The Frontline show on PBS last night, "A Class Divided," showed not only the original footage of Jane Elliott's experiment and later reunion of the students in Riceville, Iowa, but also a long clip of one of her later workshops. These workshops used the same approach toward understanding prejudice and she appeared on Oprah to demonstrate it too. (I think this is an older production, but I hadn't seen the workshop segment before.)
I had noticed, in doing some previous updating research, that her workshops always have the "brown eyes" being superior, and this was demonstrated in the Frontline footage. I know in her original 3rd-grade work, she alternated, with blue eyes being superior on the first day, and brown eyes being superior the next so each group could get a taste of discrimination. (Though short clips usually just show the blue-eyed-superior segment.) When challenged, at one point, with the observation that Elliott herself has blue eyes, she points out that she married someone with brown eyes and has only brown-eyed children... I'm curious if anyone knows why she ultimately settled on brown eyes for the demonstration. I'm guessing it's because ethnic minorities in America, who are the raison d'etre for the experiment's creation, usually have brown eyes. Did she want to let them put the shoe on the other foot? I noticed that there were several African Americans in the workshop footage, and one was quite vocal, joining in to semi-jokingly berate the blue eyes. (I couldn't help but cheer for him a bit!) Did she ever indicate any forethought in making the brown eyes superior? Beth Benoit University System of New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
