In this chapter Ms. Irving recalls a famous experiment conducted in 1968 by Ms. Jane Elliott on a class of third graders, and then repeated in other circumstances with adults in various settings, including corporate settings where the participants came in order to learn about prejudice and race issues—and yet they were unable to process their experiences and feelings even though they knew they were there for such training and understanding. The experiences of discrimination overruled their intentions and their self-knowledge.
“I’ve had plenty of moments where I’ve felt underappreciated, invisible, or misunderstood. I can’t imagine feeling that way most of the time at school, at work, on the train, on the street, at the doctor’s office, at the bank.
Everyone can have the moment when they experience a momentary sense of invisibility or erasure. It can be as simple as being left on hold, or not getting the attention of the clerk at the motor vehicle registration office.
But for many white people, this is an uncommon experience, and explained by lapses of attention or busy-ness or simply poor customer service training. Typically we can expect to receive the attention of others to our needs.
“How would I fare if I had to face this every day? Turns out that a spontaneous experiment in 1968 [by Jane Elliott] provides some answers.”
And yet, it is not through an ontological meaning of personhood that’s at work here, but a more subtle system, a system so widespread and deeply rooted that we don’t see it.
“Within hours, the brown-eyed kids [who were the subjects of arbitrary judgment] looked demoralized through and through. More shocking to me was the way the blue-eyed kids totally bought into their superior status, taunting the brown-eyed kids, piling on when Ms. Elliott said something judgmental and unkind, and puffing up as if they actually were better people.”
White people are not bent to slight the lives of others. That is, there is nothing about the people inside the context of white people that makes us incapable of courtesy or empathy or connection. It is something else, something that lies in wait, silent, until it is safe to be unleashed. That action is spontaneous when it finally erupts, and it erupts when society gives the signal that it is now okay to discriminate.
Sure, the targets of discrimination acted as inferior humans, but even though the students didn’t initiate the discrimination, they were able to immediately act in tangent with the teacher. It was built in, this discrimination, and released by modeling.
“The divide manifested itself both socially and academically, the blue-eyed students performing above average on the day’s work while the brown-eyed kids performed below average.”
Social structures bend people. It can be invisible. It can be normal. It can be anticipated. But that does not mean that it is right.
“After the initial two days, the students spoke together about what it had felt like to be on either side of the inferior/superior equation. They talked about the confusion, alienation, and frustration at the unfairness and powerlessness when in the oppressed group. They spoke of their inability to concentrate on schoolwork. One boy said, ‘The way they treated you, you felt like you didn’t even want to try to do anything.’ Fights broke out as kids of the superior eye color taunted those with other-colored eyes. The superior kids noted how their own cruel behavior left them feeling lousy. ‘I watched cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating children,’ Ms. Elliott observed.”
This is the part that made me blink, that these ordinary kids without explicit prompting to join in knew that they could join in—and did.
“[Ms. Elliott] explains, ‘We keep people down by lowering our expectations of them and then forcing them to live down to them.’ Another phrase I’ve heard her use repeatedly is ‘Go along to get along,’ describing the kind of forced compliance that comes with oppression.”
Those in power subconsciously know how to make the inferior not only act inferior, but feel inferior. It’s built into our genes, it seems, and it’s expressed when it’s safe to do so.
“Ms. Elliott’s mission is to demonstrate the fact that people aren’t born inferior or superior; they just respond to the environment in which they’re placed.”
This can horrify us—we are all capable of being participants in The Lord of the Flies.
But, it can give us great hope, that with some work and some commitment, we can stop acting this way. There isn’t enough information here to know whether the stopping will be easy or hard, but at least we can feel now that it is possible.
Questions
Think about a time when you were treated unfairly.
What do you recall of your emotions (for example, anger, resentment, anxiety) and your physical state (for example, elevated heart rate, stomach clenching, sweating)?
When I’m treated unfairly, I mostly get angry. Due to my years of training, I usually don’t express it outwardly as an emotional reaction—I don’t raise my voice or explode or become overtly irrational. But I do clench up and focus on the person or thing that is getting me angry. It’s fight or flight, and I’m ready to fight. My physical state is one of alertness and elevated heart rate.
How did you respond to the unfair treatment?
I respond by insisting that I be treated well and fairly, and until I’m satisfied that I’m receiving the right treatment, I do not back down.
For context on this series, see my kick-off post here:
Di Brown “Nixie” at https://dianabrown.net/blog-challenge-waking-up-white/
This chapter (from 26-45): https://dianabrown.net/waking-up-white-the-final-chapters/
Dawn Claflin at https://dawnclaflin.wordpress.com/