Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment

Entertainment Media
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A very interesting watch.

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Saw this a while back. Pretty interesting, the premise is that overtime anyone who is abused or treated as a criminal or below everyone else will tend to have little self-esteem and as a community won't progress socially or economically and racist issues won't die down till the problem is acknowledged.. Can't say I disagree.

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I find that it really exposes a lot of undertones that are otherwise easily missed.
There is one participant that is really getting to me.....the blonde-haired, blue-eyed school teacher that is constantly in denial.

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She also says:

''One girl, who is half-caste, fell over and scraped her face and her skin was pink underneath. Did I expect it to be black? I don't know'''. She doesn't know we don't use the term half-caste in Britain anymore. In the end it had a feeling of 'them' vs 'us'. This is the root of it all. When it becomes 'them', 'they' become different. And in this mindset denial will fester.

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Exactly!
And in her closing comments she suggests that she didn't see the value in the exercise because she is already "passionate" about such (i.e. racist) behaviours. LOL.

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That sounded weird to me too, just didn't sound right for some reason.

Very interesting concept by Ms. Elliott. I wonder if she faced resistance, backlash and social/political pressures embarking on this when segregation was at fever pitch. Imagine a teacher trying to do this today....won't happen!

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Thanks for the video Muzna ... For me, had I been in the group then I too would have been thrown out ... It appears on the surface that the people who agreed to join in, in making the blue eyed people feel bad were scared to dissent, contrary to wanting to show aggression on their own kind, but also genuinely didn't want to show aggression on anyone ... The remainder of the people were there because they were mesmerised by her authority, agreed and liked the idea of aggression on their symbolic aggressors hence reaction racists or were a bit confused by the whole charade.

In such situations I would resort to my principles and they are not to become an aggressor even if I have been on the receiving end myself ... However, what would have tempted me to stay would be the intrigue on how the ongoing saga would unravel ... If the brown eyed people were a bit more in tune they should have shouted out to the teacher in the blue eyed group the one in denial ... "Well of course she can't see the racism because she is blue eyed and too dumb to realise". It would have made her feel something that she had not felt throughout the whole exercise ... The only one doing the pressure work was Ms. Elliott ...they could have all joined in ... In conclusion the type of racism in the UK is far more sophisticated ... It convinces the victims to rise above it, blinds the aggressors in to a mantra of self-righteous deluded denial ... And forces compassionate discourse between aggressor and victim with no real sincerity ... That is the reason why this fell apart ... Had I walked out then I could have blamed for being like the house slaves - who would be black but choose to die with the owner's house than save themselves if it was burning down ... I am no house slave, but I am no aggressor either ... I feel those who had the guts to walk out were strong and the least racist and would have probably been better to receive the criticism.

It seems a British audience are better at speaking through their problems rather than turn the tables ... There is a sort of recoiling we show when we know we are being mean, but when the aggressors don't realise it they will continue as they are ...

In conclusion this method does not necessarily make racists turn ... But it sure does highlight who the deep racists really are ... And that blue eyed teacher was one!

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When I first saw this documentary (or a similar one involving the same educator and experiment) in the past, I also thought that Jane Elliott was being a little too brutal with the blue-eyed group (as well as the brown-eyed individuals who sympathized with them). However, after watching the documentary again today and although I may not necessarily agree with all of her teaching methods, I finally understand the actual purpose of Ms. Elliott's experiment: For the blue-eyed group (and their sympathizers) to "learn" that one can never truly understand another's "experience" (in this case racism against non-white individuals), unless they "experience" it themselves (unfair ill-treatment based on a physical characteristic that they were born with and cannot change).

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Some racism is fear based and at other times it is superiority based ... I think a lot of the UK racism is a fear and that may have led to the very different sort of results you see in this UK experiment.

Many indigenous English people feel the law is not on their side and they are made to feel that way - but they do not deny being racist - they refer to themselves as being friendly fascists ... The reason why the teacher in the blue eyed group did not realise the opposite predicament was because she was not in a position that she had not been in before. She was on defensive mode - defending the status quo. They could have taken it further ... they could have disciplined her and moved her to the end of the classroom ... for shouting and being unruly ... something should have constantly been done to make her seem that her protests were pointless - if they really wanted to make her 'feel' the point.

Each time I think about it - I so admire that young lad who walked out/got thrown out ... he showed true principles ... I don't think he would have stayed had he been asked to demean a black audience either.

I would see it as a psyche challenge and try to ignore any aggression ... the problem with that is that those who cannot parry or deflect the aggression will suffer. Many black people in the UK would have walked out had they been in the victim group ... they talked about playing a game ...

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In terms of playing games … the blacks are not the only ones … The Daily Mail is a “friendly fascist” paper and this is one of the their articles;

Map shows world’s most racist countries (and the answers may surprise you) | Mail Online

According to this US and UK are among the least racist places !! … because the people answered a questionnaire in a certain way … that is to say we believe the honesty in such people … the fact is such citizens have not had racism removed - but they have a law system applied that forces racism to go beneath the surface - in to an opinion underground … so when questioned in this manner the people will speak the mantra - they will not admit to be being racist with their words … places like Jordan and India are honest and they have not had a law system that penalises them for having racist beliefs …

The true test of racism in such countries is to compare the split of top management in multi-corporate organisations - for a surety there are more Western Ex-pats in top positions within Jordan and India than there will be in the UK or US … in the case of the latter very rare … the fact that an Indian man is now in the top position of Microsoft is an amazingly unique situation - but perhaps he may have had to try 3 times harder to get there as well - we never know … I think Bill Gates himself may have influenced this appointment too … the Obama appointment is also very rare and in the case of the latter - it shows how unimportant a president really is in terms of real power, but in terms of affecting masses of people through soft power it really works well … to have that token “minority” in a position of good repute.

Sometimes I think having strong laws towards racism creates more racism because it starts to make the aggressors feel justified in their racism and groups like BNP prop up … who feel that the laws of the UK are incriminating the indigenous people. Whereas in Pakistan for example we have so much talk about white skin and black skin - but when it comes to appointing a manager we are more likely to put someone in place who knows the job … or who can bribe the most to get there - :hehe: … :bummer: but that is a different matter. The mild beneath the surface racism in the UK keeps the top jobs within the white population, because there is a fear of power being taken away from their hands … so where policy may have tried to make an effect - either knowingly or unknowingly - the dynamics really are:

power = pay * policy >>> creating the real effect we see …

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Thanks for sharing the video.

This. She even don't see or doesn't wanna see another side (of existence of racism). Seeing another person at 36:01 from brown-eyes pplz seems like she is okay if she is adjusted according to the system.

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I wonder how many of the brown-eyed group actually understood that this was just an exercise and weren't secretly revelling and taking pleasure in watching the blue-eyed ones get treated badly.

I'll be back to this thread when I have a bit more time.
So many interesting posts here.