Jane Elliott's Blue Eye/Brown Eye Experiment - 'How Racist Are You?' [Archive]

Rayquaza

March 31st, 2013, 10:00 AM

I had just finished my Psychology homework and I came across something quite interesting today. It's basically an experiment demonstrating racism and how people can change for no apparent reason. A good watch, have a look yourself.

Part 1:
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Part 2:
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Part 3:
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If you didn't see a lot of it or didn't have the time, Jane Elliott splits participants into two groups, one with brown eyes and one with blue. She then separates the groups so that the brown eyed have superiority over blue eyes, to demonstrate a point that eye colour is not chosen but determined. Hell breaks loose. This is a recreation of an experiment she performed on third grade children in the 60's in which the children found themselves to form groups and that the blue eyed were ashamed of themselves, whereas brown eyes undermined them.

It looks quite brutal but she's teaching a lesson to an extent. What's your perspective on this? Was she right to teach people a lesson of what still goes on in society or should she have let this go and realise the world is a better place?

workingatperfect

March 31st, 2013, 12:27 PM

I thought it was a great experiment. I've only watched the first two at this point, but I really like the things it's showing. One thing I noticed was that people are comparing being black to being fat, or shaving your head. One lady said what are you going to do to fix the problem? Well, he can't just lose weight or grow his hair, he will always be black. These people don't seem to realize that. The girl that said she knew what it was like to be black because she grew up in a mostly black area, she didn't realize it, but that was the whole point. She understood, the point was to make every one else understand.

I find it interesting that the blue-eyed group is acting out, and how she said that by doing that, she's proving everything she previously said about them. It reminds me of something I just learned about in sociology which was the cause of deviant behavior. One of the theories was that it comes from not having good community ties, whether it was your family, your town or society in general. It can be seen with any group of people, when society is against them, they act out. In fact, on tumblr today I saw a picture from a punk blog that said "In a place where our music is accepted we pay it loud. Where it's challenged, we play it louder." Like how people say black people commit more crime which in turn, causes deviant behavior. It's a vicious cycle really.

I also like what the black woman said in the second video about how if you don't realize it, you don't acknowledge it, you're almost part of the problem. And I agree. I saw in another thread that quote that's like, They came for the jews, and I did nothing, blah blah blah, then they came for me, and no one was there to help. Or something along those lines. I love that quote, because it's so fucking true. All these people turning a blind eye to it and saying it's not a problem or trying to belittle it are just making it worse, because instead of stepping up and saying it's wrong, they just let it happen. I think that kind of ties in with, if you aren't racist, and you don't need to learn that lesson, you should just sit down, shut up, and not get in the way of other people learning that lesson, or again, you're part of the problem. I have blue/green eyes, I'd be more than willing to go through that practice. I wouldn't sit there and complain that I'm not racist, so why am I there, because there are probably people in that group that are, and if I can be part of what changes their mind, that's important to me. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Just my two cents.