She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. All 28 children found their desks, and Elliott said she had something special for them to do, to begin to understand the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the day before. THE ANGRY EYE , a 35-minute video, features Jane Elliott conducting her Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed exercise with college students. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. 4. 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. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color. 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 procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. . Your Privacy Rights Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. Mental Floss, 4. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. After the exercise white college students in . Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. ", 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. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." "That you, Ms. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. The people of riceville did not exactly welcome Elliott home from New York with a hayride. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. Immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Professor Jane Elliott used the minimal group paradigm to perform an experiment that would teach her students about race discrimination. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that were ignorant., I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens, if you, as a white person, would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. Elliotts bullying rejoinder to any nonbeliever was to say that however much pain a white person felt after one or two days of made-up discrimination was nothing when compared to what Blacks endure daily. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). More than 50 years after she first tried that exercise in her classroom, Elliott, now 87, said she sees much more work left to do to change racist attitudes. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has listed her on a timeline of key educators, along with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, Maria Montessori and 23 others. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. You've still got that same sweet smile. Order original essays online. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? After the local newspaper published a story on Elliott and the experiment, she was flown to New York to appear on May 31, 1968, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she extolled the experiments effectiveness in cluing in her 8-year-old white students on what it was like to be Black in America. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Jane Elliott's experiment. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. When Sarah, the Elliotts' oldest daughter, went to the girls' bathroom in junior high, she came out of a stall to see a message scrawled in red lipstick on the mirror: "Nigger lover.". Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. That's not true. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. Two students even got into a physical altercation. In the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment Jane Elliot told her third graders with blue eyes that they were better than the brown-eyed children. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. 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. Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. Is it even possible today? Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. The video . Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). Why'd they shoot that King?" To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. If you had a good German name, but you had brown eyes, they threw you into the gas chamber because they thought you might be a Jewish person who was trying to pass. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. She has . "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. Want a quality guarantee? At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. 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. I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. 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. "It changed my life. 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. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Decent Essays. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. It makes you proud. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. 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 this article, we'll explain what happened during the experiment and discuss its consequences. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . They gossiped about her in the hallway. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. 1. 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 experiment to demonstrate . Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. One of the most famous experiments in education Jane Elliott's "blue eyes, brown eyes" separation of her third grade students to teach them about prejudice was very different from what the public was told, as revealed in this excerpt from the in-depth story about what really happened in that classroom. Why do researchers use correlational studies? The children said yes, and the exercise began. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. Watch it online right now! The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. American Psychological Association, 4. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . From the University of California Press website: The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. (2010). She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. "Why?" The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. All rights reserved. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes offers an intimate portrait of the insular community where Elliott grew up and conducted the experiment on the town's children for more than a decade. Danko, M. (2013). ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise ." As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed. Junior high, maybe. As a result of those divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. (2022, Apr 06). Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. It was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 that Elliott ran her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in her Riceville, Iowa classroom. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." Introduction. 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. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. Elliott was not. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. "How do you think it would feel to be a Negro boy or girl?" The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. I have brown eyes. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. She asks them if they have ever faced treatment like the type that blue-eyed people would experience in the following two and a half hours. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. She compromised the APA's Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard because she lied, after that she recanted the lies and kept as they were justified because of her greater purpose. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Elliott asked. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. 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. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. In a similar vein, Linda Seebach, a conservative columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote in 2004 that Elliott was a "disgrace" and described her exercise as "sadistic," adding, "You would think that any normal person would realize that she had done an evil thing. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. Carson asked, grinning. You should be happy! It has since evolved into an online blog and YouTube channel providing mental health advice, tools, and academic support to individuals from all backgrounds. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. ", Dean Weaver, 70, superintendent of Riceville schools from 1972 to 1979, said, "She'd just go ahead and do things. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Study Conducted by Jane Elliott Presentation by Bree Elliott Ethics Background The Results In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, Jane Elliott was the teacher of a third grade class in the town of Riceville, Iowa. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Let's just move on. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Youve probably heard different versions of it. In this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on their eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. 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? The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. I felt like quitting school. She told them brown-eyed . And you'll always have it. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. This was the smaller group. She slumped. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. 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 day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring . "Malinda? [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. It is quite powerful to watch. She knew that the children weren't going to buy her pitch unless she came up with a reason, and the more scientific to these Space Age children of the 1960s, the better. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. "You can see the look on their faces. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. "They shot that King yesterday. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. Then tell them that . But in reality, I found in researching for my book Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority levers controlled by Elliott. Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class.