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Write An Essay On Elliott's Experiment

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freedom to be ignorant about those who are not white and freedom to deny the ignorance. In the movie, there were several blue-eyes students who argued back to Elliott. Even when Elliott dismissed them to discourage speaking, they were adamant about expressing their opinions, anger, and discomfort with Elliott’s workshop. This behaviour showed that they were raised with the freedom to talk about their feelings and their distress. It also demonstrated that they were never penalized for self-expressions and never had to deal with the consequences that followed speaking up for themselves. Their behaviours were indications that majority of the white people had the privilege to defend themselves without risking their access to education, jobs, and …show more content…

In the beginning of the experiment, Elliot talks about how we use the word “boy” to keep men to their childlike state. She, then, constantly refers to blue-eyes students as “boy” or “fool” during her workshop. This was an interesting moment for me because I did not realize that language can be such a powerful mechanism to diminish one’s self-esteem. By taking away a person’s name, their identity and individuality are also taken away. It indirectly indicates that the person holds little importance and that them as an individual human being is not respected. In my case, the idea that my teachers did not remember my name or did not show any effort to remember my name was such an internalized idea that I did not even make its connection to oppression. This film made me see that I should not regard such situations as natural and recognize that it is another form of discrimination. The language not only took away the identity, but it also emphasizes who is the norm and who are the minorities. Elliott divided the two groups and referred to them as Browns or non-Browns. This was a clever parallel to how people of colour are called in society. In places where white is a majority, other races are classified as non-whites. Different races are all clumped into one group. This minimizes the appreciation for each distinct race, but also reinforces the idea that the society is organized with

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