The "A Class Divided" experiment was deeply fascinating to me on several levels. Teacher Jane Elliot brilliantly created a social environment in her class which debased some of her students based on their eye color.
Depending on whether they above or bellow their classmates, the children responded by either discriminating or acting as if they deserved to be oppressed.
What resonated with me most strongly about this experiment is how quickly the children of the "lower class" conformed and accepted their inferiority. They lived with the stigma assigned to them.
After being mistreated because of his eye-color, one little boy quipped, "The way they treated you felt like you didn't even want to try to do anything."
Elliot asked her students what it means to have brown eyes. "It means that we're stupid. Well, not that, but...," he said, struggling to find words to express what had happened in his classroom.
I don't mean to disregard the significance of how quickly all of us can discriminate and mistreat others, given an excuse. The famous Stanford Prison Experiment also taught us that. However, it's interesting to see how we act also fuels how others treat us.
Men such as Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglas pushed for African Americans to rise up and defy the discrimination. I think that Booker T. Washington's exhortation to his people to make the most of life where ever they are is priceless for all minorities. I believe discrimination is excruciatingly painful, but what we all do despite of it is what will shape who we are at our cores.
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