The video Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment was horrifying. In the beginning of the video the commentator makes a remark on how shocked and disturbed Americans were when this video was released. The fact that every day, normal, well to do citizens could intentionally cause physical harm to someone else was something they didn't expect. What I found most remarkable about this whole thing was the way subjects carried themselves in their own roles. The prisoners chose to act shameful and confused, submitting themselves to the guards. The guards acted very dominant, violent and abrasive. They seemingly embodied the role they were given. I believe this very much pertains to the world we live in today. People have a role and they act, dress and play the part of the role they believe defines them.
The question for this blog hits pretty close to home for me. Being an Asian woman born outside of the United States I feel that it took me a while to find my “role” in society. I think in racialized the guards would be Caucasian people and the prisoners would be other minorities. For Nazi Germany this same sort of racial power was dispersed. People acted and did (Nazi soldiers) because a higher, controlling power told them what to do (Hitler). In the Milgram experiement the teacher repeatedly kept shocking the subject with intense electric jolts simply because a man in a white coat told him to. I think this sort of thing can be seen everywhere in the world at pretty much every age. When I was younger and kids didn’t know any better I was picked on shamelessly for being Asian. The kids knew I looked different and couldn’t seem to accept it. I remember one bully in particular who would try and beat me up on the playground, she often times made her friends chime in and partake in some of the pranks they would try and pull on me. I don’t think her friends really cared let alone wanted to be a part of it, yet they complied to her orders without question. It’s the same for the Stanford experiment, guards acted and embodied their roles because they had power and precedent.
The experiments that we watched really show privilege, power and oppression. It is a sad thing that we cannot seem to make our own decisions based purely on our own. It seems there is always someone higher up than you that can control you to act or do something a certain way. I’d like to see if maybe we can try and break free from power, privilege and oppression. We’ve made a long way during our history, lets see if we can’t improve it even more.
I agree with your frustrations about people not being able to make their own choices, but following along with the opinions and actions of someone they consider "higher up" even if it's wrong and clearly hurting someone. It seems as though people are afraid of the consequences they might face if they speak up, so they choose to turn a blind eye instead.
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