In the experiment conducted by Jane Elliot, the children were tested first. They were separated in groups according to eye color. The blue-eyed children were in one group and the brown-eyed children were in another. It was a two day experiment with intentions to teach the children how it feels to be discriminated against by a physical feature, or an “ascribed status.” The first day, the brown-eyed children were classified as the inadequate group. They put collars on so they were easily distinguished as the less smart people. They weren’t allowed to drink out of the drinking fountains, play with the blue-eyed children and were allowed less time to play outside during recess. The blue-eyed kids were deemed smarter and overall better people. The next day, the roles were switched so that the blue-eyed kids could experience the feeling of being inadequate. Later on, Jane Elliot held a workshop on discrimination for staff and faculty members. The same concept was used but in a different process because of the age difference. When the adults signed in, they were also separated by eye color; blue-eyed and brown-eyed. The blue-eyed people put on green collars to distinguish them as the less smart and inadequate group. Unlike the children, the adults were not forewarned about what was going on. They did not know why they were being separated for their physical difference and why they had to wait outside of the conference room for a considerate amount of time while the other group was allowed to go in and take their seats. This was just a one time experiment where the blue-eyed group was not allowed to smoke, use certain restrooms or make any noise. Also, when they were finally allowed to enter the conference room, many people were forced to stand and could not sit next to brown-eyed people. Jane Elliot was the speaker and she picked only on the blue-eyed people. She criticized and ridiculed people for reasons only because they were blue-eyed. The consequences experienced in both cases resulted in an understanding that discrimination is not right. The children who were discriminated against struggled with school work and were distracted causing them to test badly and it was hard for them to learn. They admitted to feeling very sad and lonely. Their peers, who were once their friends would pick on them and call them names for having different colored eyes. A brown-eyed kid picked a fight and punched a blue-eyed kid for calling him names. But later he admitted that it did not make him feel any better. The group that was “better” than the other became overzealous of their hierarchy and acted much different than their normal self. The adults experienced more anger and frustration toward Jane Elliot then they did toward their peers. Unlike the children, it didn’t make them feel sad, it just made them mad. The blue-eyed adults who were discriminated against felt like they were being attacked for things that the brown-eyed people were doing as well. They felt secluded and became very bitter about how they were being treated. This caused them to talk back in a rude manner and disobey even more which caused them to get even more criticized and put down. It was a never ending fight for them because they couldn’t do anything right, just because of their eye color. The point that the video was trying to get across was that people should not judge others according a status in which they cannot control or change. An “ascribed status” is something one cannot control and it is unfair to discriminate a person because their race or ethnicity. Just because they are not of your kind and were raised in a different household does not mean they are not human and don’t have feelings, morals and values of their own. It was interesting to see how the children reacted to the separation. The children who were labeled as the “better,” took advantage of the power their teacher gave them. They were told they were better than others so they let it affect how they treated the children who weren’t as good as them, and they thought it was okay. A child who was in the “better” group and wore glasses took his glasses off to accentuate his feature of being blue-eyed. But the children who were in the “inadequate” group wanted to keep their glasses to try and hide their feature. I thought these were interesting observations because it’s crazy what power can do to a person. Whether they are 6 years old or 40 years old. I believe that prejudice is a functional sociological explanation and “is shaped by the social environment..,” (Muzafer, page 231). I fully believe that racism is learned through example and experience through life. When people are separated and are told to do and think certain things, they do it. Not only do they do it, but then they start to believe it themselves and start falling into someone else’s beliefs. The contents of this video fall in place with this theory because the example given in the book about the boys’ summer camp is a parallel example to what happened in the video. The boys in the summer camp were assigned to different cabins (groups), and were told to form teams to compete against each other. This was done and due to the assignment of an authority figure, the boys started forming groups that showed intense “dislike” for each other, even if they were once good friends. In the video, it was the same situation. The children were told to form certain groups and to believe that they were a certain type, and they did exactly that by believing they were better and treating the other group as though they weren’t good enough. There haven’t been too many times that I’ve been discriminated against, but one instance stands out in my mind. Since I am an athlete, some professors in college believe that we are lazy in the classroom and that we expect good grades that we don’t have to earn. They stereotype the entire group of “athletes” this way. I’ve had several instances where a professor has refused me an opportunity for points in the class that everybody else in the class got because I was gone for a game. We even get forms from the Athletic Department stating our absences, and yet we still get discriminated against because we were incapable of attending class.