the age difference of the participants. The third graders were able to learn young the effects and consequences of discrimination and use that knowledge throughout their lives. It majorly impacted their interactions with others and especially the bond between each other. However, the prison staff went through the training at an age where they already had a basic understanding of discrimination and were coming in with preconceived notions. I think that as a third grader, you more readily accept whatever position you are given especially by someone you respect and look up to such as a teacher. Whereas the prison staff was put in this position of disempowerment by a lady, who not only did they not know, but who also shared their undesirable trait. They definitely seemed to handle the situation with more disdain and disrespect for “authority”. I think the fact that Elliot put blue eyes on the bottom for the prison experiment was important for several reasons. One, unlike her homogenous third grade class there were minorities in the prison group. By putting brown eyes on top she increased the chance that they would be in the dominant group and that the inferior group remained predominantly white. It is also significant to note that Jane Elliot herself is blue eyed. By putting herself in the minority and then being the leader of the group she forced the blue eyes into a further uncomfortable discrepancy. I think this was generally more effective, had blue eyes been on top you would have had people already in the real-life minority, in the inferior group and the learning experience would not have been so profound. In fact, by putting true minorities into the inferior group, problems of racism and discrimination could just be exacerbated.
ReplyDeleteThe people in the prison training predominantly displayed the effects of disempowered groups consenting to the status quo. People in the blue group who spoke up and against Elliot were disappointed in their fellow group members who were quiet and reserved during the entirety of the ordeal. One of the differences between this group and disempowered groups in general though is that the blue-eyes probably pretty well understood the extent of their disempowerment. By going from the majority to a minority it is easier to understand everything you are missing out on. But regardless of this fact, they still consented to the dominance of brown eyed people. The structure of the training session probably had a large impact on this factor; any type of organized event such as this discourages deviation from the status quo.
Most interesting to me was the reaction of the original third grade class. Their repeated revelations of how they were “kind of like a family now” was a strong indicator of what life could be like if we were to truly overcome discrimination. It also goes to show that we clearly have a long way to go before discrimination in our country is truly resolved. There have been moments recently, when our country- black and white, has felt like a family: for example, the presidential election night in 2008. But the ideological incongruities between the races are still all too prevalent.
The discrimination experiment conducted by Jane Elliot was a powerful and effective message to both the children and adults that were taught about the reality of discrimination at its worst. Both the children and adults came away from the lesson with a greater understanding about how discrimination is continually happening everyday and almost nothing is being done to stop it. I believe that impact of the message was greater with the children as opposed to the adults. Learning a message as powerful as that at an early age will stick with a child growing up and will greatly impact the way he or she goes about treating people. On the other hand the adults have already been taught or taught themselves the differences of what is right and wrong, and it is less likely that the lesson or message will be as effective compared to a child. Elliot chose to set-up the blue-eyed people of the prison at the bottom because more white's had blue eyes and more minorities working for the prison were brown-eyed. She did this so she could specifically call out more whites as opposed to the minorities, because they are the ones who were intended to receive the message. It would have been much different if the blue-eyes were on top because the message wouldn't have been as strong as before due to more whites having blue eyes and the realization of discrimination may have never gotten across.
ReplyDeleteAn example of how Gramski's consent and resistance to the status-quo came into play was how some of the blue-eyed people didn't speak up to defend themselves or the other blue-eyed people that were defending themselves out of fear. While watching the other blue-eyed people talking back to Elliot and Elliot bashing them with comments of them being dumb, slow, and inferior, some of the blue-eyed people were afraid to speak because they knew that if they did then the same thing would have happened to them. They were focused on preserving or conserving the status quo instead of showing resistance as Gramski would say. This same sort of concept continues to happen all the time and it goes unnoticed pretty much all time as well.
The most memorable thing that I remember from the film was when one of the blue-eyed adults talked about how he felt after this experiment and he said, "I felt hopeless, like I was Jewish and the brown-eyed people were the Nazi's", it made me think that if this experiment is comparable to the Holocaust, then why in the world do we let discrimination keep on going? It doesn't seem right to me.
Elliot's experiment in Riceville was important and it showed the difference in the effects of discrimination on young children and on adults in power. It was also a good example of unfair discrimination as the people involved were discriminated against because of a subtle difference between them and the group in power during the experiment. This experiment really showed the participants how harmful and degrading discrimination can really be to an individual. The third grade group was a group of Caucasian youth from a pre-dominantly white town where discrimination and racism was not part of the way of life. Introducing discrimination at such a young age when the children were naive to the effects of discrimination benefited them greatly in the long run as they were able to understand the pain and hurt that being discriminated against could cause. When the experiment was done on adults who were used to being in a position of power, it led to a greater understanding about how bad discrimination can be. It was also important for them to take part in the experiment as at such a young age, they would not speak out against the experiment or discrimination in general. The adults at the prison system were used to being in a position of power, and many of them had probably never been discriminated against in their lives. They also possibly had a pre-determined thought about the effects of discrimination. They were also more out-spoken against the experiment in general as they were not used to being regarded as the "under class" in society.
ReplyDeletePlacing the blue-eyed people on the bottom of the experiment in the prison was important on many levels. First off, the addition of minorities into this group caused the blue eyes to be on the bottom, as minorities in race have brown eyes and would be allowed to be on top for this experiment; the experiment would not have the intended as effect as some of them have probably already been discriminated against in their life and the experiment would not have the same effect on them as the blue-eyed people. This would also force the minority in the experiment to be mainly Caucasian and place them in a situation that they were quite unfamiliar with. The experiment probably would have not been as effective if blue eyes were on top because Elliot herself was blue-eyed and placing the blue-eyes in charge would not have the same effect. Making the blue-eyes see one of their own in charge of this setting would further increase their hostility as they were being discriminated against by a person that has the same difference in traits that they have.
This experiment implemented many parts of Gramsci's theory. The majority of the blue-eyed group consented to the status quo, as they did not speak up against the discrimination they faced and they decided to disturb the flow of society. It also showed some forms of ideological domination because Elliot was in charge and she was blue-eyed. Possibly some members of the blue-eyed group refused to speak out because they believed that they could get to the top if a fellow member of their group was in charge. It also showed that power can be maintained by the majority if the minority does not unite as a whole to take on the majority, as the splintering of the minority allowed the majority to stay in command during the experiment. However, some members of the minority resisted the status quo by refusing to listen to instructions and arguing back with the people in charge.
One of the most surprising things from the movie that I noticed was how Elliot helped reinforce stereotypes that the group did not know existed. By continuously accusing the blue-eyed people of being lazy, disruptive, and poor listeners, the brown eyed people there began to believe those things to be true which helped strengthen the stereotypes against the blue-eyed people. It showed me that with enough repetition, a group of people can believe a stereotype about someone, even if it is completely made up and not even close to being rooted in reality.
Elliot’s experiment had a profound effect not only on small, easily encouraged children, but adults that were for the most part set in their ways as well. Specifically the children made a 360-degree turn when put in the lower, less privileged class. Not only did the children become mean and disrespectful when in the group with power, they performed better as well when faced with an activity like math. The children in the less privileged class had the opposite things happen; their math scores suffered and they said that they felt completely powerless. A fight even occurred when a dominant blue-eyed student called an inferior brown-eyed student “brown eyes.” The adults in the correctional facility acted in much the same way even though the experiment was just a little bit different for obvious reasons. One thing that was different for the adults was the fact that some of the blue-eyed people tried to speak out against what was happening. I believe this was due to the fact that as adults they had more of an idea of what discrimination was and were unfamiliar with it having anything to do with eye color. Nevertheless they seemed to accept what was happening to them for the most part.
