![Picture](/uploads/2/3/7/6/23769058/3611828.png)
“I felt like a king, like I ruled them brown eyes, like I was better than them, happy” (Elliott, 1985).
It has been said that experience is the best teacher; this video was a perfect example of how children learned about racism through experience. I have seen this video and studied about the blue eyes, brown eyes experiment throughout my years in university, but every time I watch this video I am disturbed all over again. Racism still does exist widely around the world, and maybe drastic experiments like this can be the start to a change in the way people think and feel about other races.
When you examine how much violence there is in schools and within the community these days, I can’t help but think about racism being the underlying problem. In the video, there was a fight between a brown eyed and blue eyed boy on the first day, and a little girl talked about how you bottle up so much hate that you are bound to explode one day. I wonder if everyone had to even just watch this video, if they would change the way they treat people of a
different race.
I always think about how white privilege is still predominantly the norm in society today; being brown skinned, I do experience racism from time
to time. It does make me feel demoralized and it frustrates me. I believe that people do understand racism and say they aren’t racist, but it is so embedded
within society that people don’t notice when they do it. This is why experience is the best teacher, you are able to feel and really meaningfully understand how people of other races feel on a daily basis. This video changed my perspective on life, and I hope it did for you too !
It has been said that experience is the best teacher; this video was a perfect example of how children learned about racism through experience. I have seen this video and studied about the blue eyes, brown eyes experiment throughout my years in university, but every time I watch this video I am disturbed all over again. Racism still does exist widely around the world, and maybe drastic experiments like this can be the start to a change in the way people think and feel about other races.
When you examine how much violence there is in schools and within the community these days, I can’t help but think about racism being the underlying problem. In the video, there was a fight between a brown eyed and blue eyed boy on the first day, and a little girl talked about how you bottle up so much hate that you are bound to explode one day. I wonder if everyone had to even just watch this video, if they would change the way they treat people of a
different race.
I always think about how white privilege is still predominantly the norm in society today; being brown skinned, I do experience racism from time
to time. It does make me feel demoralized and it frustrates me. I believe that people do understand racism and say they aren’t racist, but it is so embedded
within society that people don’t notice when they do it. This is why experience is the best teacher, you are able to feel and really meaningfully understand how people of other races feel on a daily basis. This video changed my perspective on life, and I hope it did for you too !
![Picture](/uploads/2/3/7/6/23769058/7620133.jpg)
References:
Elliott, J. (1985, March 26). A class divided: The darling lesson [Video file]. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
Elliott, J. (1985, March 26). A class divided: Day two [Video file]. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
Elliott, J. (1985, March 26). A class divided: 14 years later [Video file]. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
Elliott, J. (1985, March 26). A class divided: Teaching it to adults [Video file]. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
Elliott, J. (1985, March 26). A class divided: How the adults reacted [Video file]. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
Elliott, J. (2006). Jane Elliott’s blue eyes brown eyes exercise. Retrieved November 2, 2013. http://www.janeelliott.com/
Header Picture: Retrieved November 2, 2013, from http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/02/blue-eyes-a-res.html