Watch fulllength episodes of pbs documentary series frontline for free. The brown or green eyecolor people are considered to be superior to the blue eyecolor people. When asked whats wrong with being called brown eyes, the response was because it means that brown eyed people are stupider. Tomorrow in class, shed separate her students by eye color. The complete blue eyed with jane elliott trainers toolchest. Jane elliotts blue eyes brown eyes experiment youtube. She explains that blue eyed children are more intelligent, better behaved, quicker to. In this video i will be talking about jane elliotts experiment with third grader in which she used the power of education to confront racial prejudices after martin luther king. Final results 8 9 years old only affects a small population can not be generalized because some races look the same was the experiment reliable.
She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. The video shows her recreating her experiment with a group of 40 social workers, law enforcement officers, teachers and school administrators. If you think youre past racism, think of all the other groups that are still marginalized in society. The group is divided into blue and brown eyed social classes, and the training participants. What elements of jane elliotts exercise paralleled the.
Design on the day after kings assassination, elliott began the day by telling her class they were going to be doing things differently. A class divided the day after martin luther king, jr. When her local newspaper published compositions that the children had written. You can start from that point in activity 2, or you can play the video from the. Jane elliotts brown eyes, blue eyes experiment in 1970 the third one after her first in 1968. Blue eyes brown eyes was weiner and wrights 1973 investigation of 31 third graders who, in a simulation, were divided into two groups. After, she divided the children into the two groups she told them that the blue eyed children were smarter, nicer, cleaner and just plain better than those that had brown eyes. Blue eyed people are smarter than brown eyed people, she announced to the children. This is a documentary about a very brave lesson an iowa 3rdgrade teacher gave to teach her class about racism. The daring racism experiment that people still talk about. She later went on to do the same experiment with adults. The teacher wanted the kids to learn what those african americans felt during the civil right movement and that being discriminated by the color of the skin was not good. Brown eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown eyed people are better than those with blue eyes, elliott said. Subscribe today to check out our free daily knowledge.
The other group was initially the discriminators and then experienced discrimination. 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. Best known for her blue eyed brown eyed exercise, jane specializes in forcing people to put themselves in anothers shoes. If you know you arent racist, watch this blueeyed, brown. Jane elliotts experiments in racism blues eyes v brown eyes. Jane elliott wanted to teach her third graders an important lesson about race and equality. Brown eyes blue eyes facilitation package and participant materials. In the essential blueeyed, elliott divides a multiracial group of midwesterners on the basis of eye color and then subjects the blue eyed members to a withering regime of humiliation and contempt. The brown eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown eyed peers. She is known for her blue eyes brown eyes exercise. Blue eyed video jane elliott blue eyed trainingabc. The brown eyed group was treated right but the blue eyed did not. A class divided watch s1985 e9 frontline pbs official site.
This experiment can be found in video form on youtube. She first conducted her famous exercise for her class on april 5, 1968, the day after martin luther king jr. 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. Jane elliotts experiments in racism blues eyes v brown. Jane elliotts brown eyeblue eye experiment starts at 03. Once indoors, the brown eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue eyed group could only stand around and wait. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to. Strong, effective and ethical lessons applied social.
The blue eyed, brown eyed exercise which she devised to help her students to understand martin luther king, jr. This experiment was recorded and is part of a documentary. Blue eyed people are better than brown eyed people. The experiment was to help the children understand about prejudice and discrimination. If you think you arent racist, watch this blue brown eye experiment. Jane elliott, a teacher and antiracism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Blue eyed tells elliotts story and allows training participants to sit in on one of her eyeopening sessions. In the experiment mrs elliot told her class that blue eyed children were better than the brown eyed children.
Brown eyed children, meanwhile, were forced to sit at the back of the class and were more severely reprimanded for the same type of behavior that blue eyed children got away with. The antiracism experiment that transformed an oprah show audience. Blue eyed vs brown eyed experiment by bree elliott on prezi. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes.
During the experiment, jane elliott learns from the superior. What jane elliotts famous experiment says about race 50 years on. The blue eyed video offered here showcases exactly how her original exercise works, separating employees by eye color rather than by skin color, religion, or sexuality. I got the idea of the blue eyed brown eyed exercise from reading about what the nazis did during what has become to be called the holocaust. 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. Almost 20 years ago, the day after martin luther king, jr. She started to make negative statements about one group, and the children easily accepted these new values associated with each group. 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. From the text page, click the assign text button or download the pdf. The brown eyed children had to wear collars so that they could tell each group apart from a distance. Neighbor news creator of famous blue eyes brown eyes exercise, jane elliott, returns to csusb. The daring racism experiment that people still talk about 20.
It shows the impact of bigotry and i believe it can be used analogously for understanding how discrimination to african. Understanding the causes and effects of prejudice is the first step in ending it. Jane elliott is an american former thirdgrade schoolteacher, antiracism activist, and educator. Blue eyed is a 1996 documentary film by bertram verhaag in which jane elliott is teaching a workshop on racism in the film, elliot separates people according to their eye color. One group experienced prejudice and discrimination for several days and then became the discriminators for several days. Jane elliots blue eyes brown eyes experiment should have changed the world. She also made the brown eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue eyed students. Like us on facebook follow us on instagram follow us on youtube. Blue eyes brown eyes exercise creator jane elliott. Brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children. In just a few hours, we watch grown professionals become distracted and despondent, stumbling over the simplest commands. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level.
Elliott reversed the experiment the next day, when she had brown eyed children be the pariahs, but. For one long day theyll be at the mercy of the bitch, a retired american teacher. Jane elliotts brown eyes, blue eyes experiment from 1970. The antiracism experiment that transformed an oprah. Jane elliott divided her elementary school class by eye color blue eyes and brown eyes. Blue eyed, essential blue eyed and the 30 minute blue eyed. Brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment children session jane elliott. The blue eyes group was discriminated against while the people with brown eyes were catered to. In this video i will be talking about jane elliotts experiment with third grader in which she used the power of education to confront racial. The division wasnt based on skin color, but eye color. Blue eyed offers viewers a chance to watch a fulllength workshop with americas most dynamic diversity trainer, jane elliott.
In response to the assassination of martin luther king, jr. The brown eyed children were angry, saddened and confused and withdrawn. Fights broke out in the play ground between children who had been best friends the day before. In blue eyed, we join a group of 40 teachers, police, school administrators and social workers in kansas city blacks, hispanics, whites, women and men. If you think you arent racist, watch this bluebrowneye. When the blue eyed group saw that the brown eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. Elliott said to her students, to judge people today by the color of their eyes.
The antiracism exercise that taught kids to be racist io9. A brown eyed student hit a blue eyed student in the gut for calling him brown eyes. The complete blue eyed dvd includes full versions of these three programs. Hitler was going to found a nation of people, of arian people, who were going to be blue eyed and blonde haired and fair skinned and they were going to rule the world. Jane elliott is an educator who began her career in a thirdgrade classroom in riceville, iowa, and over the past fifty years has become an educator of people of all ages all over the u. The antiracism experiment that transformed an oprah show audience where.
Jane elliott gave the oprah show audience members a chance to experience racism firsthand when she divided them into two groups. The following day, elliot reversed the experiment and the brown eyed children behaved in the same arrogant way that the blue eyed children behaved the previous day. An oftenquoted letter stated, how dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children. The blue eyed kids wouldnt be allowed second lunch.
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