ReplyDeleteElliot set up her experiment with the blue-eyes on bottom because there was a mixture of white and black people that were attending the meeting. For the most part black people have brown-eyes so if there were set up to be more of a minority than they already were many issues with racism and discrimination would have arisen, even more so that what already did. I believe Elliot had this in mind when she was setting up the experiment so she had the blue-eyes that were all white people be the minority for the day. Another reason I think that she set it up this way was because she too had blue-eyes. By her being in the minority but rising to power she could show that not all blue-eyes had to conform to the ideas that they were lazy, stupid, etc. She said in her speech that she lives with brown-eyed people like her husband and kids, therefore she has learned the ways of the brown-eyed people and is better than any other blue-eyed person.
This experiment with the adults related to hegemony in many ways. First off the imbalance of power was highlighted when the Elliot, a blue-eye, was in power of the whole meeting. She was preaching that blue-eyes were not as good as brown-eyes but there she was leading the group and talking down to her fellow blue-eyes. The brown-eyed group maintained power because most of the people of the blue-eyed group were afraid to speak out about the inequities. The ones that did were harassed and belittled, so the majority remained quiet about the whole thing. This showed that consent to status quo was occurring in this small, controlled setting. Even the brown-eyed people began to call out the blue-eyes on things they were doing wrong and why they would never be any better. The blue-eyed people for the most part took the criticism because they were not in power; they were consenting to the status quo.
The part of the movie that surprised me the most was when the white woman spoke out about how another white woman could not really comprehend what a black woman must go through each and everyday. It surprised me just because of the way she was so passionate about it even though they were both white. I think that since they were both in the inferior group they had a better understanding about how it feels to be in a minority.
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ReplyDeleteJane Elliot's exercise gave both third graders and adult prison staff exposure to the effects of discrimination. The inferior groups of both age classes were targeted, ridiculed, and denied opportunities given to the dominant group. However, with the kids the effects of internal oppression in response to the discrimination were illustrated by the inferior group scoring lower on their school work than the day before. Effects of internal oppression were not witnessed in the adult group, and this may be related to a difference in the way the lesson was perceived between the two age classes. The lesson was likely more powerful for the children due to their young age, lack of experience with racism, and respect for Ms. Elliot as an authority figure. On the other hand, the prison staff had more preconceived notions regarding racism than the kids, and had less respect for Ms. Elliot as an authority figure because she was a woman, a stranger, and had the eye color of the inferior group. These factors may have caused the adults to be less open to the lesson, and therefore not as profoundly effected by it. Furthermore, because the effects of discrimination were more powerful, I believe the third graders are less likely to discriminate following the exercise.
ReplyDeleteMs. Elliot strategically placed blue-eyed adults in the inferior group to increase the potency of her exercise. Because the blue-eyed group was Caucasian, its members were less likely to have experienced discrimination than the brown-eyed counterparts, which included a combination of races and minorities. By placing the white, blue-eyed group as inferior, the typical majority group was able to feel the effects of discrimination that the minorities may have already grown accustomed to. Had Ms. Elliot placed the brown-eyed individuals in the inferior group, she would have been at a greater risk for reinforcing racism and stereotypes, and thus the lesson would be less meaningful. Because her third grade class in Riceville was all white, Ms. Elliot did not need to make this consideration and she was able to put brown- eyed people in the inferior group without reinforcing racism.
Ms. Elliot maintained consensus and hegemony in the prison staff by using structural and ideological discrimination and societal force. Structural and ideological discrimination aided in the diffusion of the belief that blue-eyed people were inferior. The structure of the training session provided a high level of consensus throughout the brown-eyed people regarding their dominance, and the higher the level of consensus about a belief, the harder it is to change. Societal force was also used by Ms. Elliot to reproduce her power and the status quo with minimal resistance. The blue-eyed group was the disempowered group, and although they may have known the extent of their disempowerment, they typically still submitted to the status quo out of fear of being ridiculed. Their consent and silent domination reproduced the discrimination and imbalance of power between the blue and brown-eyed groups.
I was the most moved by the way discrimination affected the third graders. I was amazed by the strong family bond that developed between them, and by how quickly the effects of internalized oppression surfaced.
Elliot chose to set her experiment up with blue-eyes on the bottom because majority of the white people had blue eyes. This made the effects of discrimination more easily felt because the recognized minority (the blacks) were now the majority. It also was more powerful with the blue eyes as the minority because Jane Elliot had blue eyes. This created other problems because she was in a position of power, dominating the others of her ‘kind.’
ReplyDeleteThe effects of discrimination in Elliot’s experiment differed slightly between the children and the adults. Both groups experienced unfair discrimination, visability and codability. They were discriminated based on arbitrary or irrelevant grounds. In this case, it was eye color. As far as visability and codability, half of the children and adults were discriminated due to a visible characteristic. Once again, this is eye color. Individuals are discriminated in this way as a result from stereotypes of the group, and not the individual’s characteristics. The dominant group lumped the subordinant group into one, never minding individual qualities and characteristics.
Both the inferior group adults and children suffered from internalized oppression. Internalized oppression often makes targeted individuals to accept negative views as true. Internalized oppression was seen more with the children than with the adults. The children that were in the inferior group for the day had low self-esteem and self-worth. On top of that, they had far lower scores on a simple math game than the superior group. When those kids became the superior group, this all changed. They scored higher and completed their tasks faster. They had higher self-esteem and self-worth. This shows how debilitating discrimination can be.
Antonio Gramsci held ideas about control. He believed that capitalism maintained control politically, economically as well as ideologically. Ideological control was sustained through hegemony. He said that the values held by the upper class, i.e. the bourgeoisie became the accepted values, of all. This created a generalization in which the working class i.e. proletariats identified their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie and worked to keep the status quo, rather than revolting. Gramsci also believed that hegemonic dominance relied on coercion, but in a demanding, or trying situation, people no longer consented but resented and defended themselves. Using these ideas, it is easy to illustrate an imbalance of power in Elliot’s discrimination demonstration with the prison staff. Elliot separated brown-eyed employees from blue eye employees and conducted a blind experiment. She, along with the brown-eyed employees deliberately discriminated against the blue-eyed employees. The imbalance of power was due simply to the color of someone’s eyes. The brown-eyed employees (bourgeoisie if we apply Gramsci’s ideas) became dominant. They could say what they wanted and act how they wished and it was acceptable. If the blue-eyed employees (proletariet) said anything, they were immediately made to feel subordinate and often times dumb. Many just didn’t say anything after a while, in fear of being humiliated, or having to deal with the negative, unfair words said back. By not speaking up, this shows that the working class (blue eyed) people identified what was right, with what the upper class (brown eyed) people thought was normal and thus maintained the status quo
Ideology, or ideas set forth by the dominant group that justify and maintain a status quo, and maintenance of power went hand in hand in Elliot’s experiment. The status quo was anything that the brown-eyed employees said and did. They were the dominant group, and didn’t have to do anything special to maintain their power, or enforce it. On a large scale, the attitude, “my way or the highway” could describe the ideology of the brown-eyed employees. Elliot helped maintain this power control by embarrassing and putting down anything a blue-eyed person said. What the brown-eyed people thought and did was important, and not vice versa with the blue-eyed people.
ReplyDeleteMany blue-eyed employees consented to the status-quo implemented by the brown-eyed employees through silence. They had been denied, embarrassed, and made to feel far inferior every time they spoke, so eventually they just didn’t. On the other hand, a few became subjects of what Gramsci described. Some revealed their masks and stood up for themselves. This resistance to the status quo didn’t change anything, but probably made the blue-eyed employees feel slightly less powerless.
Something that stuck with me from the movie was when the little boy hit his friend. The only reason he did it was because he left the best of the brainwashing get to him. The day before he was friends with the other boy, and the next day, when his friend becomes the subject of discrimination, the boy consents to that, and helps enforce it. It shows how easily influenced children are.
