The Angry Eye - Jane Elliot's Brown Eye-Blue Eye Experiment

[redqueen]

Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 12:55 AM - Edit history (1)

Some have already seen this. Everyone should.

"Things are better than they were when I was 13. They're not as good as they were when I was 50."

[xfundy]

1. Absolutely fantastic.

You should, though, change "when I was 15" to "when I was 50."

[redqueen]

4. Whoops.

Thanks.

[miamipilot]

2. God Bless Her & The Work That She Does

I am in my late fifties now, and I recall the racism/prejudice that I faced back when I was youngster as if it were only yesterday. I was a young teenager being raised in a small western Montana town. You might have thought I was a person of color right!? "No", the fact was, I was indeed white, but not the Northern European kind of white that was so prevalent in the community. It wasn’t easy growing up in an ultra-conservative community. I was a dark-haired and olive skinned. Everybody else was fair-skinned – blue-eyed northern European. I was a "wop", "ginny", or a "grease ball." It was very painful for me to be called those names at the time, and I can't imagine having to live that pain/reality everyday.

[mzmolly]

3. I watched this on PBS with my

child, when she was six years old. She was captivated, even at such a young age.

[glowing]

5. We did this lesson when I was in the 2nd grade in VT (the lesson was bit milder because of age)...

I believe Reagan was still in office at that point. The Pigs were purposely using race-baiting techniques to win votes. "Other" was bad. And I was coined "blue-eyed" enough to be in the "lesser" section. Our teacher seperated us into two table groups. We did all of our work in seperated groups. The "blue-eyed" group had copies of paperwork, sometimes with pages missing out of the paperwork and the questions that were being asked from that section. We had an "art" work asignment. The blue-eyed table had the "crayon" bucket (which was a bucket of old broken crayons that were thrown in it for spare). The non-blue eyed people had brand new, out of the box, crayons. It didn't take very long for the "brown eyed" people to start laughing, pointing, and treating us badly. AND for us in the blue-eyed category, we felt like we had to "stick together" stronger. We felt defensive. We would say, "These crayons are better than theirs because we have a whole bucket of many colors" and "they work just as nicely". It took no time at all for us as little kids to become either entitled little shits or defensive, joining together, and making do with the crappier stuff... Very tribal. There are not a lot of memories that one retains from 7yrs old, but that is one lesson that did stick to me even now at 34. Its probably one of the reasons I'm more open and accepting of differences... AND I have never, as a liberal, said "I don't see color" (like Stephen Colbert does as part of his comedic character insists on his colorblindness).

Different should be embraced as an enhancement and enrichment of our lives. Structural societal conception of keeping "different" in an inferior status needs to be abolished. We need to stand next to one another as equals; as part of the 99% to make the changes that we really need to, in order to topple that 1% that would rather stay untouchable and in power. They lose their power when we say enough is enough together with love in our hearts. We need to let go of our institutionalized fears and hatred of "other". It is the only way we will have a better life and people all around the world will have better lives.

[heaven05]

6. I knew nothing

of this experiment. This is a great learning/teaching tool. I was actually very upset while viewing this and learning, in a very stark and open manner, of how the white power structure uses their racist tools to beat a non-white person down. Truly amazing. Bookmarked as a classic KEEPER. I applaud Ms. Jane Elliot Brown and give her the highest accolades for at least trying to expose the reality of systemic racism in american culture.

[kylie5432]

7. She goes too far

While I have shown the original video to my students, she gets too abusive at times. One key thing she forgets is that no one can help what race they are born, so to rag on the white girl was unconscienable. Trying to guilt someone because of what color they were born is ridiculous. She needs to retire.