Prejudice And Discrimination In Jane Elliot's A Class Divided

Prejudice and discrimination go hand in hand, but they also have their own roles they play within the society. Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude, usually negative, towards an individual based solely on the individual’s membership of a social group, while discrimination is the behavior or actions, usually negative, towards an individual or a group of people, especially on the basis of sex, race, social class, and so on. A prejudiced person may not act on their attitude. Therefore, someone can be prejudicial towards a certain group of individuals, but not discriminate against them. Discrimination requires behavior, while prejudice includes all of an individual’s attitudes towards the group. Men, women, and children of all orientations

Most of the time individuals are taught to be prejudiced or to discriminate against certain groups, because that is how they were raised or were told to be. Prejudice is more often learned then inherent; therefore, individuals should be more aware of hidden implicit biases they have and try to learn from them.

Within the documentary, A Class Divided, Jane Elliot developed an experiment in her classroom to prove discrimination is present within children not just adults. She also wanted to teach the children that they should not judge someone by their skin color, eye color, or for any reason. Jane Elliot divided her children based on whether their eyes were blue or brown. In the beginning of the experiment, she made the blue eyed children more superior than the brown eyed children. She told the children that the blue eyed children were

It can be seen in different forms and styles. For example, white people may discriminate against black people; the black people may discriminate against the white people. Discrimination and prejudice are related to one another. Most of the time, one will lead to the other. Discrimination is the unfair treatment towards a certain group. It can be based on many characteristic: age, sex, skin color, income, education, sexual orientation, and religion. Discrimination is usually the result of a negative attitude towards a certain group which is called prejudice. Even though not all prejudice is negative, negative prejudices are more often in the spotlight than positive prejudices. Many people are not born with prejudice. Most of the time they are taught or learn to be prejudiced to a certain group. Elliot demonstrated this theory within her experiment with the children. Discrimination and prejudice play a major role in one’s society; therefore, many should be aware of the consequences of discrimination and being prejudiced, and try their best not to