Life

Hayley Carey
Pd.1
A Class Divided

Third grade teacher Ms. Elliott decided to perform a study after the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr., and the effects discrimination has on the society. With the segregated groups of “brown eyes” and “blue eyes” you observe the how the actions change these studious kids into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third graders. After exposure to theoretical and experimental illustrations of the roots of formation of prejudice, it is apparent that no matter what age, we all discriminate. But perspectives change once you’re the one in the others persons “moccasins”. Whether you are brown eyed or blue eyed, black or white, we’re all equal. But what is it that makes us discriminate, and why do we do it?
It’s something called prejudice; unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people. Whether we know it or not, we all perform it. On the first day of Ms. Elliott’s experiment, blue eyes were better than brown eyes. Blue eyes were smarter, cleaner, learned quicker, and over-all better than the brown eyes; vice-versa. These are called stereotypes; over generalized idea about a group of people. Stereotypes appear everywhere in every day life. Suppose an African American and a Caucasian, were suspects for a shooting. Many of statistics show that more people will assume that the African American did it solely based on their color; because the color of their skin links them to the bad act. Even the kids were creating stereotypes saying that the ‘brown eyes’ couldn’t go back for seconds because they might take too much.
      Ms. Elliott played the role as a huge authority figure. Before the study began, the kids played in harmony together. But being seen as the bigger figure, and someone to respect, the children accepted the views that one eye color was better than the other. Prime example is the Milgram study. People obeyed the “man in the lab coat” because they viewed him as an authority figure. Although no one...