Jane Elliot constructed a way of placing people in a discriminatory setting and observed the effects on both groups. The effects of discrimination between the elementary school children and the adults working in the correction facility produced both similar and varying reactions between the two groups. In order to make the scenario abstract and applicable to the persons involved in the experiment, eye color, a seemingly random trait among the samples was used as the discriminatory variable. All of the students (if I recall correctly) shown in the video were light skin and not exposed to racial barriers within a classroom setting. In the case of the correctional facility, the members of the sample with blue eyes were discriminated against. This was an effective separation because of the probability having brown eyes increases with darker skin. Placing members with blue eyes in the discriminated group gave people who did not commonly encounter discrimination a chance to experience the effects. The results of the experiment concluded that individuals who experience discrimination first hand tend to feel insufficient and perform at a lower level then those who are favored. These effects tie directly into Antonio Gramsci’s notions of hegemony because the experiment displayed the effectiveness of separating classes and keeping them oppressed on the basis of tradition or influence. Creating the ideology that a certain eye color determined a person’s self worth was installed and maintained by both Jane Elliot and the other members participating in the samples. These influences resulted in the objection of the ideology by some of the participating members but were received with little sincerity. The portion of the video that surprised me the most was the dramatic decrease in performance experienced at the elementary school. Observing these results led me to the realization that discrimination leads to poor performance and passivism which will likely be maintained through hegemony.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference in the reactions to the discrimination exercise was the attitudes the 2 groups took on while being the subject of discrimination. While the blue-eyed (or brown-eyed) children were the subject of discrimination, they became sad and dejected. Their academic performance also declined, which is a direct example of the internalized depression they felt about their lowered self-worth. When it was the blue-eyed adults that were discriminated against, they seemed to display an angry and defeated attitude, and reported afterward feeling like there was no point in trying to change Jane Eliot's mind during the exercise, which caused most of them to give up their arguments. While at the prison, perhaps Eliot set up the exercise with the blue eyes as the minority group because blue eyes are more typical of white people, therefore making the exercise slightly opposite of real life discrimination. This gave a group of people that probably hadn't experienced much discrimination the opportunity to see what it was like. If the blue eyes had been the majority group, the exercise wouldn't have had as much of an impact or probably caused as much of a heated reaction.
ReplyDeleteGramsci believed that capitalist societies are primarily class societies, and therefore disharmony exists between the different classes and their conflicting interests. The higher class, the brown eyes, had more power because they had established as a cultural norm that blue eyes were inferior to them in their looks, intelligence, and abilities. This imbalance of power between the 2 groups made the blue eyes angry and resentful toward the brown eyes, because they could do nothing about the position they found themselves in. The brown eyes were able to put forth their ideologies because they were the hegemon. When a blue-eyed person did or said something that Eliot condemned as wrong or disrespectful, the other blue eyes basically went along with what she said and didn't try to argue with her, because although she had blue eyes, she was a part of the hegemonic group. A few blue-eyed people tried to resist the status quo (the superiority of the brown eyes) but they were made to feel stupid and inferior in front of other blue eyes. The other blue eyes saw that it would be a challenge to resist or fight the status quo, so they kept quiet and consented to the ideologies of the brown eyes, and thus made it possible for the brown eyes to maintain power.
The thing that struck me the most while watching A Class Divided was the expressions on the faces of the kids on the days they were the object of discrimination. After awhile I could easily see they just gave up on anything they did because their self-confidence had diminished so much. Growing up in homogenous small town Iowa and being white, I haven't experienced much discrimination in my life and the video was a good reminder of how heartbreaking and ridiculously unfair it can be for those who have experienced/experience it.
In A Class Divided, a video displaying the effects of discrimination, the children and adults reacted similarly to the program demonstrating structural discrimination, performed by Jane Elliot. Both of the discriminated children and adults claimed that they felt “defeated” and that they were not good enough. Even the children who were discriminated against were unable to complete a pack of math flash cards in short amount of time when their confidence was down, as opposed to the children that were not discriminated against. Both of the discriminated children and adults also felt that even when they tried to stand up for themselves, however, they could not because it would open them up for discrimination because they would be acting out their stereotype. Anger ensued between both the children and adults, and for the children when the tables were turned, they sought revenge against the students of the opposite eye color. The adults became argumentative as well, fighting with Elliot until they were put back in their place. The adults compared this experiment to what happened with the Nazi’s in Germany. This idea of complete domination is described by Gramsci who calls it ideological domination. Ideological domination is defined as “rule by consent,” (23) basically stating that “the masses of people who enable a society to function smoothly tend to internalize and endorse dominant groups’ explanations and definitions, and thus, through their consent, ideological domination succeeds” (23). In other words, the blue eyed adults allowed the brown eyed people and Elliot to dominate them for the sake of avoiding conflict, and even if a blue eyed person did cause a conflict they were completely shut down by those who were dominant. This is exactly what happened when the Nazi’s obeyed Hitler to discriminate against the Jews, hippies, gays, etcetera. The diffusion of a single prejudiced idea became the belief of the whole society.
ReplyDeleteThe effectiveness of the program was increased because blue eyed people on the bottom, in the prison, because Elliot herself has blue eyes; therefore, she can show the blue eyed people how they can become like her-someone who tries to conform to avoid conflict or by acting like a brown eye. It would also make Elliot look like she is self-righteous and biased because she too has blue eyes; therefore the experiment would have not been as successful. Another reason is because most minorities have brown eyes so it gave them an opportunity to be on top, instead of the bottom. It would have been different if the blue eyes were on top because then the minorities would be back in the bottom, so the non minority blue-eyed people would never see the other side of the experiment. They would be less likely to learn what it is like to be discriminated against.
A memorable moment in the movie was when the children’s math scores decreased because they were discriminated against. It truly shows that making someone feel incompetent can make one act the way they are stereotyped. People feel the need to fulfill the role they have been given and feel as though they cannot behave in a way that is outside of that role.
ne thing that differentiated between the two experiments was that there was much more resistance coming from the adults being discriminated against than that of the kids being discriminated against. This probably happened because the children felt less empowered to stand up against what their teacher said was right compared to when she told the adults. The adults who obviously have been around longer felt they had the right to question why they were being treated the way they were and why should have to listen to what Jane Elliot instructed.
ReplyDeleteJane Elliot wanted the experiment to represent the feeling of discrimination minorities were facing at the time. Since a majority of Caucasians have blue eyes she chose blue eyed people to be discriminated against so that the Caucasians would get a small feeling of what minorities are faced with. This gave the power to the minorities and made them superior to the Caucasians.
It would have been in some ways pointless to have discriminated against the brown eyed people first because like I said before the majority of the brown eyed people are minorities. Most minorities already face discrimination in their day to day lives. I am not saying that Caucasians are the only ones who discriminate against people, but I am just saying that it is more common. The Caucasians at the time were doing most of the discriminating so making them superior to the minorities wouldn’t have caused them to feel the disempowerment of being discriminated against.
The imbalance of power was very clear in the experiment. The people with brown eyes were superior to the blue eyed people. The ideological discrimination is what drove the experiment. The belief that the brown eyed people were superior made the blue eyed people inferior and powerless. The brown eyed people were able to discriminate the blue eyed people for everything they did. Anytime a blue eyed person would act out of what the way they were expected to act in the experiment, the brown eyed people and Jane Elliot would discriminate against them. They would embarrass them, tease them, and simply just make them seem inferior to the brown eyed people. The status quo came into effect when some of the blue eyed people would question and resist the way they were being treated. This cause some of the blue eyed people to sit back and say nothing because they were afraid of being called out, embarrassed and further discriminated against by Jane and the brown eyed people.
