Written Assignment #1 - Discrimination
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SOCI111-87N-N1
23-Mar-12
Written Assignment #1 – Discrimination
After watching the video, A Class Divided, I recalled seeing the program years ago. Despite remembering the film from 1985, I found myself taking away a deeper lesson than I did back then. This time around, the program taught me that it doesn’t take long to marginalize a group of people simply by playing upon a particular shared attribute.
When all the students were told they could throw the collars away at the end of the two-day exercise, watching young Brian wrestle with the collar… twisting and attempting to tear it to shreds… was very powerful. He had been on top, and then on the bottom and, in the end, he seemed very determined to destroy the visible remains of what had been a powerful lesson. As a young, white boy born into unearned privilege, it was very likely the first time he felt the sting of discrimination, and I felt him trying to make sure he wouldn’t experience it again.
Surprising to me was K.R., the outspoken blue-eyed woman in the adult workshop. She was the epitome of someone oppressed. Angry, defiant, rude, and uncooperative, she was determined to somehow claw her way to the top of that class, to be seen and heard. Yet Jane Elliott knew exactly which rungs of the ladder to remove to keep K.R. down at the bottom, just as white people have done to people of color for decades and beyond. I don’t believe people of color would find K.R.’s reactions all that surprising. There are a lot of ‘K.R.’s’ out there who only want to be heard and understood, whether they are a popular minority leader, a women’s liberationist, or a human rights activist.
In this program, Jane Elliott chose eye color to create a new social structure… a feeling of two racial groups amongst her students. It became apparent that when marginalization, by way of creation and reinforcement of
Xxxx Xxxx
SOCI111-87N-N1
23-Mar-12
Written Assignment #1 – Discrimination
After watching the video, A Class Divided, I recalled seeing the program years ago. Despite remembering the film from 1985, I found myself taking away a deeper lesson than I did back then. This time around, the program taught me that it doesn’t take long to marginalize a group of people simply by playing upon a particular shared attribute.
When all the students were told they could throw the collars away at the end of the two-day exercise, watching young Brian wrestle with the collar… twisting and attempting to tear it to shreds… was very powerful. He had been on top, and then on the bottom and, in the end, he seemed very determined to destroy the visible remains of what had been a powerful lesson. As a young, white boy born into unearned privilege, it was very likely the first time he felt the sting of discrimination, and I felt him trying to make sure he wouldn’t experience it again.
Surprising to me was K.R., the outspoken blue-eyed woman in the adult workshop. She was the epitome of someone oppressed. Angry, defiant, rude, and uncooperative, she was determined to somehow claw her way to the top of that class, to be seen and heard. Yet Jane Elliott knew exactly which rungs of the ladder to remove to keep K.R. down at the bottom, just as white people have done to people of color for decades and beyond. I don’t believe people of color would find K.R.’s reactions all that surprising. There are a lot of ‘K.R.’s’ out there who only want to be heard and understood, whether they are a popular minority leader, a women’s liberationist, or a human rights activist.
In this program, Jane Elliott chose eye color to create a new social structure… a feeling of two racial groups amongst her students. It became apparent that when marginalization, by way of creation and reinforcement of