After viewing the segments from 20/20 with the kids vandalizing cars in a park in Ridgewood, NJ what are your general feelings on the study? What elements made the people react the way they did? What could have changed their opinions? What should people who view this special take away from it?
14 comments:
i feel like it wasnt a fair study to do when they had different people pass by becasue how do we know that the people who called on the african american kids wouldnt have done the same on the white kids, that was the main thing i was wondering about.i think that the way the kids were dressed like we talked about in class may have intimidated some of the people rather than what the white kids were wearing. i think that some people did hesitate more when going by the african american kids though becasue one of the ladys said "you never know what teenagers could do they had things in their hands", but it could of been the same for the white kids. i dont think much could have changed their opinion though becasue people react the way that they were taught to react to things, it is not going to change i think. i think people who veiw the special could take away that people have differnt reactions to different people even though it might not always be the right reaction we have to try and treat situations the same, if people are vandalising a car wether they are asian, white, black, or anything else a crime is a crime.
I think that the study showed us a very good point of view and i also think that it was wrong the way people reacted about one race over the other. For example the numbers of calls they got for white kids was only 1 but they also got 2 calls about african americans sleeping in a car. I think its just the way we learn from society and it also may be the way history was. People may still think of African americans being lower in society then any other group of people, because they once were slaves and not treated equally. Others learn it from movies we watch and the things we seen of tv and think that its alright to act against african americans. For some people to act against racism and inform and teach others the wrong things about racism will help change opinions in the future, but i think tat no matter how hard we try to change peoples opinions, there will always be problems and we can never get rid of it totally. People should not act so cruel to one race over the other, they should take away the discrimination and when someone is doing something wrong, it doesnt matter who they are and where their from, all that matters is that they're doing something wrong and dangerous and we shouldnt let it take place.
in my eyes i think the study was inconclusive in some aspects, the reason for this is because the way the study was done. If you were to set up an expieriment wouldnt you want all the variables to stay the same except for the one you change your self? for instance the male that had walked up to the white group had something to say to them but we have no clue how he would have reacted if it were the group of black kids, another thing could play a key factor in this study and that is the fact that the people that saw the white kids didnt see the black kids doing the vandalism and the group that saw the black kids didnt see the white kids doing so either, in some instance a few of the people that saw the black kids could have had strong feelings against black people. granted the study did show what is wrong with people in our society by showing how people would react to the different races doing the same exact thing. if people were to take anything away from this at all i think they should realize no matter what race you are a crime is a crime and poeple should not let personal feelings get in the way of their judgement and that they can see how people feel after the fact that they have been singled out
i loved this study i think it was a perfect example of how people view other races. I feel that the study was very common in people to act this way. In any situation i believe that people would be more worried about or care about the situation if it were a group of black people where as if it were white they wouldnt care as much. the elements that made the people react the way they did was that the change of skin color. and they way the black kids were dressed were as if they werent from around that neighborhood. People who view this should take that people view others in many different ways in given situations. Even though it may not be the best way to look at it and to judge people based on their color or actions its just they way they view others. it shouldnt matter or the skin color, the people should have called the cops on both kids for the same or close number of phone calls to the police. It doesnt matter what race a person is, a crime is a crime. If i were in this situation i would have been worried about it with both races but because me being a teen myself i wouldnt bother to call the cops or going to confront the kids because it could put my life in danger in any type of way.
This study in my eyes showed a very good point of view of how others view other races. Even though, the same people didn't walk by both times, it still proved a very good point. The part that amazed me the most was how the family that was sleeping in the car had more calls to the police department than the white people that were ruining a car. The factors that definitly made people act the way they did is of course, the race of the teens, and another one is possibly the way they were dressed. The study could possibly have been better if the white people were dressed "ghetto." As Emily said, a crime is a crime, anyone who commits one such as messing a car up should get in trouble, no matter what race they are.
I do not think this was a very accurate study. There was no control group. They should have had the same people walk by both groups. Otherwise you do not know for sure that the people who called the police on the African American kids would not have called the police on the white kids.
i don't think that this was well lanned out becuase when kids are dressed in baggie clothes and hoods on and there doing that, yeah it looks bad. if the white kids were dressed the same way then i think more walkers would have looked, or if you mix the group and put white kids and black kids. the white kids were dressed like my brother would dress for church... thats dumb. so i think they should have done different trials, and maybe picked a different area each time. to answer the question, i would have stepped away and called the cops, doesn't matter on the color. i just wouldn't have gone up to them becuase you never know what they have on them and being a women with three men against you, that's putting yourself at a big risk.