One thing that was so surprising to me that I still clearly remember was how quickly the children who weren’t being discriminated against bought into the imbalance of power and began turning on each other. Some kids were best friends before the experiment and as soon as the imbalance of power was laid out, they completely put away old feelings and allowed themselves to be brainwashed into believing they were better than the other students.
A Class Divided is a documentary based on a two part discrimination experiment. First, Jane Elliot introduces the experiment to her elementary school students, and then she introduces it to correctional facility faculty. The experiment is conducted by discriminating against one group based on their eye color. Since Elliot chose to discriminate against people with blue eyes, the situation created exemplifies what real discrimination is like, but in a non-traditional context.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference between the two groups was their race and age. All of the elementary students were white, while the race of the prison faculty varied. Since the students were so young and all white, this experiment was the first time they had been introduced to discrimination. But the faculty, being older, had already been exposed to it. By choosing to discriminate against those of a certain eye color, it allowed people to experience discrimination that might not have already.
Though the two groups were different, the results were very similar. In both cases the discriminated against groups performed at a lower level. The blue eye people’s confidence and ability to perform were greatly affected. This experiment’s results are related to Anthony Gramsci’s notions of hegemony and ideology. By separating the groups into classes it relates to hegemony because it keeps the oppressed separate based off of tradition. By creating the ideology of separating classes based on eye color, the blue eyed people were easily negatively influenced by the non-blue eyed.
The part that surprised me the most is how the exercise negatively affected two elementary school boys. Even though the boys were friends, they got in a fight with each other once they were separated by eye color. I find it interesting how one discrimination exercise can so quickly affected two friends. Once they were separated through the experiment, they began to act upon it.
In both of Elliot’s examples she reminds the subjects of what it is like to take a walk in another persons shoes. Whether that was getting to feel more or less superior then those around you. The children had a disadvantage vs. the adults due to lack of experience and viewing Jane Elliot as an authority figure. The adult group has most likely experienced these issues first hand and had more time to form judgments. There was a lot to be gained by going through the process. It puts the issue on the table and even though most everyone had probably experienced discrimination in some way but most likely blew it off but this forces them to face the facts and with an audience too.
ReplyDeleteThe blue-eyed adults in general were of Caucasian race and have personally felt discrimination for this characteristic. So it worked for the best putting them on bottom as a realization technique for them and to maybe give the brown eyes a chance not to be in that situation for once. It would have been very different if the blue were on top because of some of the people in the brown eyed group have felt internalized oppression and might not of acted out as much. It was just a good way of mixing things up to get an even spread on things. Some adults demonstrated anticipatory socialization and acted out differently than what they were. Some acted like they were in a lower SES than they are and some higher. I believe this is based upon social pressures and conformity.
One thing that stood out to me was that the inferior group members never stuck up for one another and the superior band together in ideas. It just amazes me how shut up some people become in a group/ class setting. When judgment or belittling of another person of group comes into play only a few speak and the rest quietly fall into place.
Antonio Gramsci image of advance capitalist society is and can be translated well into some aspects of the Eye of the Storm. Mainly in that our familiarity and understanding, visibility and codability, relating to our thoughts and actions in political, economic, and cultural ideological practices. We keep a society that is bind with types of social organization on what morals are of approved consent in the particular culture. When a respected and/or authority figure thinks and says things in a convincing way that seems superior many will then to believe and follow. There is a great lack of thinking for one selves and questioning these types of statements. Fair or unfair if one viewed as an intelligent superior says so, they must be right? Through this kind of thinking their words and ideas can be taken out of context, which creates prejudice and many different isms. As one of my yoga teachers said, “If everyone were to focus more on what is going on within oneself and not with others there would be peace on earth.” I enjoy thinking about that quote and how it is very ideal but unfortunately people are hardwired from the start to make judgments. (Not that all judgments are for bad or prejudice intentions). It comes down to listening to what some have to say but make sure to truly THINK about what is being said or asked. The kids just listened and did because that is what they are taught. To not question their authority because they are always right! Ha, and if you ask questions you get shut down feel dumb for thinking. What kind of society are we making here? The adults were the same except there was more disrespect to Jane Elliot. This is what happened to Gramsci, he spoke out and got put in jail by the leader.
This is a great South Park clip about tolerance:
(first ones the link second is the code.. not sure how your able to view it)
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104220
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Elliott's discrimination project was very interesting and I believe that it had very great affects on both the third grade class and the prison staff. After the Martin Luther King assassination, I think Elliott's project was very useful and taught the third graders to see the world from another person's viewpoint. The experiment showed both the third graders and prison staff how degrading and hurtful discrimination can be. I found the similarities and the differences between the reactions of the young children and the successful adults extremely interesting. I believe that the major difference between the third graders and the prison staff was the age difference. The third graders were able to learn the significance and consequences of discrimination at a very young age, and use the things that Elliott taught them throughout the rest of their lives. This helped the third graders bond well with each other and others from all walks of life. On the other hand, the prison staff was not as open and accepting of Elliott's ideas and views on discrimination. The older adults had already been taught right from wrong and had developed their own personal views and morals. They did not seem very pleased when some lady came in trying to teach them things they did not exactly believe in. It seemed as though the prison staff was having trouble with the idea of authority, especially from some women of similar age bringing in ideas and claims that they did not agree with. I think it was much easier for the young third graders to abide by the rules and learn from the experiment because they were learning from an older successful adult in which they admired and looked up to.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that Elliot put blue eyes on the bottom for the prison experiment was essential for many reasons. First of all, unlike the young third grade class there were minorities in the prison staff. By putting brown eyes on top she increased the chance that they would be in the dominant group and that the inferior group remained predominantly white. It is also significant to note that Elliot herself is blue eyed. By putting herself in the minority and then being the leader of the group she forced the blue eyes to be in the more uncomfortable group. This experiment implemented many parts of Gramsci's theory. The majority of the blue-eyed group consented to the status quo, as they did not speak up against the discrimination they faced. It also showed several forms of ideological domination, one being, Elliot was in charge and she was blue-eyed.
The most memorable thing to me from the entire video would have to be a scene from the third grade experiment. I found it extremely disturbing that two boys, known as best friends, became very malicious and rude to one another when Elliott pointed out that one had blue eyes and one had brown eyes. I thought that this really showed how much influence discrimination can have on people all over the world. One minute the two boys were best friend, and then when a difference between them was noticed, they were very hostile towards one another. This was very educational and interesting.
Jane Elliot's exercise gave the 3rd graders and the adults experience with the effects of discrimination. The inferior groups of both age classes were under fire and denied chances given to the dominant group.
ReplyDeleteHowever, with the kids experiencing internal discrimination, the inferior group received lower tests scores, but with the adults no effect was evident except anger against the superior group. The lesson was more powerful for the children due to their young age and lack of experience with racism. In comparison to the adults, it seemed that they did not get as much out of the lesson due to their already believed notions of discrimination and lack of fear of the authority figure giving the lesson.
Ms. Elliot placed blue-eyed adults in the lesser group to increase the strength of her exercise. Because the blue-eyed group was Caucasian, its members were less likely to have experienced discrimination than the brown-eyed equivalents. By placing the white, blue-eyed group as inferior, the typical majority group was able to feel the effects of discrimination that the minorities may have already grown familiar to.
Ms. Elliot maintained consensus and hegemony in the prison staff by using structural and ideological discrimination and societal force.
These forces helped push the belief that blue-eyed people were inferior. The construction of the training session provided a high level of consensus all over the brown-eyed people regarding their dominance. As we learned in class the higher the level of consensus about a belief the harder it is to change.
I was most shocked by the way the blue-eyed adults reacted to being in the inferior group. One would assume that adults could recognize how ridiculous this exercise was and take it and try and learn from it, not argue with every detail or word that came out of Ms. Elliot’s mouth.
