"Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. And what she did caused an uproar. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. Could you?". "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Subsequent research designed to gauge the efficacy of Elliotts attempt at reducing prejudice showed that many participants were shocked by the experiment, but it did nothing to address or explain the root causes of racism. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. ISBN 9780520382268. Order from one of our vetted writers instead, First name should have at least 2 letters, Phone number should have at least 10 digits, Free Essay with a Response to Cross Words by UIW President Louis Agnese, How Does Donald Duk View His Chinese Heritage? One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. The day after Kings murder, Jane Elliott, a white third-grade teacher in rural Riceville, Iowa, sought to make her students feel the brutality of racism. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. Elliott continues, "Just when you think that the fertile soil can sprout no more, another season comes round, and you see another year of bountiful crops, tall and straight. On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Cookie Policy Later, it would occur to Elliott that the blueys were much less nasty than the brown-eyed kids had been, perhaps because the blue-eyed kids had felt the sting of being ostracized and didn't want to inflict it on their former tormentors. How can we teach kids to be more like him? Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. With over 2 million YouTube subscribers, over 500 articles, and an annual reach of almost 12 million students, it has become one of the most popular sources of psychological information. On the other hand, privileged members of the community are treated as in-groups which earn them undue respect and capacity to abuse the less advantaged. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. "She stirs people up. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. The results are mixed. Essay Example, Essay Example on Racism Towards Black People, Essay Sample about Developing a Campaign for School Intimidation, Essay Example on Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries, Islamic Perspective on Euthanasia, Free Essay Sample. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jane Elliott, a schoolteacher in rural Iowa, introduced to her all-white third-grade class a shocking . On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Having in mind that it would be difficult to explain to third graders about discrimination, she needed to be more practical so that her student could understand how discrimination and prejudice felt. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. But the protests happening now have given her hope. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? I felt like quitting school. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). She told them brown-eyed . "We'll just be a couple of minutes. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. (2010). Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images "Why?" You didnt understand the directions. Brown-eyed people. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation activity, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. "You know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . . School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Elliott? ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Jane Elliott and Dr. On April 5 1968 the day after the death of Martin Luther King Jr Elliott decided to show her students how easy it was to be influenced by racism. It's the Jane Elliott machine. In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. That phrase came to my mind when I watched the video, A Class Divided, about education experiment to teach stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination (Frontline, 1985 . She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. Privacy Statement One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. 10," Elliott said. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. But when she discovered that I was asking pointed questions of scores of her former students, as well as others subjected to the experiment, she made an about-face and said she no longer would cooperate with me. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . According to role theorist Erving Goffman, emotional and cognitive experiences in such experiments as the Blue-Eyed versus the Brown-Eyed can have a long-term influence on behaviors and attitudes of participants especially when they are made to play the role of a stigmatized group (Biddle, 2013). In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." The answer, in a word, was nothing. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. "I think third grade was too young for what she did. She attended a oneroom rural schoolhouse.Today, at 72, Elliott, who has short white hair, a penetrating gaze and no-nonsense demeanor, shows no signs of slowing. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. . "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. Mental Floss, 4. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Decent Essays. Classroom experiment. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? This was the smaller group. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training . The nonstop parade of sickening events such as the murder of George Floyd surely is not going to be abated by a quickie experiment led by a white person for the alleged benefit of other whites as was the case with the blue-eyed, brown eyed experiment. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. Malinda Whisenhunt? Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2.