"Social psychologist Muzafer Sherif brought two highly similar groups of 11- to 12-year-old boys to Oklahoma’s Robbers Cave State Park in 1954. His intention was to study how hostilities arise between groups.
The boys arrived on separate buses and camped in different areas. One group decided to call themselves the Eagles; the other, the Rattlers. When the groups met, they fell into conflict. First, there was verbal sparring and then physical confrontation.
Sherif changed the terms of the experiment. He didn’t bring the boys around a campfire to express their feelings – polite chatter wasn’t the answer. Sherif gave both groups a problem to solve. He had jammed the camp’s water supply. If the boys wanted water, they would have to work together to fix the jam.
The boys collaborated on several problems. The hostilities dampened, and they stopped calling each other names. Several even asked if they could ride home together on the same bus.
Since the mid-1970s, Americans have been self-segregating. We live in neighborhoods, go to churches, read news and join clubs that are increasingly politically homogeneous. We even date and marry within our chosen party. We are Rattlers and Eagles – and the consequences in 2022 are the same as in 1954.
What can we do? Mandatory national service. For a year or two, we would join others – a tossed salad of class, race, religion, party and way of life – to work on a problem facing the country. Not talk – do.
It could be through military service or a new version of the Appalachian Volunteers, the Peace Corps or Civilian Conservation Corps. But everyone at some point – Rattlers and Eagles – would have to work together to make the United States a better place.
Studies of World War II support the notion that working together reduces tensions between groups that might otherwise be hostile toward one another. White troops who fought alongside Black soldiers held less racial animus post-war. The same was true with White merchant marines who served with Black sailors.
So let’s carry that lesson into the present day. And when our time of service is up, we just might choose to ride the same bus home together."
~Bill Bishop
The boys arrived on separate buses and camped in different areas. One group decided to call themselves the Eagles; the other, the Rattlers. When the groups met, they fell into conflict. First, there was verbal sparring and then physical confrontation.
Sherif changed the terms of the experiment. He didn’t bring the boys around a campfire to express their feelings – polite chatter wasn’t the answer. Sherif gave both groups a problem to solve. He had jammed the camp’s water supply. If the boys wanted water, they would have to work together to fix the jam.
The boys collaborated on several problems. The hostilities dampened, and they stopped calling each other names. Several even asked if they could ride home together on the same bus.
Since the mid-1970s, Americans have been self-segregating. We live in neighborhoods, go to churches, read news and join clubs that are increasingly politically homogeneous. We even date and marry within our chosen party. We are Rattlers and Eagles – and the consequences in 2022 are the same as in 1954.
What can we do? Mandatory national service. For a year or two, we would join others – a tossed salad of class, race, religion, party and way of life – to work on a problem facing the country. Not talk – do.
It could be through military service or a new version of the Appalachian Volunteers, the Peace Corps or Civilian Conservation Corps. But everyone at some point – Rattlers and Eagles – would have to work together to make the United States a better place.
Studies of World War II support the notion that working together reduces tensions between groups that might otherwise be hostile toward one another. White troops who fought alongside Black soldiers held less racial animus post-war. The same was true with White merchant marines who served with Black sailors.
So let’s carry that lesson into the present day. And when our time of service is up, we just might choose to ride the same bus home together."
~Bill Bishop