The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted to see how good/normal people react and respond when they are placed in an evil/bad situation, in this case a prison. The experiment wasn’t only testing how the prisoners reacted; it also tested the guards that were placed in the prison as well.
I think that the Stanford Prison Experiment is an excellent example of racial difference, racial privilege and racial oppression. It also shows that evil situations can get the best of good people. The guards in this experiment represented power, privilege and were the oppressors, they also can be viewed as the dominant race taking control of all minority races and showing its dominance to those minorities. The prisoners obviously represented the minority races, having no power, no privilege and being the oppressed.
Something else I found interesting was the fact that the prisoners didn’t have names, they were only referred to as a number and the guards still had their names in place. To me this could be representing that white supremacists in the power role have their names in place but when they look down at the minority groups they oppress them and only view them as a number.
When it came to testing good people in an evil situation, I wouldn’t expect the guards that didn’t like what was going on to just not say anything. When the guard John Wayne started to do things to the prisoners that he really didn’t have the power to do such as taking the vote of whether the prisoners would give their mattresses up to get a prisoner out of “the hole” or leave that prisoner in “the hole” for another day and they would keep their mattresses, I couldn’t believe no one stepped in and stopped that. The prisoner didn’t do anything to be put in the hole an extra day but John Wayne felt the need to punish him further and none of the other guards said anything to stop him. I think that people need to stand up for what they believe in and in this case the guards should have stopped John Wayne from what he was doing because they themselves viewed it as immoral.
I agree that evil situations can make the best people evil themselves. It makes me question what I would do in those situation. I know you mntioned that the other guards should have stopped John Wanye and I agree with that now. However I have to ask myself if I were put in such a horrible experiment would I have stopped John Wayne? Or even worse, would I have become John Wayne?!
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked that none of the other guards took the initiative to stop the harassment. The situation they were in had only been constructed a few days ago and they were already acting and believing that everything that was happening in the prison must have been the 'right".
ReplyDeleteThats true and I guess you never really know how you'll react until you are put in that situation but I can hope that my will power would allow me to stand up for what I truly believe in. That's a great question though Kelly
ReplyDeleteI liked that you brought up how the prisoners were referred to by numbers rather than their names, it kind of relates to another aspect of how holocaust victims were treated and how these 'good people' were stripped of the rights and privileges completely.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that you concluded by saying that everyone should stand up for what they believe in, regardless of what other people say and think. However, i agree with Kelly! It is hard to say how anyone would take to a situation like this, from both a prisoner and guard perspective.