This video was completely appalling to me. In the beginning of the video there was the experiment with shocks of over 100 volts to men who answered certain questions wrong. They were not actually being hurt but those asking the questions didn’t know that and thought they had to give the test because the head of the experiment had authority; A white lab coat. If this was not shocking enough, the Stanford Prison Experiment brought the question of right v. wrong and authority to a new level. The question was what happens if you put good people in an evil place?
The men who were the guards in the experiment were given dark glasses, sticks and uniforms and were quickly transformed into a man of authority. The prisoners were given numbers in place of names and humiliated and stripped down to nothing in the beginning. In racialized terms the guards would be the majority or the privileged white race and the prisoners would be the minority or the underprivileged black race.
This experiment changed the men who participated and turned them against each other. The guards were so intimidating and cruel they made their own personas such as “Cool Hand Luke” and John Wayne. These guards were especially the racial oppressors and I believe they went way too far with this experiment. The prisoners even turned on each other by the end of the experiment when they would rather keep their blankets then let one of their own out of the hole. I can relate to the racially oppressed prisoner who resisted the guard and went on a hunger strike. He did not give in and I would like to think I would do the same in that situation.
I was also astounded by the 20/20 ABC episode and how the cops can also be like the prison guards and let power get to their heads. It was offensive to see how the black victims were treated in compared to the white. As a middle class white women I never put much thought to if I am treated differently when facing cops. I never would have believed that cops could take their power and turn it into something that would treat people differently according to race.
Hey Kelly!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the police issue - I don't really like them too much because most of time when I meet them I haven't felt like they were really protecting me. Instead I have felt that they were blaming me for something even when I didn't do anything wrong. Sure - there are good police and bad police, but I really do think that the majority think they are so powerful, and this really does go to their heads. For this reason, I wasn't so surprised that the police would use their power and turn it into something horrible. I know this isn't fair to think of all police as being like this or doing something like this - but I don't know which ones would and which ones wouldn't....also it seems like people really don't want to step in for justice and help people out.....so I don't really feel like I would want to take that sort of chance when I would probably be on my own.
Good people in an evil place, how power corrupts, and why the oppressed don’t fight back. Those were extremes in this experiment that made me question Zimbarta. The fact that he would allow the option for a prisoners to leave, to convince them to leave in one case, allowed me to see that there was some method to the madness. It makes me wonder how such an experiment would be received today. Would it be shunned? Praised? Or debated like this one still is?
ReplyDeleteI have to politely disagree with you heather because I believe that the Police are an important part of our economy and their job is to protect us. Without police and order our society would be complete chaos.
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