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Interesting background on Jane Elliott. I urge all of you to read this... |
Posted on 06/19/2004 8:33:58 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
(SH) - One of the more sadistic exercises practiced by some operators who drive the diversity machine goes by the name "Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes." You may have heard of it, because an elementary-school teacher in Iowa first perpetrated it on her fourth-graders in 1968 and it quickly became notorious.
Jane Elliott divided her students into two groups based on their eye color. The blue-eyed children were forced to wear collars symbolizing inferiority, and were constantly humiliated by the brown-eyed children, egged on by their teacher. Elliott once told an interviewer, "It was just horrifying how quickly they became what I told them they were." She described how one of the blue-eyed girls changed from a "brilliant, self-confident carefree, excited little girl to a frightened, timid, uncertain little almost-person." You would think that any normal person would realize that she had just done an evil thing. But not Elliott. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise, hawking workshops, lectures, books and videos. You can find her on the Web, but I won't give you the address because I think she is a disgrace.
Here's how her Web site advertises the workshop: "This is a one-day seminar in which participants will be exposed to an exercise in discrimination based on eye color. Blue-eyed participants will be identified as the inferior group and all the negative stereotypes ordinarily applied to people of color and women by white people and men will be applied to them. Those people having green or hazel eyes will be designated inferior or superior as the instructor sees fit." One of the many companies that sell her videos describes the results this way: "In just a few hours, we watch grown professionals become distracted and despondent, stumbling over the simplest commands." Why am I telling you about this now? Because an extremely and righteously angry woman wrote me recently that her son, a ninth-grader at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, Colo., had been subjected to this abusive treatment in his English literature class, which was studying "Othello."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Glad I never had to attend a diversity class for company SHEESH!
I worked at a division that attemped a social experiment once.
As a grey-green eyed person, it did not work any better than this would have. If a person is blessed with marketable and profitable skills, or even just a shred of integrity, they are burdened with the duty to more or less tell these people to GFTS.
I would like to see a day where there are no hyphens and everyone is just an American. I don't think we should have to have a terrorist attack for that to happen.
"It is true, we see it happen, but we don't do anything; we cooperate, because who is silent, agrees. Only now I have noticed that it is this way. But then the big question stays. What do you do about it? Make a stand as a person and protest against discrimination. That is what should be done, but you don't. Almost nobody does, and that is the problem. Because if all of us did, we could change it."
Barbara, 16 years old, brown eyes
" . . . A racist environment is very easy to create, much more easy than I thought. And the effects for the minority are much worse than I could ever dream of . . . ."
Anna, 15 years old, blue eyes
"Today, I have learned what it is to be seen by others as a minority. I did not expect that it would be so humiliating! In the end, I really had the feeling a bit that I was inferior. I was against racism and discrimination already, but now I understand what it really is."
Aletta, 15 years old, blue eyes
". . . When you have experienced it [discrimination] yourself, you look at it totally differently. Racism is no fun, and you would not like it if you were the person who's discriminated against."
Christian, 12 years old, blue eyes
"I have learned that the only one who can change me is myself because I cannot give myself another eye colour, but I can give myself other opinions. . . ."
Melissa, 12 years old, brown eyes
"When someone is being discriminated you have to oppose this and make a firm stand. So do not only say that you are against it, but also do what you say."
Student, 16 years old, brown eyes
"When you feel day by day what I today as a blue-eye felt (especially in the beginning of the day) then your life is rotten. . . . Racism is so very easy to do. Before you realize it happens. As a person, you are powerless, it makes more sense to revolt together."
Marten, 18 years old, blue eyes
"I think 'the game' today was very good at showing how it is to be part of a minority, although I was a brown-eyed myself (so I did not suffer). Only at the debriefing I realized that I, as a brown eye, had not wanted to make a stand for the blue-eyes. A very good lesson for me was that when it all started, I thought I would do that for sure, but during it all, it never really crossed my mind to do it."
Eline, 17 years old, brown eyes
"I think it was very anti-social how the blue eyed's were treated. As this is how discrimination works, then I think about it differently now."
Tamara, 14 years old, blue eyes
"I was one of the blue-eyes today, and I did not find that funny. I felt greatly discriminated against because we (the blue-eyed's) had to shut our mouth and stand still. The brown eyes were treated well. I really understand that people who are discriminated must feel very angered, like I felt today. It was very much worth it."
Jardena, 16 years old, blue eyes
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Interesting background on Jane Elliott. I urge all of you to read this... |
Who needs to "understand" prejudice, anyway? That's thought control, not education.
A civil environment, whether in a classroom or a workplace, can be achieved by requiring that everyone be treated courteously or professionally. Just leave people's feelings and prejudices alone, and enforce polite behavior.
..and the kids tell them (the lesson planner) what they want to hear? ..over adults taking the seminar.(referencing my post #24)
I think teaching children prejudice is a galling concept. Liberals love to destroy children's innocence.
"A great deal of what is called "prejudice" should actually be called "postjudice" -- common sense tempered with experience."
Great term. Dinesh D'Souza calls it "rational discrimination." One of his examples is if a group of toughs are walking toward one, exuding their "I-Don't-Give-A-Bleep-About-The-World" look, it is completely rational to avoid the situation by crossing the street. The theory is that, one cannot instantly be sure that these "toughs" are just projecting an image to placate a "rep" or to hide certain insecurities, not malicious intent. Some people have better instincts than others but in general don't have the time or the info to make an informed decision about the "toughs" real intent, background, etc. before one passes them.
People that want to project an image should not be surprised when people make on-the-fly judgements based on their clothes, banter, gestures. Don't want to be judged as a gangbanger, don't dress like one.
They do the same type of BS to this day to "sensitize" college men to the plight of womyn in a man's world.
Teaching people to ignore skin color and judge people by the content of their character is just not in the politically correct agenda. It is not about diversity, it is about preserving strife. They have to torture little children in order to get their jollies.
They would achieve the same results by showing the black/white episode of the original star trek. ("Let that be you Last Battlefield" I believe) You could probably replace her entire curriculum and achieve more by showing the entire original series instead of her racist prattle.
His book 'End to Racism' is excellent. My example of a place where there's true 'ethnic diversity' but real unity is the US military. They didn't need Jane Elliot's help either.
Ditto! Now if we can just get AFN completely on-board the military will be even greater than it is.
Let's be fair.
It's doubtful that there was much diversity to educate people about in ancient China.
I was an adult when that woman came on the scene. I believe Oprah had her on. She was downright creepy.
How about that for some youthful prejudice! *lol*
Nothin' wrong with hatin' her prejudicial guts. ;^)
That is a great descriptive sentence.
In universities nowadays, if you wish to conduct sociological research, even just giving an innocuous survey to students, you're supposed to run it past a human-subjects review board. I'm sure this exercise would never be approved at the university I teach at.
There were "outer barbarians, bringing tribute", or "owing tribute, but not bringing it", but they were not a part of curriculum.
The truer words have not been spoken. You are absolutely right.
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