Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther Kin

Question

Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an elementary school teacher did an experiment with her classroom. She grouped the students based on eye color and gave privileges to one group. She was interested in the impact of discrimination. Below is a link to a video of the experiment. It's very interesting.

Link to video :https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

How does it show that the way in which we structure society has an impact on an individual level?

Explanation / Answer

This experiment reveals that society is structured into a hierarchy based on arbitrary notions of superiority and inferiority based on biological traits and features. This experiment, very subtly, simulates real world settings in which people are discriminated against based on their racial and ethnic heritage. By using eye-colour as a basis for discrimination, the experiment shows how features such as one’s eye colour, that we otherwise consider totally unrelated to social status can lead to acts of discrimination even in the classroom settings.

As a result of the experiment, whichever group was favored by performed enthusiastically in class, answered questions quickly and accurately, and performed better in tests. On the other hand, those who were discriminated against felt more downcast, were hesitant and uncertain in their answers, and performed poorly in tests. This indicates that valuing certain characteristics over the other on a social scale has a huge impact on an individual level.

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