What jane elliotts famous experiment says about race 50 years on. Jane elliott taught her students some tough lessons about racism, discrimination. Elliott meets with some of her former students to analyze the experiment in prejudice and its impact on their lives. Since 1968, jane elliott has been teaching people about racism with her blue eyesbrown eyes exercise. Blue eyes brown eyes racism experiment james edwards. Brown eyes, blue eyes is the name often given to an antidiscrimination experiment that was carried out in america in 1968. She knew that institutionalised racism needed to be addressed and decided to divide her classroom into blueeyed children and browneyed children. Elliott developed a classroom experiment in 1968 for her allwhite. Blueeyed and brown eyed exercise participants were given discriminatory. A test to see if youre racisteven if you think you arent. It was conducted in a small school in riceville, iowa, amongst 8yearold children on the day after the assassination of civil rights leader, martin luther king.
Brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children session. The blue eyed people get 5 extra minutes of recess, while. She says it lays bare the hidden truth about racism in white societies. Jane elliotts antiracism experiments on the british. Reaction to jane elliots blueeyed, browneyed experiment essay sample. She adopted the blueeyedbrown eyed exercise, in which participants are treated as inferior or superior based solely on the color of their eyes as a result of reading about the techniques the nazis used on those they designated undesirable during what is now called the holocaust. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior browneyed peers. The blueeyes group was discriminated against while the people with brown eyes were catered to.
In response to the assassination of martin luther king, jr. The school name and locale on request is still in business. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. As part of the lesson, the corrections department employees took a written test. For 40 years jane elliott a class divided has been running an exercise that has ignited controversy around the world. Jane elliott talks about race and racism at cal state san bernardino thursday. This is a documentary about a very brave lesson an iowa 3rdgrade teacher gave to teach her class about racism.
Jane elliott divided her elementary school class by eye color blue eyes and brown eyes. She told her students that browneyed people are slower, dumber, worse listeners, didnt know how to behave. What is it like to go through jane elliots blue eyes. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. A class divided documentary is a film that gives you a saddening glimpse into the consequences of judgemental teaching. This eye of storm documentary was made by william peters in 1970 for abc news and later included in the documentary a class divided 1985, which. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Jane elliotts experiments in racism blues eyes v brown. Social emotional learning lessons for jane elliott advancement. Watch fulllength episodes of pbs documentary series frontline for free.
Though, the experiment was too short to allow it to get to the point when a browneyes person does so to another fellow browneyes person brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children session jane elliott youtube. She later went on to do the same experiment with jane elliotts blue eyes brown eyes on vimeo. There is no logic prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance. If you think you arent racist, watch this bluebrowneye experiment yourtango toggle. The angry eye is a fantastic diversity training program, and it deserves recognition as this years best. Now the school just shows the blue eyes brown eyes video at school, and no longer practices this sort of sick and in. Angry eye is a dynamic and provocative documentary, showcasing jane elliotts world famous blueeyedbrowneyed exercise in discriminat. Brown eyes and blue eyes study this is the video of a study of social psychology by mrs. Before the groups are joined together, elliott instructs the browneyes to treat the blueeyes as inferior. A program evaluation of jane elliotts blueeyesbrowneyes diversity. A class divided brown eyes blue eyes experiment with jane. Elliott turns the tables on the participants, treating the blue eyes as persons of. Its a four page puff piece on everybodys favorite old white lady, jane elliott. Jane elliott gave the oprah show audience members a chance to experience racism firsthand when she divided them into two groups.
Instead, the blue eyed group spoke out that they were being treated unfairly and that the experiment was invalid and the. Jane elliott, creator of blue eyesbrown eyes experiment, speaks at. Jane elliotts experiments in racism blues eyes v brown eyes. For an entire day, she conducted her class as if the browneyed children were superior to those with blue eyes. She famously developed the blue eyesbrown eyesexperiment, which she first applied in her classroom after martin luther king jrs assassination. She then went on to tell her class that blueeyes are better and smarter than browneyed people. The antiracism exercise that taught kids to be racist io9. This video features jane elliotts famous, yet controversial, blue eyes brown eyes exercise. I could have programmed into them, if i had been able to program them. She first conducted her famous exercise for her class on april 5, 1968, the day after martin luther king jr.
