Brown-Eyed Children And The Blue-Eye Experiment

In April 5, 1968 one day after the death of Martin Luther King, Jane Elliott tried to explain her third-grade students why Mr. King had been shot to death. He thought of an experiment that would help her explain that her students that the main reason was racial discrimination. The experiment was based on the idea that melanin was a chemical that cause intelligence, thus brown-eyed people were better than those with blue eyes. Children received specific instructions on how to act depending on the color of their eyes. During the experiment children took up the roles that they had been given. Brown-eyed children that used to be shy became outgoing, while blue-eyed children that had not had problems with different topics in the classroom, began showing troubles with them. The following day the experiment changed, therefore blue-eyed children were in “power.” Elliot noted that brown-eyed children were more aggressive when they were in power than blue-eyed children. Through this experiment, Elliot was able to show children how racial discrimination affects the members of

According to some people, Jane Elliot showed a deviant behavior because she was exposing “white” children to cruel experiments. To others, she showed activism, demonstrating with actions her opposition towards racism. Back in the 1960’s norms and values about race were different. The black community was not accepted. White privilege was clear; therefore, social inequality was overwhelming. During the experiment children took the roles assigned to them because of their eye color and acted according to the norms they had learned. Children in the high position acted accordingly to the power they felt they had. It is unfortunate to see that when the idea of the experiment was to help children understand discrimination, Jane Elliott and her family were exposed to racism and informal sanctions by their