Are you a Brown Eyed or Blue Eyed Person?
Man without vision shall perish!
This woman, Jane Elliott had vision! I had the tremendous opportunity to speak personally with her today and she is still cracking the whip against racism and intolerance! She is an internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors.
She started this class over 40 years ago – the day after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed – and with HER vision, she started instilling the seeds of change that still need to be sewn throughout America. I was compelled to post this. I love her gumption, her tenacity and her moxy!
Ms. Elliott has successfully delivered THE ANATOMY OF PREJUDICE presentation and the POWER, PERCEPTION AND PREJUDICE seminar to a wide variety of audiences throughout the world and is available to present these moving lectures before groups or organizations. For additional information please visit her website www.JaneElliott.com.
Felicia M. Lopes The Original BusyGal
Jane Elliott divided her class by eye color — those with blue eyes and those with brown. On the first day, the blue-eyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than those with brown eyes. Throughout the day, Elliott praised them and allowed them privileges such as a taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch line. In contrast, the brown-eyed children had to wear collars around their necks and their behavior and performance were criticized and ridiculed by Elliott. On the second day, the roles were reversed and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior while the brown eyes were designated the dominant group. What happened over the course of the unique two-day exercise astonished both students and teacher. On both days, children who were designated as inferior took on the look and behavior of genuinely inferior students, performing poorly on tests and other work.
As relevant today as it was 40 years ago, even more so due to the subtleness of racism and the advent of the TEA PARTY which just happened to evolve at the same time that this country elected its first African American President, Barack Obama. This is a lesson that still needs to be taught in every school in America! Here is Ms. Elliott in a modern day classroom setting. The lessons are still the same!
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