Both the children and adults experienced power and helplessness through Jane Elliot’s
ReplyDeletediscrimination experiment. Though the two groups acted similarly in their reactions to the experiment (i.e. putting down those in the lower group or feeling hurt and upset) the adults in the lower group challenged Elliot a bit more. This may be due to the fact that Elliot’s authority over the children was greater than her authority over the adults. It may also be a cause of the prison staff having more life experience and a greater body of knowledge than the third graders. This experiment had a profound impact on the third grade class many years later. It would be interesting to see if the same could be said for the adult prison staff or if there is an
ideal time to learn about discrimination in this way.
Elliot chose to set up the prison experiment with the blue-eyes on the bottom because she
knew the diversity of the group. Biologically, people with lighter skin tend to have lighter eyes than those with darker skin (though this is not always true). Because American society has traditionally had whites on top Elliot wanted the people in the experiment to learn most about the group they may not traditionally be a part of. In this way she was taking into account their cultural background and life experiences in trying to have a substantial amount of whites in the
bottom group. Had she not done it this way there probably would have been more minorities in the bottom group and more whites in the top group.
Gramsci’s notions of hegemony were displayed in this experiment in that most of the blue-eyed people did not try to fight for equality and consented to being in the lower group. Those that resisted the status-quo did not have much support and thus did not succeed in their efforts and showed disappointment in others who were too afraid to speak up as well. Throughout the experiment power was maintained and reinforced whenever Elliot or a brown-eyed person pointed out something negative about blue-eyed people or something
better about brown-eyed people. In this way the ideology that blue-eyed people are better only intensified throughout the room.
The thing that stuck out to me most from this film was how close the third grade class remained after they had graduated. It was said that they learned how to hurt each other really bad from Elliot’s exercise and that they would never do it again and this was what brought them closer.
Elliot’s experiment with discrimination had an influence on both the third graders and the adults, however, I believe that the influence will last longer and better serve the third graders. The third graders are still young and although they have been influenced somewhat by society already, they can still form their own views and attitudes. This was proven during the class reunion years later when the once students spoke about the experience and how it shaped them into the people they had become. The prison staff could still benefit from this experiment, but not as greatly as the children because the staff are older and already set in their ways. This was seen as the woman with curly hair and glasses claimed everyone, regardless of race, experiences discrimination. None of the third graders tried to dispute the experience, they simply embraced it.
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, Elliot chose to put the blue-eyed people in the prison on bottom because most, if not all the blue eyed people, were white. The brown-eyed people on the other hand consisted of a heterogeneous group, a mix of race and ethnicities. Elliot wanted the white, homogeneous, group to feel the effects of discrimination that they were not accustomed too. Had Elliot let the blue-eyed people be on top, the minorities probably would have remained relatively quiet while the white people in their (brown-eyed) group spoke out. One of the minorities commented that sometimes when he was discriminated against he wanted to hit someone or speak up, but he’d grown to realize that by him standing up against the status quo their would probably be no change; White people in this group would probably have spoken out because they are not accustomed to speaking out and not being heard. The hegemonic group in any situation, like race, has an un-matched amount of authority as it spreads it’s ideologies until they become the status quo and resistance is moved out of the way. Consent to ideologies can be reached by persuading others that the hegemonic group is “looking out for the best of everyone,” when this is indeed not reality. Once a status quo has been established the disempowered group usually has no hope of overturning an ideology.
What surprised me about this video was the fact the third graders were told, to a point, what was going on and they still went along with it. What further surprised me was that children, who had been friends for years and were aware of the situation, resorted to violence against one another when they were treated unfair. It shows that discrimination is powerful and is an issue that should be dealt with.
A class divided was a great way for the participants to experience discrimination. Jane Elliot used this experiment on both kids and adults. The kids did't try to fight back against the discrimination. It was beneficial to do the experiment at a young age so they learn what it feels like and can help stop discrimination when they are younger. The adults, on the other hand, were a lot more defensive. The blue eyed people would often talk back to Jane, which made everyone believe they were out of line. Elliot made the blue eyed people lower than the brown eyed because they were lighter skinned. They had most likely not been discriminated against like people of a different race. If the brown eyed people would have been lower, it would have been cogruent with the ways some of the participants were treated already because of their dark skin. Also, Jane treated the blue eyed people so unfair, which provoked them to act out. She then continued to reiterate the idea that those people were obnoxious and disobeyed the rules. Everyone seemed to start to actually believe her, just from this little exercise. This helped show how ideology plays a major role in how people think. By simply saying the blue eyed people were less important, everyone started to conform to that status quo. The brown eyed people maintained hegemony by reinforcing the fact that they were better. This is congruent to Gramsci's idea that "powerful groups use their control over the resources of services to establish their view of society as legitimate"(Sage, 22).
ReplyDeleteI was most surprised when Jane Elliot did flashcards with the "minority" group. There scores were significantly lower when they were deemed less important than their classmates. I was so shocked that it affected their school work. It is so sad that people still have to deal with this and it not only affects their daily routine, but it decreases the amount of knowledge they exhibit.
Jane Elliot's experiment brought many new feelings about discrimination to both the 3rd graders and the adults. When the children were told they were better or worse they experienced discrimination first hand, even though they really may not have known what it was at the time. By doing this experiment, Elliot engraved in the 3rd graders' heads what it's like to be discriminated against first hand and how horrible it can be. Them being told at a young age what was right and what was wrong by an authoritarian figure didn't generate many questions. They just did what they were told, whether they were better or worse. They accepted their roles believing they were the truth. Switching roles then helped the children realize what emotions they felt as superior people. The adults already had a general understanding of what discrimination was going into the experiment. Although, they didn't know they were experimenting with discrimination. Some adults felt the urge to be resistant and fight the system, while others just sat back and followed their roles silently.
ReplyDeleteElliot chose to have the blue eyes as an inferior race when she was at the prison because since she had blue eyes herself, it made the blue eyes feel like whatever they said or thought didn't matter. By Elliot saying that she had changed her ways to become more brown and that someday they could do the same, outraged the blue eyes. Every time a blue eyed person did something incorrect she would blame their mistake on their eye color. Making the brown eyes think they are better for being brown eyed. If the blue eyes had been superior, with Elliot being blue eyed herself, it would make the situation irreversible. Meaning if you were brown eyed, you couldn't change your ways to become superior.
Jane Elliot's experiment coincided almost perfectly with Gramsci's theories. Many people that were being discriminated agianst didn't speak up about the situation, they just went with the status-quo. Also power was imbalanced in the experiment. Elliot was blue eyed, an authoritarian figure, and totally in control of the situation. It also displayed that once your a minority, it's almost impossible to go against the majority, power goes to the majority.
What surprised me the most was when Elliot was in the prison. The first time she states that everyone should be taking notes. It's easy to see that only the dominant brown eyes are taking notes and paying close attention. This also made me think about how the children's grades dropped when they were in the minority group. Which led to me thinking about statistics today. Such as income and GPA's between races.
A Class Divided is a documentary covering the experiment done by Jane Elliot the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated back in the 1960s. The experiment was proven to be effective for both of the groups having the experiment conducted on them. However, there was a substational difference between the age groups. The young third graders seemed to be much more cooperative, and were able to learn more from the experiment than the much older prison staff that had the same experiment done on them.
ReplyDeleteThe third graders were able to learn from this experiment at a young age about discrimination because at this point in their lives they are still developing their own beliefs and ideals. It is shown at their class reunion what an impact this truly had. It changed their entire outlook on life, and these former students were able to teach their own children the proper ways to look at other races, and teach them the proper way of discrimination. The prison staff it had a different effect because these were older people who already developed beliefs through their life, whether it be from their parents, or surrounding peers that had a great influence on them. The staff being older didn't help because they were much more prone to question Elliot's ways, and would start an argument if they did not accept it.
Another key factor in the prison experiment was the fact that Elliot chose to put the Blue eyed people on the bottom of the prison. Not in all cases, but mostly, Blue eyed people tend to be Caucasion, which also in most cases of prisons are the dominant race. So Elliot chose to do this on purpose because she obviously wanted to put the normally dominant race in the inferior position. And of course just like she suspected there was immediately hostility from th Blue eyed group. The experiment with the prison staff would have been completely different if Elliot did not place the people where they were. The reason is because the Blue eyed people were already the dominant group, so if she was to put them on top then no difference to the structure of the prison would have taken place, and so there would have not been any effect on the prison staff.
The Blue eyed group were able to see the disempowerment of themselves being on the bottom because they once had the power of being on top. They were finally able to see first hand the difference of being on the bottom rather than being on top. The prison staff was always going along with the status quo of society because in society the Caucasion class is usually viewed as the dominant class of society.
The most shocking thing for me in this video segment was just seeing how these homogenous third graders were able retain this information. They learned all of this at such a young age, and were able to carry these attributes with them throughout their entire lives, and pass their beliefs and ideals onto their own children and peers.
Elliott's experiemnt not only had an effect on the third grader's in her class, but also on the adults, specifically more of an impact on the kids as they are younger, and the opinions that they with hold are able to be molded into what others feel around them and the way they are looked upon and treated publically. By using the brown eyed employees instead of of the blue eyed people, she switched the reality of what actually happens, since most of the brown eyed people consist of a minority hertiage, giving the impulse that they should be the ones that would being digrated upon, or discriminated against instead of the typical white blue eyed employees. The children were able to see both sides of the table, as they each experienced what it felt like to be discriminated upon, and also what it felt like to be praised becasue of how the "looked like or their appearance". Thus giving them more of an understanding how it feels when people are being treated as that, whether or not they deserved it, but that it happens to everyone and as you grow older you learn to accept what happens and who you are. And that being different in life, leads to the outcome of different situations and being treated differently by others throughout life. AS Elliott said, a child can be damaged very easily by this experiment, but she was able to successfully do it without emotionally damaging, but instead letting the children understand what happens with discrimination and the pain it causes, and how society could be if we believed what certain people preach and believe. A main example of Gramski's consent and resistance to the status-quo came about was during the adult experiment; Some of the adults stuck up for themselves, giving others more of a reason to keep quiet so they would not be ridiculed against as it was happening to those who chose to speak up. This happens often as some people avoid controversary instead of sticking up for something they believe in.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most memorable things was the fact that Elliott was a blue eyed person, preaching the downfall of blue eyed humans, and empowering the people who had brown eyes. And the people believed her due to the fact she was so persistant in what she preached and how she handeled each question, comment, or anything that was sent her way to put up the blue eyed employees. Instead she just shut it down by digrading them more, giving the illusion that she personnally felt that way.
In Jane Elliot's video, she placed both children and adults in the same situation. When the children were the ones being discriminated against, they reacted in a way that would get revenge on the other kids. For example, one of the kids hit another kid because he was being picked on for being a "blue eyed" kid. These are children, and don't really know how to react in a way without being physical. On the other hand, when the "blue eyed" adults were discriminated against, they started talking back to Jane and began to act like an 8 year old. They know how to respond to discrimination in an adult matter, however they chose to act immature. Children at that age don't know the difference, but adults do, and they should have acted as adults.
ReplyDeleteI believe Elliot chose to use "blue eyes" on the bottom in the prison because most of the guards and personnel were white anglo-saxons and I am assuming, blue-eyed. She doesn't specifically say why she chose to go with blue eyed people first. They were outspoken, and when they wanted to say something, they made sure everyone heard them. And if it were the "brown eyes" in their position, I am sure they would have done the same thing. As this relates to Gramsci's ideas of hegemony, in the adult part, the "brown eyes" were in power because they were superior to the "blue eyes". They had the power to interrupt a "blue eye" and not get penalized as well as bad mouth them.
During the video, one thing that really suprised me was during the adult part, when the "blue eyed" woman started talking back to Jane and wouldn't stop as well as the fact that none of the other "blue eyed" people stood up for her. They were all in it for themselves. I find that disturbing because when you work with people, you are with them sometimes more than your own family and they can become very close to you to the point where anything that would happen to them, you'd stand up for them.
Jane Elliot’s discrimination experiment had a huge impact on both the third graders and the prison workers. The third graders benefited from this experiment the most because of their young age. These students were not familiar with discrimination and prejudice, which made them the perfect candidates. The discrimination they suffered impacted their emotions, friendships, and even grades. Each student learned a valuable lesson about discrimination, and as we saw in the follow up interview, it still affects them all. The results of the experiment were different at the prison. The workers are much older and set in their ways. Their minds cannot be molded like those of the third graders. The blue eyed adults were more defensive to the discrimination. Some workers actually spoke up to defend themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn the experiment at the prison, Elliot chose to have the blue eyes on the bottom and take the discrimination; however, Elliot has blue eyes herself. I believe she chose to do this to further anger the blue eyed workers. Also, the blue eyed group was mostly Caucasian workers. The brown eyed group contained several minority workers. It is very possible that these blue eyed workers have not been exposed to the discrimination that the brown eyed, minority workers have experienced. Elliot turned the tables on the normal discrimination routine. The experiment would not have been as effective if the brown eyed workers were put on bottom.
In the prison workers experiment, the brown eyed group maintained power because blue eyed workers followed the status quo. Other than a few workers, the blue eyed group did not defend themselves or each other. The workers were afraid to speak up against Elliot and the brown eyed workers. This fear keeps the brown eyed workers on top. We also see in this experiment the imbalance of power. Elliot has blue eyes and she is talking down to other blue eyed people.
I found it very surprising how the blue eyed workers reacted in the experiment. It was amazing how the blue eyed workers took the harsh words from Elliot and the brown eyed workers. No blue eyed people could defend themselves for having a perfectly natural eye color. Everyone knows that eye color has no effect on performance, personality, or attitude.
The experiments conducted by Jane Elliot in A Class Divided were very effective and life changing to both the third grade class and the adults that it was used on. The effects of this experiment on both groups were similar and different in many ways. They were similar in the way that both groups were greatly affected by the experiment and what was going on. It taught them all things and made them feel things they had never felt before. In the third grade class the students were all white, they spent two days showing both groups what it was like to be on the bottom. The kids didn’t hesitate to treat the other kids like they weren’t as good as them. You could see how their performance on schoolwork was worse on the days when they were discriminated against. The kids experienced something that most of them probably never would have gone through if it weren’t for this because they all came from white families. It taught them a lesson that clearly stuck with them because of how strongly they all felt during the reunion. The situation with the adults seemed to be a lot tenser than the third grades. Adults probably assume that since they are older they don’t need to follow the authority that much or shouldn’t tolerate being treated this way. It made it different seeing how they react because a lot of people said things to fight back to what the groups of brown-eyed people were saying. I think the teacher purposely made the larger group the blue eyes and the group with more white people in it so that they could experience the feeling. She asked them at one point why there were more of them but they didn’t group together and fight back. This situation is a good example of hegemony because it shows that there are few people in power, which is the experiment would be the brown-eyed people but in real life it’s white people that have more power and privilege. The imbalance of power would be shown in that it’s not balanced who has more power it’s just who has more privilege, which is usually not a large group of people, the smaller group of people (brown eyes) have more power. One part of the video that surprised me a lot was when the group of third graders reunited and Jane was asking them about their experience it was interesting how something so long ago stuck with them so well. The part I thought was most interesting was when she asked one of their significant others how they felt about the fact that his wife felt so strongly against racism and how that made him feel. It’s interesting because watching it now it’s like that should be a normal thing but some people in that time might not have married someone because of that.
