Racism
Racism
In the experiment conducted by Jane Elliot, the children were tested first. They were separated in groups according to eye color. The blue-eyed children were in one group and the brown-eyed children were in another. It was a two day experiment with intentions to teach the children how it feels to be discriminated against by a physical feature, or an “ascribed status.” The first day, the brown-eyed children were classified as the inadequate group. They put collars on so they were easily distinguished as the less smart people. They weren’t allowed to drink out of the drinking fountains, play with the blue-eyed children and were allowed less time to play outside during recess. The blue-eyed kids were deemed smarter and overall better people. The next day, the roles were switched so that the blue-eyed kids could experience the feeling of being inadequate.
Later on, Jane Elliot held a workshop on discrimination for staff and faculty members. The same concept was used but in a different process because of the age difference. When the adults signed in, they were also separated by eye color; blue-eyed and brown-eyed. The blue-eyed people put on green collars to distinguish them as the less smart and inadequate group. Unlike the children, the adults were not forewarned about what was going on. They did not know why they were being separated for their physical difference and why they had to wait outside of the conference room for a considerate amount of time while the other group was allowed to go in and take their seats. This was just a one time experiment where the blue-eyed group was not allowed to smoke, use certain restrooms or make any noise. Also, when they were finally allowed to enter the conference room, many people were forced to stand and could not sit next to brown-eyed people. Jane Elliot was the speaker and she picked only on the blue-eyed people. She criticized and ridiculed people for reasons only because they were blue-eyed.
The...