She told her students that brown eyed people are slower, dumber, worse listeners, didnt know how to behave. She divided the class into two groups blue eyed students and brown or nonblue eyed students. Watch brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children session jane elliott on youtube. In 1970, elliott would come to national attention when abc broadcast their eye of the storm documentary which filmed the experiment in. The blueeyed room has only three chairs for 12 participants, while the browneyed room has plenty of chairs for all.
The antiracism experiment that transformed an oprah. Indecently exposed with jane elliott mcintyre media. If you know you arent racist, watch this blueeyed, brown eyed test. The teacher who segregated kids in groups based on eye color to show racism did it again with adults. This is brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children session jane elliott3 by ibtehaj gul on vimeo, the home for high quality videos and. Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment was. The woman behind the brown eyes, blue eyes exercise is jane elliott, and shes in australia to continue her work at a conference in fremantle.
If you know you arent racist, watch this blueeyed, brown. Jane elliott is an american former thirdgrade schoolteacher, antiracism activist, and educator. On april 5 1968 jane elliot preformed the famous experiment in her classroom separating blueeyed and browneyed students. As the blueeyes read the posters aloud, elliott talks about racism and the. American schoolteacher jane elliott invented the concept of diversity training in response to racial tension in 60s america. Elliott reversed the experiment the next day, when she had browneyed children be the pariahs, but. Design on the day after kings assassination, elliott began the day by telling her class they were going to be doing things differently. Filmed 15 years after eye of the storm, this sequel explores what the children in jane elliotts daring classroom experiment learned about discrimination and how it still affects them today. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination toward members of ethnic minor ity.
This movie opened my eyes at 26 years old about racism in america. When the blueeyes enter the main room, theyre forced to sit in the middle, as if theyre on display for all to see. Social psychology is an empirical science, which gives us the opportunity to study the causes and reactions of social. A program evaluation of jane elliotts blueeyesbrowneyes. Reaction to jane elliots blueeyed, browneyed experiment. Jane elliott wanted to teach her third graders an important lesson about race and equality. This program is also available with french subtitles. Frontline explores what those children learned about discrimination and how it still affects. Education is the key to destroy racism and segregation. Lesson of a lifetime her bold experiment to teach iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national. The antiracism exercise that taught kids to be racist.
I have some experience with the brown eyes, blue eyes game as it was called by a school where i barely survived it. Jane elliott is an educator whose famous blue eyesbrown eyes exercise showed social psychologists and her students the impact that racism has on education and how social psychology can be. The blue eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. Blue eyed vs brown eyed experiment by bree elliott on prezi. Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. Rather than a lengthy discussion about it, she decided to show the 8yearolds what racism is. Jane elliott brown eyes blue eyes experiment james edwards. Thus began the famous blueeyes, browneyes experiment. Jane elliotts blue eyesbrown eyes exercise one race. If you think you arent racist, watch this bluebrowneye. Elliott originally designed the exercise in the 1960s as a way to illustrate the inhumanity, the irrationality, and the immorality of racism, a system that, as her experiment has shown, people quite readily endorse. I grew up in a community where racism was not an issue and we never saw color.
Jane elliotts brown eyes, blue eyes experiment in 1970 the third one after her first in 1968. An oftenquoted letter stated, how dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children. A class divided the day after martin luther king, jr. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Maybe articles like this have something to do with.
Discrimination in a thirdgrade classroom posted on march 21, 2010 march 21, 2010 by nichemuseums one saturday a few weeks ago, while having a documentary minimarathon on my couch, i came across a class divided. Thats how antiracism expert jane elliott describes her role in this. The experiment was to be a division of eye colour starting with blue eyed student having superiority and then the following day, the roles would be reversed. I, for one recommend everyone to open up there minds to this experiment so we can learn a little about ourselves and to better deal with racism. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with their eye colors. Through the eyes of a kindergarten class, prejudice dynamics were shown in a simple yet powerful experiment. Blue eyesbrown eyes experiment 1970 eye color and skin color are caused by the same chemical. An often quoted letter stated, how dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children. Jane elliott is an educator whose famous blue eyes brown eyes exercise showed social psychologists and her students the impact that racism has on education and how social psychology can be. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. Give me a child at the age of 8, let me do this exercise, and that child is changed forever. Brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children. Shes the schoolteacher who came up with the famous blue eyesbrown eyes experiment after mlk got shot, where she divided her white iowa students by eye color to teach them about the evils of racism. The blue eyed people get 5 extra minutes of recess, while the browneyed people have to stay in.
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