Are lighter phenotypes genetically predisposed to have criminal tendencies?
Jane Elliott created the famous “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise in 1968 to teach her third-grade students about the arbitrary and damaging nature of racism and discrimination. [1, 2]
You can watch a detailed retrospective and overview of her groundbreaking work in the student-produced documentary about her legacy linked via the Unsung Hero Jane Elliott’s Eye-Opening Exercise.
The Origin of the Experiment
- Date and Location: The exercise was first conducted on April 5, 1968, in Riceville, Iowa, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
- The Setup: Elliott divided her all-white elementary school classroom based on eye color—designating blue-eyed children as superior on the first day and brown-eyed children as superior on the next, then reversing the roles.
- The Rules: The “superior” group received extra privileges, longer recesses, and access to drinking fountains, while the “inferior” group had to wear distinguishing collars and faced restrictions. [3, 4]
Behavioral Impact
- Quick Conditioning: Children designated as superior quickly became arrogant, mean, and condescending, while those labeled inferior became timid and performed worse on academic tasks.
- Empathy Through Experience: The exercise vividly demonstrated how rapidly prejudice can be internalized and how discrimination feels from the inside. [6, 7]
Legacy and Media
- A Class Divided: The experiment was captured in the documentary The Eye of the Storm and later revisited by the PBS Frontline Documentary Series in the famous 1985 episode “A Class Divided”.
- Activism: Jane Elliott Official Website turned the classroom lesson into a lifetime of diversity training and anti-racism education for adults across the country. [2, 9]
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcCLm_LwpE
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFQkLp5u-No
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry81tSAw_IQ
[8] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/class-divided/