Exercise #6
1. Define:
a. Stereotyping: It is a
belief, image or truth about a person that reflects on the entire group.
b. Prejudice: It is an
opinion, attitude about a group or individual members.
c. Bias: It is a cause to feel against a person or a group especially in a way
considered to be unfair.
d. Discrimination: It is a
behavior where it treats people unequally.
2. Give an example of each.
a. All Indians shake their heads to mean yes.
b. I don’t trust a Syrian selling me products.
c. The police tend to treat Emiratis better than expatriates.
d. United States of America’s race laws where colored people were
treated as second class citizens.
Watch Class Divided
ü Understanding
With partners, answer the following:
1. Where,
when and with whom did this experiment take
place?
It took place on a Tuesday morning, somewhere in the 1960s, with USA
children.
2. Describe
the experiment.
The objective of the experiment was
to teach children the negativity in terms of human dignity and emotional cost
to being a victim of discrimination. This was done by splitting the children
into two groups; brown eyes and blue eyes. The teacher would then make one
group superior than the other, and the next reverse the order. This caused both
groups to feel dominant and inferior.
3. What
were the results?
The results were really
extraordinary. In a matter of minutes children that were friends started to
fight. The reason being the difference of eye color even though that previously
it didn’t matter what the color was. The dominant group would perform
educationally better than the inferior. It showed that feeling inferior would
automatically cripple one’s capabilities.
4. How
successful do you believe it was?
I believe it was fairly
successful. The children felt the negativity and true horrors of discrimination
and that they did not want to experience nor let others experience it. Prior to
the test they felt colored people were stupid and inferior, after they say they
are no differences between colored and white people.
Going Deeper 
In groups of four, discuss the following:
Ø a time she or he experienced prejudice or discrimination
When I was in the USA airport in New York, the fact that I had an Arab
passport, I was interrogated and search for 3 hours in the airport and in
multiple checks that were honestly unnecessary.
Ø a time she or he discriminated against somebody else
When I was a young kid, I
started to discriminate against the foreign school kids because I felt I was
superior and that I was my country.
Ø a time she or he
witnessed discrimination and did nothing about it
When I was in a petrol
station and saw a Filipino cross dresser being verbally abused and harassed, and
I simply left the station because I felt he should have known better than to
dress like that.
Ø a time she or he
witnessed discrimination and did something about it
When my friend was angry with an Indian waiter and started to shout
at him, I felt he did that because he was Indian. Had it been an Emirati waiter
it would not have been the case. I told him that if you have an issue discuss
it with the waiter and if you can’t hold your temper then leave.
