PBS Documentary Response
PBS Documentary Response
Nicole Patel
Gavilan College
Discrimination has been an issue before and after the discrimination act was passed. Discrimination is, "The behavior that results from stereotyping or prejudice-overt actions to exclude, avoid, or distance oneself from other groups- is called Discrimination" (Martin & Nakayama 2014, p.62). Discrimination is a reoccurring theme in the video A Class Divided: Brown eyes/blue eyes. This film demonstrated how discrimination feels as a child and as an adult. In both situations the ones being discriminated against felt bad and the ones discriminating felt like they were on top of the world and were better than the different colored eyed people.
The film starts out in a third grade classroom. There are both blue and brown eyed children in the classroom. The teacher had the student divide and treat the blue eyed people as if they were superior to the brown eyed and then have the roles reversed the next day.
Close-up of a blue-eyed koala
A brown-eyed, black-and-white, seven-month-old fem...
Map of laws and executive orders banning employmen...All of the students did not enjoy this activity because they were unequal for those 2 days. "One way of thinking about discrimination is that power plus prejudice equals 'ism'" (Martin & Nakayama 2014, p.62). This shows that even children can learn that discrimination is bad and that it doesn't feel good when you put yourself in their shoes.
Then there was a second group of adults that had the same situation. The brown eyed people were the ones discriminating the blued people. Since it was a work related workshop only a few of the blue eyed people spoke up and didn't do as the instructor said to do. The few that did speak up were immediately put down by the instructor and had the brown people agree with her. This shows that many people just want to be...