I feel that it was a very fair study, and i liked it a lot. it shows how people truely view different races. some kids in class were saying that if the black kids were dressed differently then it would have made a difference. I dont think it would have at all. What surprised me the most out of this study was that when the white kids were messing with the car there was more calls to the police about 2 black guys sleeping in there car, then there was about the white kids mess with the car..I think the way the black kids were dressed made the people walking by more aware of what was going on, they knew that those kids werent from around that area.it doesnt matter what race a person is when they are commiting a crime, it should always be reported.
I think this study is very intersting. It shows how society recats to different situations when they are not aware of whats going on. It shows that people seem to be more suspicous towards black teenagers rather then white teenagers. I think people recognize crime is committed by blacks and feel inferior. They assume they have weapons, or are cause crimeful events. There opinons should have been changed based apon these kids are teenagers and color should not factor your decision to call the cops or not. They should have contacted the cops since these teenagers were vanedlizing someones car. People should recognzie it does not matter what color you are, if you seem someone doing something wrong, they should be reported.
Jenna Tinti
My general feelings were bad. I felt bad about this because i knew that this was going to be the reaction to the people. " oh a group of teenage black kids in a white neighborhood vandalizing something, must not be theirs" this is an overall generalization i feel the people that passed them had. This being brain washed into peoples heads by the news and t.v. had been a bad effect on the way people think about other people. Yes people did try to stop the group of white kids ,but not at the result that people did for the black kids calling the cops on the 10 vs. 1 phone call for the white kids. I think what really changed the way people reacted to the inident was the area. White suburbs in a public park. when you see a group of young white kids doing something to this extent their natrual reaction would be just to tell them to stop, but when it comes to young group of balck kids you have to stop, call the cops, the whole thing. What people shuld take away from watching this experiment is that people need to learn how not to judge anyone by the way they look, instead you should give the same action to the crime for if it were happening to your car call the cops no matter what.
I am not sure if this study was really an accurate portrayal of how people view races. The first group of people who witnessed the white kids vandalizing the car only called the police once. I feel like they were wrong in doing this, each person who walked by in my opinion should have called the police, especially the people that stopped and actually talked to the boys. The people who called the police on the black guys vandalizing the car did the right thing in my opinion. The reason I said that I don't think this was a completely accurate portray is that the people who didn't call the cops on the white kids may have just been afraid of confrontation. The only way to really test how people view races would be to have the same group of people react to the white kids and the black kids. I was surprised that someone called the cops on the black people sleeping in their car. I do believe that happening shows that some people are more willing to overreact when the situation involves a minority. However if that person really felt like those men were getting ready to rob someone then I think that the person still did the right thing by calling the police.
I personally feel that the study was for the most part accurate on portraying how people would act in viewing that sort of situation. I feel that people acted the way they did because they are more inclined to take action against black people for one reason or another, and the experiment showed this. However, I do think that it was only a little bit inaccurate because the people that viewed the white group of kids were different than the ones who viewed the black kids, and this could have caused the difference in the results. I think people could have changed their opinions if they paid more attention to their surroundings and realized that black people are not the only ones doing bad things. I think that people who view this should take away that, if they didn't already know, they are subconsciously more likely to associate black people with crimes and to take actions against them.
I feel like this study is almsot outdated. In the sense that people today should all be viewing others the same. I also felt that this study was wrong in the sense that different people were wittnessing when the black kids destruting the car and then when the white kids were destructing the car. If i had wittnessed this happening whether they were white kids in baggy clothes or black kids in preppy clothes, I still would have called the cops. I would have told the cops not that they were destroying a car because it may have been theres. But I would have complained that teens were being rude and desruptive in a public park. I think it would have been interesting to have seen this done with a variety of black and white kids and then listend for calls to the police. Would have made the viewers really confused and I dont really know how they would react.
I believe this special proves what many already know, that is people already have preconceived notions about other races and expect a certain race to act a certain way. The way the majority of these people reacted to this vandalizing should be surprising to me but it actually isn't. I would expect people to be more likely to call the police for blacks easier than whites. The one thing i did find a little surprising is that barely anyone even thought twice when the Caucasian kids were vandalizing the care. Was this because they were optimistic and believed these kids weren't ruining someone's real car? Or did they just not want to believe that was happening? OR did they not want these white kids to get in trouble? Personally i believe they just didn't want to be responsible for getting these kids in trouble so they just pretended they saw nothing, which is so wrong. I think people can learn from this that when you see someone doing something wrong regardless of the race you should always step in and stop them because it's the right thing to do.
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