ReplyDeleteChildren only do what they learn. They really don’t have a problem with anybody until someone influences them too. Children are young at heart and they do not discriminate. They have no reason to. When someone does them wrong they to not associate everyone that looks like the person that did them wrong as a bad person.
ReplyDeleteBecause dividing it by race could have had a very different effect. It was also something stupid to be discriminated for just like race is. Doing by eye color shined a different light on discrimination. It made people feel like they were less of a man or women because of their eye color.
I think it would have a similar effect. I think that society puts blue eyed people higher than brown eyed people anyways so it would have been the same discrimination that the brown eyed people normally experience just magnified to a super extreme level. I think the effect was best with brown eyes on top.
The adults fit right into Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony because the adults were separated and as long as Jane (who was the leader) influenced those in power (the brown eyed people) the blue eyed people felt that they were inferior. This is exactly what Antonio talks about. The blue eyed people did resistance the status-quo but they even said that if they were not getting directly talked to they would just be happy that the negative focus was not on them.
In “A Class Divided” Jane Elliot runs two experiments to teach discrimination. The first is with her third grade class and the second is with a group of adults who work for a correctional facility. There were many effects that occurred in the third grade class. The children became angry and mean. Scores on tests down up for the group on the bottom while scores of the group on top went up. With the adults many people in the bottom group were got defensive and started talking back and arguing with Elliot.
ReplyDeleteWhile both groups did learn from this experiment I feel the children will have more take a ways from this lesson then the adults. The children came out of this experiment with a new outlook on discrimination. They had an adult teach them what was right so they believed it and lived by it their whole lives. With the adults, most already thought they knew everything about discrimination. The adults have lived a certain way for a long time. Yes, some of the adults came away from this experiment having a better understanding of what it felt like to be discriminated against but I wonder how many of them will implement it into their lives. It is very hard for a person to change how they have acted their whole lives.
Elliott wanted the majority of the Caucasians to know what it felt like to be discriminated against. To do this she put the blue-eyes in the bottom group, while keeping the minorities in the top group, which was the brown-eyed group. Elliott wanted the groups split this way because most minorities already know what it is like to feel discriminated against. If she would have put the blue-eyed group as the top group the experiment would not have worked as well because this was a role reversal exercise roles would not have been reversed if the blue-eyes were in the top group.
This experiment related to Gramsci’s theory in that some of the people from the blue-eyes consented to the status quo and did not argue. They did not speak up in fear of getting ridiculed like the members of the blue-eyed group who did speak up and tried to resist the status quo. The people who did speak out from the blue-eyed group did try to shift the balance of power by arguing and asking why Elliot was in charge if she was blue-eyed but Elliot always had an answer that kept the power with the brown-eyed group.
The part of the movie that stuck out to me the most was that back in the late 60’s when the first experiment was conducted with the third graders there were not objections. I am not saying this was a bad thing; it was actually a good thing. I was just surprised no parents or school members objected. I thought there would at least be one or two families who would disagree with the method because they felt superior to minorities.
The difference in the experiment between the children and the adults is that the children, when discriminated against, took more advantage of the fact that they were the surperior group for the day, and when they were on the bottom, they had a bigger hit on their self esteem. The adults surprisingly still showed signs of taking advantage of their surperior status, but the adults were much more defendent of who they were. I believe Elliot made the blue eyes on bottom because it would almost guarentee the group would be primarily white, and it was suppose to be a lesson for the staff at understanding the minorities which were 20% of the prison population in a primarily white state.They also would likely be the smaller group, much like other groups that are discriminated against. Had the blue eyes been on top, it may not have hit home to as many people. In the case of the experience, the power was in the hands of few people, mainly Jane Elliot, however the brown eyes had their own sense of power, and maintained it, as they were able to have more privliges and were rediculed less then the blue eyes. The blue eyes were still being critizied by Elliot who was the authoritative figure, and felt they could not fight back against someone who had more authority against them. The example from the video that surprised me the most is the fact that the kids self esteem suffered so much from being the less dominant group. Obviously discrimination would do nothing for self esteem, but I couldn't believe to the extent it did.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reaction of both groups was similar. Both conformed to the status quo. However, I think that it had a greater effect on the third graders than it did on the adults. I believe that this was because the third graders got to go their whole lives remembering this and the adults had their own preconceived beliefs and were not open-minded enough for it to have as much of an effect. There is also the idea that the younger you learn things, the easier it is to remember them.
ReplyDeleteElliot placed blue-eyes on the bottom due to the fact that most likely the people who were already a minority would have brown eyes and the majority of white people would have blue eyes over brown. I think this was a smart idea because many of the blue eyes probably didn’t realize what it felt like to be on bottom and the brown eyed people if they were originally a minority could show them. I also think it is important to realize that Elliot had blue eyes as well, yet she continuously criticized blue-eyed people. She defended herself by admitting that she lived with all brown-eyed people and they have taught her their ways so she understands better.
This fits in with a lot of Gramsci’s theories. The blue-eyed people did not speak up as they saw that the ones who had got belittled and made fun of. They conformed and the brown-eyed people began blaming little problems or mistakes on the blue-eyes just because they had blue eyes. Everyone conformed to the status quo.
The thing that surprised me about this video was how easy and quickly people of any age group were to judge others. There was no rhyme or reason as to why they should believe that eye color made a difference on a person yet once the idea was presented it just “made sense”. I can’t grasp the concept that discrimination is so present in even the littlest forms.
In Jane Elliot’s two part documentary it was clearly demonstrated how discrimination has been portrayed through grade school children through full grown adults. The effects of discrimination differentiated amongst the two experimental groups however in the end all relate back to the same derogatory idea of discrimination. The students in Jane Elliots classroom all were similarly of the same racial background, white Caucasians. Therefore, these students did not associate their classroom to be a place of racial discrimination. When Jane Elliot designated the brown eyed children to put collars on and denote themselves as inferior to the blue eyed children problems started to arise. The brown eyed children felt as though they were being punished for being born with a certain color eyes. The brown eyed children started to loose self esteem and self confidence after having been discriminated against. This loss of self confidence was shown in their school work, particularly in the math circle. When the adults from the Iowa Department of Corrections were presented with the same treatment, the inferior group immediately started to get defensive and retaliate verbally. Meanwhile the superior group went along with the experiment and acted as though the inferior group was truly not worthy of speaking or sitting.
ReplyDeleteJane Elliot most likely decided to set up the experiment at the Iowa Department of Corrections where blue-eyed people were inferior and brown-eyed superior because in these adult’s generation they first hand experienced racial discrimination and understood what comes with it. With brown eyed people playing the superior roll, the adults could not automatically assume that they were segregated based on race because in the facility there were numerous different races present.
Gramsci’s notions would directly pertain to this in the fact that in creating separation between two groups based on prior ideologies can take a large toll on the group as a whole. They no longer function as one, but instead act as if they had never seen nor meet a person from the other grouping before. The hegemonic differentiation between the groups only allotted for conflict.
One thing that surprised me was how well the children of the class behaved and accepted this idea or experiment. They participated extremely well so in the end, there were viable results to direct back to the effects of discrimination. I also found it interesting how well they still get along at the reunion and how they still support each other.
The results of Elliot’s experiment in both settings were very similar. The differences arose in response to the age and life experiences of third graders compared to prison working adults. In both cases, the group that was told they were better off believed it with no problem whatsoever, and acted upon it by asserting their control and power over the disadvantaged group. In response, the disadvantaged group did their best to try and stand up for themselves, and that is where most of the differences came in. What was particularly interesting was that the adults in response became more child-like. As the adults felt discriminated against, they became obstinate, stubborn, and argumentative. This perpetuated the views that Elliot had labeled them with in the first place (self-fulfilling prophecy, or to some extent, anticipatory socialization). Some of the third graders who were discriminated against basically shut down, as if there was no point in trying.
