Jane Elliott Experiment
The start of the month Apr 1968 to Spring 1968
After the world faced the great tragedy of losing Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many people questioned the high leverage the social justice movement once had. As America lost one of its greatest spokes people, who fought day and night against racism, it seemed as though people could only continue to live on through his legacy in order to maintain his efforts. On April 5, 1968, the day after MLK was shot and killed, a women by the name of Jane Elliot decided she would partake in maintaining the voice of Martin Luther King Jr.
In an all-white town in Riceville, Iowa, Elliott grouped up all of her third-grade students to discuss the new rules of her class. She proceeded to tell them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. She segregated the class with this new notion. In addition to this arbitrary claim, Elliot ensured that the blue-eyed people were not allowed to play at recess, and they were also to be looked and talked down upon. The brown-eyed students, however, were treated with the upmost respect and privilege. As this exercise was carried out through the day, obvious effects of discrimination began to show, however, the experiment was not yet ready to be concluded. The next day Elliott repeated this experiment with a twist. Elliott claimed she had made a mistake, brown eyed people were not better than blue eyed people, it was blue eyed people who were better than brown eyed people. With this in mind, she acted accordingly with the converse of everything she did the day before. The blue-eyed students received a days’ worth of privilege. Similarly, the brown-eyed students exhibited similar effects of discrimination.
Elliott’s study demonstrated significant behavior and performance changes within the students who were being “discriminated” against. Compared to the when the students had received privilege in the classroom, when treated as outcasts, the test scores began to go down and overall energy and interaction began to decrease as well. Jane Elliott’s experiment took off and gained lots of leverage. People began highly enticed with her findings and were in awe with the powerful message behind her experiment. She continued to spread the word and share her finds with the world. Her experiment is still used and talked about today in the means of putting an end to racism as a whole and more specifically racism in education.
Exploring your Mind. (2019, June 27). Blue eyes and Brown eyes: The Jane Elliott experiment. Exploring your mind. exploringyourmind.com/blue-eye…
The New York Time. (2020, July 15). A teacher held a famous racism exercise in 1968. She’s still at it. The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/us/…