Soc 1A Homework #2
Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes: Learning to Give Meaning to Differences
Go to the following website and watch the 5 videos presented there:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
After you are finished, answer the following questions. Be sure to explain all of your answers
and expect your assignment to be between 2-3 pages long (longer if it is hand written) You can
type or handwrite your questions (but it must be legible).
Creating Difference
 What did the teacher do to create prejudice (ideas and feelings) in the classroom and how
did this lead to discrimination among the children?
o What features did Elliott ascribe to the superior and inferior groups and how did
those characteristics reflect stereotypes?
o The children quickly create slurs and reveal their prejudice through their behavior.
Give some examples.

Why do you think it was so easy for the teacher to create a system of differences and
privileges so easily in the classroom?
o What does this tell us about how we learn to give meaning to differences?
Consequences of “Difference”
 How did the negative and positive labels placed on a group become self-fulfilling
prophecies?

Why are the “brown-eyes” so willing to switch roles on the second day, even knowing
how it felt to be the inferior group?
Learning Difference
 Do you think this exercise should be done with children? If the exercise could be harmful
to children, as Elliott suggests, what do you think actual discrimination might do?

It's easy to understand why third-graders might not refuse to obey their teacher, but when
the exercise is done with the prison guards, why don't any of the adults object?
o Do the adults respond differently than the children? Why or why not?