Monday, January 10, 2011
Question F
I feel as though cruelty is something that people are using as an excuse to write off Elliot's demonstration. I think of it like this, when/if a child touches a stove burner they feel the pain and its is enough to make that child remember that they should not tough the stove. So, if demonstrating the entitlement of white privilege is the case to be learned and it is done by refusing privilege to those who have it and not a burning stove then I consider that to be fairly mild. People don't get it. No one wants to see it so one has to show them. Unfortunately, I believe that the sense of entitlement blinds people to the truth, but when we experience the privilege or lack there of we are more likely to understand based on that experience. I think Elliot could have had a lighter tone when she was talking to students, but the effect would have been less so. I know that someone can talk at me for an hour and twenty minutes every day if they want, however, I will not retain that experience because I was barely involved. If Elliot came to my class and did that experiment I might be more likely to understand her message because she showed me. Yes, people can be very thick headed. The level of cruelty in the video is nothing compared to the reality of the situation that Elliot is trying to help the students understand.
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I liked that you said people don't really remember stuff when they are lectured about it, but it is only after it happens to them personally that they retain what they learned. I think that is true-up to a point-because I remember having school assemblies in middle/jr. high that I don't remember at all, but I also remember having some and walking away with a life-long lesson...so I guess it depends on the topic or how it is presented to the people.
ReplyDeleteElliott talked about how the kids tests scores rose when they were in the privileged group and dropped when in the oppressed group. After the exercise was over, she mentioned the test scores being higher than what they were before the exercise started. So I agree, there’s something to be said about learning from experiencing.
ReplyDeleteBut what about the fact that these kids were unwilling subjects in a test case? People fight for the rights of animals who are used to test shampoo but it is ok to verbally abuse a child in the name of social justice? What if she gave them a test drug that made them smarter in the end...would that be ok? She was unqualified to administer a study, never mind on kids. Her study was brilliant on the adult test group but on 8 year olds who are just starting to figure out where they fit in the world; how social circles work...to have attacked their insecurities is something reserved for sororities. They were 8, they weren't 18 sitting through "Foods and Dudes" trying to hang on to information. At 8 they are sponges and they absorb everything in their universe at an alarming rate..."Lori is slow" "Joey brown eyed dad kicked him because that is what brown eyed kids deserve and brown eyed dads do" "YOU are not as good at the blue eyed kids"...those children were hurt, and were crying and as Johnson says "Privilege invites them to define other peoples experience for them, to tell them what it is like to be them regardless of what they say it is like. Adults do this all the time with children...when in fact the adult doesn't know how much it hurts them."
ReplyDelete@Dawn Marie: exactly their brains are like sponges, they will remember that it is wrong to mistreat people...kids cry, its what they do when they feel any emotion that is unfamiliar. How many kids have been hurt for years and years because they are not white, they are unwilling to participate but that is their life, that is unfortunate, especially because none of them can take it off...I think they handled themselves just fine...kids are way more resilient than we adults give them credit for...also, I don't appreciate your sarcasm. WE can't baby people, people will not respond, children especially.
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