I have read about this study before and I saw the video a long time ago. I seen it differently today, watching the looks in those children's eyes was heart-wrenching. My youngest son took part in a 1-day experiment when he was in first grade. The teacher was teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and she wanted to show the class what it was like in a schoolroom during segregation, that was the day he learned that having a white dad did not make him white, his mother if Filipina, he along with half of his class had to sit on the floor against the wall and were not allowed to talk as the other kids had their lessons. His teacher said she was in tears because of the experiment, but it helped my son understand what many people continue to go through on a daily basis.
Thanks for sharing that, Corey.
One of the things that struck me about the video was not only the power dynamics quickly adopted by the children, which may have been foreseeable, but also that the first group of blue-eyed "lower class" children themselves internalized their status and performed significantly worse on an identical activity that they had previously performed. This extraordinary point helps highlight the additional cognitive burden of stress from discrimination. It helps show how discrimination not only externally hampers an individual or group, but that it also can become internalized and inhibit an individual from reaching his or her full potential.
I found they striking as well. I wonder if they have studied this anymore since the 80s?
We did a similar activity in my Girl Scout Troop when I was about 6 years old. I’ll never forget how angry I became even though I knew it was just for the activity.
I found the video interesting to watch, specifically the part where the teacher talked about how quickly the students made it through the phonics word/letter pack. The class does that activity daily yet the time decreased depending on which group was being considered superior that day. I also was amazed at how quickly the students fell into their roles, they seemed to be awkwardly laughing at first when the teacher first explained the activity yet they quickly fell into their respective roles. I have experienced a similar activity to learn about discrimination but I remember it being based on the clothing we were wearing (if you are wearing red you get to go first or something of that nature). When the video was first introduced I thought of another famous video experiment I watched and analyzed while in college in which some students were prison guards and others were prisoners and how quickly the roles consumed them.
Definitely, Jennifer. Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment.