The Theme of Minority Vs. Majority in ‘a Class Divided’

A minority can be described as a group of society. This “smaller” group is usually opposed by the majority. In my personal opinion, I think majority is based on two main factors: numbers and power. Numbers are clearly why the minority and majority issue even exist. The majority naturally weighs out the minority. I think power is what gives the majority its number. The higher the number of majority, the more power they’re likely to hold. This gives the minorities less power especially since they are at a lower number. In A Class Divided, it is clear that the brown eyed children were treated as minorities. Those with blue eyes were considered superior to those with brown eyes. Mrs. Elliot’s experiment depicted labeling. She placed labels upon the children based on their eye color. These labels made the children think differently of themselves. The perception of their own worth solely based on the color of their eyes, was contorted. When Mrs. Elliot asked the children who Americans oppose the most, their response was obviously “the blacks” due to the segregated time that the experiment was conducted. I think the labels she placed on these children gave them a general idea of how minorities (especially African Americans) felt being labeled, stereotyped, and overall categorized in a negative connotation. I think that these labels could easily effect the childrens’ education. If they feel insecure and inadequate simply because they don’t have the winning eye color, what motivation will they have to earn an education if they lack self worth? I can draw a parallel to her experiment simply based off of the videos we view in class. ABC constantly sets up prompted experiments based off of realistic issues, including racism.

For instance: when they used actors to prove a point on racism, that people are more likely to call the cops on blacks when they witness vandalism rather than those who are white. Switching perspectives, if I was in the minority group created by the exercise, I would’ve had a completely different reaction to the way I was being treated. I would have demanded my respect. Overall, this experiment had an interesting way of expressing the issue of racism and minority/majority.