Posts: 699
From: Somewhere over the rainbow
Registered: Sep 2003

posted June 09, 2004 05:05 PM         

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Whew! It's been crazy since May. I'm finally all moved and settled into my summer apartment, and summer classes have started and everything. Now I have about a week before things get crazy again. So I have a bit of free time ... temporarily!
Anyway, I just watched the most amazingly educational video (well... ok, so maybe not, but I thought it was the most amazing one, so whatever) in psychology called A Class Divided in which a third grade teacher decided to teach her class about the real meaning and repercussions of bigotry by putting them through a couple of days where they were divided into two groups- the brown-eyed group and the blue-eyed group, with one group superior to the other in turns. All I can say is, it was pretty scary, yet illuminating.
Has anyone else seen this video? Any thoughts on it if you have?

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Posts: 1033
From: on the trail of the Old Ones
Registered: Aug 2003

posted June 09, 2004 06:13 PM         

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I saw it. I thought it was very interesting and extremely illuminating regarding the mechanics of racism and bigotry. I spent the most of the 60's and 70's in the south at a time when racism was pretty rampant. I was in Birmingham Alabama in 1966. Segregation still included black washrooms and water fountains seperate from white. I flouted the conventions and went into black areas, but soon realized that I was not showing bigoted whites that everyone was equal, I was in fact just causing problems for the African-Americans in my immediate vacinity. I'm glad things are better and look forward to a day when we are all color-blind when it comes to people. The video you are talking about showed just how fast bigotry and superiority can develop (expecially in children).

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Posts: 699
From: Somewhere over the rainbow
Registered: Sep 2003

posted June 09, 2004 09:10 PM         

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You're right, FishKitten- it really REALLY DID show how people develop bigotry! And when Jane Elliott, the teacher who came up with the experiment, carried it out in a workshop in Iowa with adults, you could see pretty much the same results. Normal kids (and adults)turned into practical little (or big) neo-nazis in about half an hour!!! That's what social discrimination does for you.
Since you lived in the South while racism was common there, do you know when racism kinda sorta ceased to be a big problem there? I was just wondering, since obviously slavery was abolished before the 70's, but when did inequality stop? (I know practically no US history as I grew up abroad for the most part, so sorry if this seems ignorant) It is very commendable that you rebelled against racial discrimination as you encountered it. If only more people had done that then... come to that, if only more people did that even TODAY! Racism is still quite an alive, if hidden, evil.

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Posts: 1033
From: on the trail of the Old Ones
Registered: Aug 2003

posted June 09, 2004 10:12 PM         

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Legal segregation ended in the 60's, but defacto segregation lasted much longer. Small towns often had a certain section where minorities lived. When you lived in a certain neighborhood, your children went to school there, so the shcools were mostly segregated as well. Bussing came into fashion for a while in the 70's in a attempt to encourage equality and integration. I understand that there isn't as much bussing for ratial equality today as there was 25 years ago. I don't know if that is because neighborhoods are more integrated or if it just sort of went away with rising gas prices and traffic snarls. As to the current state of race relations in the South, I don't know on a first hand basis. The last time I was on the warm side of the Mason-Dixon Line was in 1990. I doubt racial discrimination is completely gone. I've heard that discrimination against women still exists from experiences my associates report. I love the South, but in some ways, I do not miss the Old South at all.

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Posts: 421
From: Another timezone
Registered: May 2004

posted June 10, 2004 08:34 AM         

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I'd really like to see this video.. would anyone know of any way I could get a copy - or is it an educational release?

Thanks,
Sp

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Posts: 3061
From: King Arthur's Camelot
Registered: Jun 2002

posted June 10, 2004 12:48 PM         

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Oh I saw it my Sociology class, the teacher was amazing, and it was a very well done expiriment.

-StarLover

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