Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment

542 Words3 Pages
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Jane Elliott taught her class on racism and discrimination in the murder happened. She took it upon herself to conduct an experiment. She told her class that people with blue eyes were better than people with brown eyes. She observed what happened. The next day, she told the class that people with brown eyes were actually better than people with blue eyes. What she discovered is very intriguing. His experience has allowed us to understand why people discriminate against others. After Martin Luther King Jr's death, Jane Elliott wanted to teach his class racism. Instead of lecturing children about racism, it was an experience. She told the children that people with blue eyes were better than people with brown eyes. Children believed and blue-eyed children began to treat children with brown eyes in a negative way. This caused a change in behavior with children with brown eyes. They became sad. While children with blue eyes were still quite happy. The next day, Jane told her class that she had lied to them and, in fact, children with brown eyes were children better. To his surprise, the children with brown eyes started to be mean to children with blue eyes. Now, blue-eyed children were those who felt sad, while children with brown eyes were happy. When the children said they were lower they did wrong in their school work. Children who said they were better, showed an improvement of their skills. While Canada is one of the most multicultural countries exists, racism still exists in this country. Jane Elliot said she did not tell the children how to treat those who were below the children already knew how to treat people who were not as good as them. The same applies to racism in Canada. Personally, I find that people are more racist towards First Nations people of the Middle East. Everything you see on
Open Document