Jane Elliott Analysis

The blue-eyed members are subjected to pseudo-scientific explanations of their inferiority, culturally biased IQ tests and blatant discrimination. When the inevitable resistance by a blue-eyes surfaces, Elliot cites the outburst as an example of

From here, we witness some of superior blue eyed kids began to act arrogant and bossy to the inferior brown eyed kids. Blue eyed Russell was taunting John at recess, calling him ‘brown eyes’ and John retaliated by hitting him. After the two boys fought at recess the teacher asked if responding with violence made him feel better, he replied no. His answer goes to show that responding with violence is ineffective and a waste of time and energy. They compared it to someone calling a black man the N-word.

In Lofton’s book, she addresses that there is more to Oprah than meets the eye. Her thesis statement, “What is Oprah? Oprah is an instance of American astonishment at what can be” (Lofton 1), shows the reader that the author clearly sees Oprah as a significant figure in America and will proceed to show us how so throughout the book. Through several examples, Lofton conveys her point by pointing out the influence Oprah has had on others to help them live life to their full potentials religiously, economically, physically, emotionally and socially.

Furthermore, Christina Judith Hein, in Color-Blindness vs. Race Matters claims that a common goal cannot be that every individual is treated the same, regardless of their race, gender, or age, but rather, these differences require different responses within the social framework with certain norms and values. Reactions to an individual must be specific to that individual’s needs.

On April 5 1968 Jane Elliot preformed the historical experiment in her 3rd grade classroom separating blue-eyed and brown-eyed children. After the death of Martin Luther King her students raised quiestions and she wanted to think of a way to make her students understand what minorities in the U.S feel like. Jane believed that her students would understand what it felt like to be discriminated against by separating them by their eye color. She asked her students if they wanted to be treated like a person of color for a day, judging their peers by the color of their eyes. The students went along with it and that coined the experiment that would later be known as “A Class Divided”.

In a powerful experiment we were able to see through the eyes of a kindergarten children prejudice dynamics. In a famous experience by Jane Elliot she separated her class between blue-eyed and brown-eyed students. Professor Elliot had separated her students by making one eye group inferior to the other making them have certain benefits and better treatment than the other group of students. Eventually, the students were switched the following day. This experiment have showed this group of kindergarten students how colors and discrimination affected the minority population. After this successful experiment with the kindergarten student’s professor Jane Elliot had done many other experiments using adults using the a similar technique blue-eyed

Delgado, Stefancic, and Liendo (2012) discuss the term colorblind as a representation of this concept of ordinariness as related to the critical race theory. Colorblindness is a suggestion that one does not see the color of another’s skin. This concept of not being able to see another’s color, would also suggest the one does not see the persons struggles as the relate to race and inequality. Suggesting that one does not see race also suggest that one thinks that we are all treated equally and no changes are required to even at the field for all races. If you cannot see race, you cannot see racial discrimination. The issue of colorblindness enables casting director to cast whites in the roles that are written for ethnic minorities. Martin Luther King’s statement above implies that in such cases minorities have to remove the vail of colorblindness. When colorblindness is used to continue to oppress, it

I believe that I would do fine in taking part in Jane Elliott’s exercises. I have a unique view due to my circumstances from being a non-religious asexual aspie (Asperger’s). I have found that everything someone does can be traced back to a reason. Yes there is something for me to gain by taking her session however I am unsure what it is. I took socialization classes when I was younger at UC DAVIS that at the time didn’t think would really help me. They played a vital part in allowing me to advance to the stage I am at but at the time I didn’t think it was important. Even though I don’t know what I would get new experiences are a way to grow. The most important lessons to take away from this I believe are awareness and personal experience bias. Awareness is something that until it is put in to public knowledge the issue will never move on. For example the amount of funding that breast cancer gets compared to most other medical issues is huge. The reason for that is the awareness level of breast cancer in the public eye and how common it is for a high level of personal experiences with it in some way. Personal

One of the most thought-provoking issues raised in The New Jim Crow is the concept of colorblindness, and how Martin Luther King’s call to create a society where people are not "judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" has been badly distorted by

Elliott gave an excellent example of prejudice and discrimination to her 3rd grade pupils. She split her class in two groups according to their eye color. She set up the rules since the beginning, where the blue eyes group was superior to the brown eyes group and uses a color collar to make the inferior team more visible. It is heartbreaking to see little kids discriminating against each other within that little time and being mean to their friends. Also we see that the kids who were appraised performed better on their tests and work in general. Elliott repeated the exercise to the employees of the Iowa prison system. The reaction to the employees was similar to the 3rd grade kids. They started to prejudice and discriminate

Everywhere I go I hear stories of other slaves who have been mistreated or tried to escape this horrid slavery. Many of them won’t share their experiences though, but I will. My name, Jane Edwards and I grew up in Virginia. The events that I have gone through seem unbelievable, but rest assure that nothing is made up. They come from my experiences and also my families. I want to make all of those around me aware of how cruel people can be to one another. No one should have to experience what I did.

If I were a participant if one of Jane Elliott’s exercises, I would have expressed a variety of emotions. I would have felt frustrated by the way she belittled us and with the rules that she enforced. She enforced rules so that the blue eyed people would fail and for the brown eyed people to succeed. I would have also felt humiliated by the way she mocked the blue eyed people. I would have felt angry with her too for treating and talking to me as iI would have benefitted from participating in a similar activity, because of the lessons that were taught in it. The most important lesson is to treat others fairly and to not be ignorant. She makes this very clear when she says that she won’t feel sympathetic towards the blue eyed people, because there are people in this world who face this kind of treatment on a day-to-day basis.

For the children, it was easy for them to believe anything they were taught because they were so young. Everything Mrs. Elliott told them they believed it and tried to live it in that moment. The blue-eyed children thought they were better and acted as if they were better. As the children stated, at the playground the blue-eyed children taunted the brown-eyed children all because of the labels that were taught to them. With the prison guards, it was a little harder for them to accept the things they were being taught. Whenever a blue-eyed person would get irritated with Jane Elliot, the would react in a defensive manner. In return, she used that against them saying that only blue-eyed people would act that way. I believe in the moment, for both groups the labels became true. Essentially, it demonstrates how something negative or positive can change a

She pointed out flaws of the brown-eyed group and seemingly better traits of the blue-eyed group that made her statement seem correct leading to a generalized prejudice. Elliot then made rules for the groups, including that of recess time, drinking fountain privileges, lunch privileges, and segregation on the playground, giving advantages to the superior blue-eyed group and disadvantages to the inferior brown-eyed group which is a small-scale simulation of societal and governmental oppression of minorities. The kids laughed at the “other 's” misfortune, two kids of each group got into a fight, and hateful things were said by the “good” group while a look and feel of disappointment, shame, and exclusion was shown by the “bad” group. The roles were effectively reversed on the second day by using the same methods. The brown-eyed group were more than happy to give their collars to the blue-eyed group. The situated identities of the children were changed by Jane Elliot, an authority figure, by declaring that people of one eye color were better than people of another. She pointed out flaws and supposed shortcomings that made the one group seem inferior and the other group adopted this generalized view. This turned into discriminatory rules and acts in the class and on the playground.