Jane Elliot is a teacher and diversity trainer who developed the “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise to teach students what it feels like to be a person of color. This video begins pretty abruptly, where one of the students who’s been singled out based on eye color is extremely frustrated.
At 2:46, Elliot explains why she keeps going even after she’s made the point. At 3:35, she delivers an important message.
A partial transcript from a very powerful portion of the video, beginning at 3:19:
h/t – upworthy
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I could not watch this video in full. Bullying can cause PTSD and this was one huge PTSD trigger.
You do not have to be non-white to have suffered IMMENSELY from discrimination, and this teacher’s obsession that only people of color suffer the most is way off base.
I disagree. That girl and her “I’m sorry racism exists” is a convenient way out for her so she doesn’t have to address her sense of privilege. Ms. Elliot’s work remains essential and timely.
WoW! Let me start by saying I don’t know anyone in the video, no one associated with it in any way. I had difficulting watching it and stopped it a couple times. I finally watched it to the end in hopes of hearing a new message. What I heard was Elliot perpetuating problem. I think the students understood, but she wasn’t listening. I heard The kid that said, “You’re fighting fire with fire,” basically say that what she was doing with her exercise was just changing out what group got mistreated or unheard. By empowering the brown eyed group, you have to make the un-brown eyed group “feel” less or inferior, This so called Diversity teacher could have learned a lot from those kids that day, but SHE wasn’t listening. The girl that tried to point out that teacher assumed the brown eyed kids pain was greater than her pain was saying, HURT IS HURT AND IT HURTS. Period. The girl that walked out, I applaud her. Unfortunately she wasn’t followed by the rest of the class. Why do I think she was right? Because it takes people like her (regardless of eye color) to standg up for those that are being mistreated, put down, demeaned. She was not willing to sit quietly and see student after student be silenced by this teacher when they had a voice too. The more I thought about it the more pissed off I got (even after watching to the end). DIVERSITY this WAS NOT! It was about one persons limited old view. She could have made this presentation more powerful had she listened. The truth, as I see it…Have you ever realized that you have never seen yourself, only a reflection of yourself? A reflection in a mirror or glass. You see a reflection of yourself in a shiny object and in other people. The reflection I see of myself in this Diversity teacher is when I take a position and stick to it no matter what. When I should stop, listen, reflect and re-evaluate my position. Instead my own agenda gets in the way of a really important turning point, but I miss it just like the teacher does. I see a reflection of myself in everyone of the people in this video, even those that remained quiet. The teachers point that people of color can’t walk out they are stuck with what color they are, is demeaning. It’s frustrating to get treated a poorly becasue of the color of your skin. Also frustrating to get treated poorly ….well for any reason, sexual orientation, economic class, etc. People today are dealing with a lot of different prejudices, each important. What I walk away with is hope. Hope that some of these kids don’t let the teacher limit their views. I’m sure the Diversity teacher has made progress since she began teaching but hese kids were passed, were way passed her progress and she shut them down. I feel sad too, that she chose to teach this way. Those kids show promise!!