ReplyDeleteBy putting the blue eyed people in the discriminated against position, she assured that there were some instances of the opposite of what really happens in our society, as discriminated against minorities have dark eyes. Now they were on top, and mainly whites (lighter skin, lighter eye color) were on the bottom. Because the minorities who are usually discriminated against fell into her trap just as easily, it showed that acting on perceived power by discriminating is not an innate thing. If the blue eyes had been on top, it would have been same old, same old in regard to how our society still is. It was especially interesting that she has blue eyes and was still able to maintain control, even after another blue eyed person brought it up. The thought of a blue eyed advantage also reminds me of World War II, where you were safe with blond hair, blue eyes.
Her experiment and the reactions of the people involved illustrated how ideology and hegemony are set up and maintained. When one group gains the upper hand, in this case just by being told one day that they are better for no particular reason, they are given control. Because it was just said that they were all around better, there were limitless possibilities for their domination, which plays into one of the ideas of hegemony, which is that the dominated class doesn’t know the extent to which they are disempowered. It was clear which group was in power simply by the way that Elliot interacted with them. For the blue eyed group she did not work to hide her distain, which brought out the worst in them. When she talked to the brown eyed group, it was like she was just reasserting her stance, and finding cohorts to back her up and expand on her ideas; they were people who sympathized with her for having to interact with the blue eyed group. Her ability to use the brown eyed group maintained the power imbalance. This brought up the instance where one Brown eyed man asked why the blue eyes were even allowed to be there. That question, coupled with her answer that it was required, makes it seem like the entire brown eyed group harbors the negative feelings toward the blue eyes, even though only several people had spoken.
Ideologies also played a large part in maintaining the power imbalance, as ideology is a set of ideas (that brown eyes>blue eyes) works to legitimate the existing power structure (that brown eyes are in control).
I think what shocked me most about the video was how easily each group was sucked into their roles. It reminded me a lot of the Stanford Prison Experiment, where the participants fell into their roles so well that they had to be stopped. I think showing both children and adults legitimized and added emphasis to the whole experiment. Children are generally accepting until they are shown that they should be otherwise, which is what Elliot did. Adults seem like they should be more aware of what is going on, and should be able to link their experience with society to their current experiences.
It was clear through the experiment done by Jane Elliot that the discrimination among children after they had been differentiated from each other took quite a toll on each of them. Many of the students' comments directly affected this such as one child hit a blue-eyed in the stomach on the playground because he was a brown-eyed or not as worthy and was being teased. To me the most interesting thing about the experiment was the willingness or one could say the natural feeling to feel better when in the role of the dominant whether it was being blue-eyed or brown-eyed. This played along with the adults as well. Those who were in the dominant role acted it out to perfection and I feel that some of them actually truly believed that they were better in some cases and the fact that those in the lesser role didn't feel as though they were being properly respected gave them a great understanding of the emotional toll discrimination takes.
ReplyDeleteGramsci's findings would also make it very obvious how the emotional toll would wear on those who were being discriminated and would be empowering to those doing the discriminating.
In my opinion Jane Elliot's experiment was a brilliant idea. She came up with a way to show children how it would feel to be discriminated and taught them a lesson in life that they did not ever forget. I thought it was good that she separated her students and the adults using eye color. This was effective because it did not make the people focus on race and yet in the end they learned how it would feel to be discriminated.
ReplyDeleteThe experiment with the adults related to Gramsci's explanation of hegemony. It did so by giving the brown eyed people all of the power and made the blue eyed people feel as if everything they did would not be as good as if the brown eyed people had done it.
What I was most shocked about from this experiment was the fact that in a matter of one day, the children that were being discriminated against had experienced a decline in their own intelligence. It was amazing that after this experiment these kids learned a valuable lesson and it stayed with them into adulthood.
In the film a class divided Elliot a teacher from Riceville Iowa Was invited to a prison facility to direct an experiment she conducted with her third grade class to day after martin L King Jr. was killed. The experiment was designed to show student was it was like to be discriminated against because of the color of their eyes. In the prison in Iowa I believe she chose to people with blue eyes because over half of the prison inmates are minority and I believe she wanted to show those who were of the majority what it was like to be treated different. In the film the people with the blue eyes became distant from one another; some of them even became disrespectful at other times I noticed that the minorities often attacked the people with blues eyes while the experiment was being conducted. I even noticed that some of the people with blue eyes became nonresponsive or were often neglectful or didn’t follow simple directions but still demanded respect. But in all I believe that the experiment did work the way that she expected it to and just like her third graders it will stick with those people for a long time to come because even though they only felt discrimination for a few hours a little discrimination goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteKenneth Burnett
When the experiment was done on children and adults, the effects on both were different. The children were very upset that they were on the lower group verses the higher group. The children were called names and even got violent. The way the children reacted caused a lot of sadness with the children on the lower group. The adult group in the experiment were upset but they knew it was not going to last forever. The adults were not as offended because the experiment did not have as much of an affect on the adults. Elliot set her experiment up so that the blue eyed people were on the bottom so that they would steer away from the norm. If the blue eyed people were on top, the experiment would not have been as successful. The experiment would have set up just as the prison ran on an average day. This experiment was similar to Gramsci's idea of hegemony because it put the power in the hands of one kind. Only the brown eyed people had power, none of the blue eyed people did.In the movie "A Class Divided," the most shocking thing to me was the way the children really did change when they held the power or when they were the ones being pushed around. I really enjoyed watching the movie because it actually did teach the children about discrimination. I have quite a few friends who are commonly discriminated against and it really makes me open my eyes to discrimination. I hope this experiment becomes more widespread because many people could use a lesson on discrimination.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference that I saw in the reactions of the adults compared to the children was that the children became sad and couldn’t understand why their friends didn’t like them anymore. Their academic performance also declined, which is an example of the depression they felt about their lowered self esteem. When it was the adults that were being discriminated against, they displayed an angry and frustrated attitude. The adults were able to articulate their feelings easier and understand what was going on so they became angry. Afterward they talked about how they felt like there was no point in trying to argue with Jane Eliot about how blue eye people are just as good as brown eyed people, which caused most of them to give up fighting against the system. The prison experiment was set up with the blue eyes as the minority group because blue eyed people are more than likely to be white and brown eyed people would have had a greater chance mixing races. Therefore, this made the exercise different than real life discrimination, or real life American discrimination. This gave a group of people that probably hadn't experienced discrimination the opportunity to see what it was like.
ReplyDeleteGramsci believed that capitalist societies are mainly class societies, and therefore disharmony exists between the classes and their conflicting interests. The higher class had more power because they had created a cultural norm that blue eyes were inferior to them in their looks, aptitude, and ability. This imbalance of power between the 2 groups made the blue eyes heated and resentful toward the brown eyes, because they were helpless about the position they were in. The brown eyes were able to put their ideologies in action against the lower class because they were the hegemony. When a blue eyed person did something that Eliot determined as wrong or, the other blue eyes went along with what she said and didn't try to fight with her, because she was a part of the hegemonic group. A few blue-eyed people tried to resist and gain some respect from the other adults, but they were made to feel inferior and were ultimately discriminated against. The other blue eyes saw that it would be a challenge to resist and fight the order of class, so they kept quiet and consented to the ideologies of the brown eyes, and thus made it possible for the brown eyes to maintain power.
What surprised me most was that the adults got very angry and flustered even though they knew fully that is was just an experiment that was taking place. I thought that because they were older and they had more life experience and people skills they would be able to handle things easier but it was actually the children who handled things better. I think that the children got less angry and more accepting of their order of class because of their ignorance and obedience. They didn’t know any better so they did not know how to resist or fight back for equal rights or privileges.