Students experience stereotypes

     With about 40 students waiting in the vestibule of the Magnolia Ballroom, there only seemed to be one question running through everyone’s minds, what is Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood all about?
     Wren Linsey, a GCSU junior, admitted that she had no real idea, but she had been told that it was some sort of game.
“I like games,” said Linsey. “It could be fun.”
     While waiting and wondering, everyone holds a small slip of colored construction paper that was handed to them at the entrance. The construction paper came in red, purple, yellow, blue, gray, green and orange, but there seemed to be no definite order of who got what color.
     All the contestants were instructed to tape their slip of paper somewhere on their person where it could be seen. As everyone followed the directions, it was soon announced that we could enter the neighborhood.
     Once inside the ballroom, there were taped off sections on the floor labeled by the same seven colors that the participants were wearing. Slowly, everyone congregated to their sections and formed groups.
     All of the groups were located on the floor and each had taped off boundaries, all except one. The group labeled red was located on the stage and the only boundary it had was the stage itself.
     What made this group different? Why was it in a position that seemed to be above all the other groups? By the end of this game these questions, and many others, were answered not just by telling but also from experience.
     Surrounding the edge of the ballroom were stations that included the mayor, the jail, building commissioner, work commissioner and the banker. Moving about the ballroom were police officers that were wearing orange vest, and their purpose was to keep the peace.
      The object of the game was to build the best neighborhood. Each group could do so by getting a job from the work commissioner or taking out a loan from the bank.
     But there were a couple of rules. The first rule was every person must be escorted by a police officer to leave their taped off neighborhood. The second rule was that if one of your group members gets put in jail, all of the group’s effort must pay to get that member out, which cost $1,000.
     Once each group received a price list the game officially began. People got the police to escort them to get jobs or to purchase buildings. But the police seemed to treat each group differently, and the red group was building its neighborhood much quicker than the rest.
     Members from some of the groups began to yell in order to get the police officers’ attention. The noise level in the ballroom rose and it soon became harder for all groups to get an escort.
Fed up with being ignored, two groups decide to combine. The police and the mayor showed the contestants that they did not approve of their actions by shutting everything down. Once everything was up and running again, other groups combined until all the groups on the floor were one large group.
     Contestants felt as if they were not getting the respect they deserved, so they were now taking matters into their own hands. Talk of electing a new mayor floated throughout the minds of the contestants. The construction paper, that labeled each person, was being torn up and thrown away. Everyone was attempting to be viewed as the same.
     However, there were a few that did not want to participate in not following the rules, and, as a reward, they were allowed to join the red group which continued to build through all of the problems the other groups encountered.
      In an attempt to show who was in control, the police officers began to confiscate the few buildings that the now combined groups had collected. The contestants refused to give up the buildings that had worked hard for. They began to fight back.    While all contestants were still involved in the game, a structured riot seemed to break out. Running, screaming, stealing of money and buildings, and singing of We Shall Overcome all occurred before the game was forced to shut down.
     “At the end of the game I felt like I was involved in a civil rights movement,” said Jeanette Bowman, who acted as a police officer during the game.
     Once everyone calmed down, the purpose of Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood was explained. Each group’s color represented a different group; red – rich whites, purple – women, white – terrorist, yellow – gay/lesbians, orange – foreigners, and green – blacks.
     The police treated each group according to their label, and each contestant was able to feel prejudice or the rewards of being associated with certain groups.
    At the end Dr. Stephanie McClure sent each contestant home with one question to think about: “Who do you know who has experienced these same feelings and what are their consequences?”

Stereotypes in the neighborhood
Source: www.longwood.edu

Blacks
Asked about gangs and ignored often.
Sold cheap buildings.

Latinos
Always spoken to loudly and slowly.
Never understood and frequently walked away from.
Sold cheap buildings.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
Only escorted while wearing rubbers gloves.
Repeatedly referenced to AIDS.
Sold expensive buildings.

Handicapped
Helped with everything, including getting them chairs.
Sold everything but parks, clubs, malls and schools.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 30 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry