The intent of this paper is to reflect upon and react to the exercising “Blue-eyed/Brown-eyed” conducted by Jane Elliot in relation to the thoughts of diverseness. race. and privilege. The aim of this exercising was to give white people an thought of what life is like to be something other than white. Elliot’s exercising pointed out both blatant and indirect ways that prejudice demoralizes people of colour. Elliot facilitates everyone involved helping their acknowledgment of the cost that bias and racial behaviour has on an person. This exercising employed an unfastened duologue attack on subjects that may be looked at as most people as off bounds. The duologue encouraged through the “Blue-eyed/Brown-eyed” experiment allows people to understand what it’s like to experience listless and the function they can play through day-to-day interactions with people of the opposite race that promote the facets of being supportive and understanding.
While watching this picture and seeing the grim manner that Jane Elliot demoralized the participants of this survey. I was reminded of my past relationship with my son’s male parent. Watching the displacement of assurance in these persons was galvanizing. The relentless ridicule and humiliation bestowed upon these persons was sad to watch. As the exercising went on you could see the manner these persons obtained a sense of impotence and shame. I was shocked to see such a frail. older white adult female make a state of affairs in which participants experience favoritism foremost manus. Consequently. this experience enabled the participants to really experience the emotional hurts correlated with this signifier of maltreatment. One of Elliot’s statements that truly stuck with me was something along the context ; these persons take parting merely have to populate through this world temporarily but people of colour trade with this behavior for life. Looking at the lives of people of colour as being a womb-to-tomb battle is put offing. America is full of beauty from all over the universe and people still concentrate on the outer shell instead than seeing the interior beauty.
Elliot facilitates the exercising with passion and demonstrates her ethical outrage as she talks about her work and experiences. Elliot provides you with the narrative of how she became so engrossed with the moralss and morality on the subject of race. Then I began to inquire who this adult female was and why was she carry oning these exercisings. I was diffident why this antique. frail white adult female was so passionate about the subjects of racism. every bit good as. the fact that she targets white people for being the ‘problem’ of racism.
Throughout the completion of this paper I have utilised resources on the cyberspace that provided a thorough background of Jane Elliot and all that she has endured since she decided to segregate her schoolroom in 1968. Elliot decided to unite two lessons. one on Indians and one on Dr. King. that integrated. “the Indian axiom she had had her pupils memorise – Oh. Great Spirit. maintain me from of all time judging a adult male until I have walked a stat mi in his moccasins” ( Bloom. pg. 1 ) . Harmonizing to Elliot. the eight twelvemonth olds in her schoolroom had ne’er met a black individual and she wanted to transfuse in them a complete apprehension of what life was like. particularly at that clip. for a individual of colour. Elliot implemented this exercising in her schoolroom in order to indicate out racial favoritism and to formalize how easy people comply in oppressive state of affairss.
Elliot felt that implementing the impression to pupils that brown eyed pupils were better. smarter. and superior while bluish eyed pupils were soiled. stupid. and inferior. Elliot went every bit far as to promote the brown eyed pupils non to interact with the blue eyed pupils. which is something that I feel was Elliot taking the exercising excessively far. I can understand why she was carry oning her experiment but stating pupils that they are superior to another group and should non tie in with one another. These actions in bend will travel beyond the schoolroom where brown eyed pupils will experience a sense of power over the bluish eyed pupils and may even travel farther and try to implement their power.
Harmonizing to research the kids from the original category that were the first participants in this exercising. “had gone place after the exercising and told their parents that racism was incorrect. and it was a lesson that stayed with them. Reunions and interviews have shown that the kids remember the exercising and are positively affected by it. experiencing that it makes them more empathetic and sensitive” ( Cloviscat. 2003 ) . I had felt that these kids were surely damaged from the badness that the exercising was employed upon them at such a immature age. The impression that they were positively affected by the exercising seemed far-fetched. Consequently research shows that this was non the instance and that this experiment was able to make those kids profoundly and emotionally ; which in bend agencies Elliot instilled a deep apprehension of racial favoritism and all that this construct entails in these kids and perchance many others.
Through the thoughts presented in this film I feel that my personal vision for seting an terminal to oppressive Acts of the Apostless against others based on our differences instead than working together in order to better this state both expeditiously and respectfully despite our differences. I will use the lesson learned here in order to hand in glove talk about the hindrances we must basically get the better of in order to make away with racism and snuff out the malicious repression of people based on race. I have ever embraced the thought of diverseness ; the Holocaust. the Salem Witch Trials. and the Underground Railroad are all illustrations of hideous historical events where racism was the cause for the loss of infinite guiltless lives. My future interactions with others will be approached with a divergent province of believing on racial favoritism than I had prior to watching this film. I will now near my day-to-day interactions with a stronger sense of empathy and morality than I have earlier in hopes that my behaviour will actuate others to follow my attack to successfully interact with persons every bit despite any physical differences amongst us.
Mentions
Bloom. S. G. ( n. d. ) . _Blue-eyes. brown eyes: The experiment that shocked the state and turned a town against its most celebrated daughter_ . Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. uiowa. edu/~poroi/seminars/2004-5/bloom/poroi_paper. pdf
Cloviscat. ( 2003. August 19 ) . _Jane elliot and the brown eyes. bluish eyes exercise_ . Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //h2g2. com/dna/h2g2/A1132480
