Today in class we did a social experiment on how we judge others. We were put into two separate groups based on what we were wearing, and asked to make judgements on why the other group was wearing what they were. Many jokes flew around the room, such as "they're evil" or "its a conspiracy" (I'll admit that one was me), but little did we know, that's exactly what was expected. When a person is in a group, they feel much more connected and understanding of that group's viewpoint. However, when given a group of people who you aren't associated with, an out-group, one is much more likely to make negative judgements as to why they are different from you.
Out-Group stereotyping can be an extremely dangerous phenomenon. Probably the greatest example ever would be World War II Germany. Most of the Germans were Christian, and when their economy started going sour, and Hitler came to blame the Jews for their woes, people were much more likely to believe him. As they were not Jewish themselves, they couldn't relate to the Jews, and as a result, they came to judge them.
However, this is still a phenomenon that continues today, even inside our high school. I can think of no better example than that of the LGBT community. Statistically speaking, the vast majority of our school is heterosexual; that makes them the dominant in-group, one that vastly overpopulates the corresponding out-group. As such, much of the school has begun to find it acceptable to judge these people for something they have no control over. It has become the norm to think of people in the LGBT as "weird" or "abnormal" or even "amoral". In addition, exceedingly hurtful phrases like "that's so gay" and "what a faggot" have entered the everyday lexicon of the vast majority of our high school's population. These people don't realize the sting of their hate-filled barbs, because they cannot relate to us. The LGBT community is an out-group for them, and so they go along thinking it is ok to judge us, and that these words, these hateful, vile words, are nothing more than synonymous for disapproval or something that they don't like. But we feel it. We feel the barbs of hatred, the stings of vile speech. We hope that some day soon people will begin to realize that their judgements were presumptuous, and begin to realize the pain that those judgements cause us.
I like your blog and you had lot of good points about In and Out group just like you said about Jews in WW2. Also, very good details about school and what happened. So,you did good job of explaining what we learn today.
ReplyDeleteI love how you realize that this is still going on today. As well as nice use of examples with WWll.
ReplyDeleteGreat connections to both the past and present with WWII and LGBT! You really showed how sociology doesn't just apply to what we did in class, but spreads through our past and our present as human beings.
ReplyDeleteYes - Nice examples. I want to point out that for the WWII example, it could have been any outgroup that Hitler demonized, but for whatever reason, he chose the Jews. I want to make a point that it is more just being the outgroup than the group itself that makes the prejudice possible - like in class how I was able to do it with something as simple as black clothes vs. colored clothes.
ReplyDeleteSecond, for the lgbt community, that is an excellent example and I think that our society has made it so difficult to talk about the lgbt community that it only exacerbates the problem because the less we know the more it creates an "outgroup" mentality. Sadly, the reality is that most Americans probably know at least one glbt person that they are close to, but they might not realize this.