I was blown away by this experiment. I sat through the video wondering how anyone could treat another human this way all for research and then someone finally stepped in and put everyone’s perspective back in place.
To me the guards represented the privileged, majority power, while the prisoners were the underprivileged minority. Whether it’s race, sex, or social status I think they would still represent the same thing, but for the sense of today’s topic, I’ll keep it to topic of race. The guards obviously represented the dominant race, overpowering and using their privilege against the minority. This relates to the True Colors story when Prime Time Live followed the cops and compared the incidents with the black man or the white man. It disgusts me to see this story and I was watching the video with my friend, Brittany, who’s a Women’s Studies major and a Africana studies minor. We were discussing how offensive it is (keeping in mind that we’re the privileged middle class white people) to see our law enforcement so corrupt. What REALLY kicked me over the edge was when the cops pulled over the cameramen and was so rude to them and wrote them the citation even though they had the correct documentation.
This experiment made it really easy for me to see the issues that privilege, power, and oppression causes in our society. It’s a real issue that needs to be stopped and unfortunately it’s going to be a long and tough journey. However, I keep my hopes up that it’s something we can all work for together and reach this path of equality and righteousness.
This experiment made it really easy for me to see the issues that privilege, power, and oppression causes in our society. It’s a real issue that needs to be stopped and unfortunately it’s going to be a long and tough journey. However, I keep my hopes up that it’s something we can all work for together and reach this path of equality and righteousness.
Hey Dan!
ReplyDeleteWhat also blew me away was during the ABC 20/20 episode people called the police two times for those black people sleeping in the car when there were white people totally vandalizing another one in the same area. I could not believe it!
I agree - the way the police treated those people in that Driving While Black episode was uncalled for. They had no justification for pulling over that college student and keeping him for over an hour (or was it just an hour? - anyway, that is way too long either way)!
And another thing - during the Racism Charges at Swim Club segment I was looking at the mother who talked to the news station about what happened that day. I noticed how much pain her face had and it really broke my heart. It is really ridiculous that we are in the 21st century and stuff like this still happens...it is really so sad.
I too was blown away by this experiment, its crazy how this wasn't stopped at some point because of how these prisoners were treated. It was an experiment and these people volunteered and were treated so poorly and that amazed me that the guards/supervisor even got away with this.
ReplyDeleteI like how you related this to the True Colors story because I think that our law enforcement really is corrupt whether it be the police or gurads.
Great Post!
I was also extremely surprised by this experiment. I am also a privileged middle class white person so I never have been treated corrupt and how far the cops could that their privilege as a cop and turn it into something so corrupt.
ReplyDeleteI was in shock when I watching this film. The students were involved in this experiment for no more than 2 days and they had all ready been taking on the characteristics of power and the oppressed. I would never have imagined an experiment like this could have such an impact.
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