This is part of a fascinating

documentary on an experiment. It follows

a teacher as she manages to make her

children turn against one another. She's

told them one group is genetically

inferior, thus can't have certain

privileges. Soon enough, the superior

children begin to subjugate and abuse

their peers. It highlights a deep part

of human psychology. Distrusting the

other is something that comes naturally

to us humans. We have evolved to be

cautious of anyone who doesn't talk,

act, or look like ourselves. I mean, it

kind of makes sense. Trusting the tribe

over the hill thousands of years ago

could be a death sentence. This part of

the human condition is still often seen.

Just look at football teams. The hatred

between Manchester City and Manchester

United, for example. two teams from the

same city and a deep-seated hatred

between supporters. A rather trivial

example, I know, but when cultural,

racial, or religious differences are

thrown in, then tribalism can play out

on the world stage, but how deep does it

go? Could you take two people with near

identical backgrounds and turn them

against one another over an arbitrary

difference? Would that work? Let's say,

for example, the color of one's eyes.

Could you be convinced to distrust

someone with a different color? Can it

be done with children before they have

fully formed their own prejudices? Well,

that is what one teacher would explore

when she was set up a number of

experiments beginning in 1968 with her

pupils in an effort to try and explain

the horrors of the prejudices of the

20th century. Today, we're going to

learn about the blue-eyed brown eye

study. It's an interesting story with

some interesting results. So, my name is

John and welcome to Plainly Difficult.

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this will be provided in the pin comment

below. The timeline for this video was

based off the book Blue Eyes, Brown

Eyes, a cautionary tale of race and

brutality by Steven Bloom. It's a

brilliant book and goes really deep into

the experiments and Elliot's life as a

whole. So, it's well worth checking out

for further reading.

Background.

Our story begins in rural Iowa, USA in

1933 with the birth of Jane Jennison in

Riceville. She grew up on her parents'

farm and attended high school locally.

She would not stay on the farm, however,

instead attending the Iowa State

Teachers College in 1952, graduating

with her elementary school certificate

in 1954. She took up a role as a teacher

in the small town of Randall, Iowa. And

a couple of years later, she was

married, taking her husband's last name

of Elliot. If you didn't know already,

yes, we are talking about the

grandmother of workplace diversity

training. Her career as a teacher went

along initially only for a short time.

As was normal for the period, she left

her teaching role to have children and

enjoy family life in the Waterloo area

of Iowa. In 1964, with her children

getting older, she took up a teaching

job back in Riceville, and the family

moved into a rural setting. Elliot

quickly got a name for herself as a

teacher who would challenge her

children, often using role-play

exercises and interesting activities.

This form of learning differed from her

contemporaries, but to be honest, it

does sound pretty fun. By January 1968,

Elliot had made the classroom her own,

introducing new segments to increase the

excitement to her students.

The new one for the year would be

American Heroes where the class would

delve into the history of great American

icons. She led with the Babe Ruth story

followed by Abraham Lincoln, George

Washington, and contemporary for the

time hero Martin Luther King Jr. During

her classes, she regained the complete

trust and belief of her students. A

trust and belief that would play well

into her experiment later on. Her family

life was just as action-packed with both

Jane and her husband encouraging their

children to explore and challenge life's

normal carry-on for rural Iowa. Life in

Riceville and its population was fairly

homogeneous. Residents were made up

mainly of white Christians

and racial problems seemed far away with

little interaction with others outside

of their ethnic and cultural

backgrounds. However, the tensions going

on in the 1960s in the USA were not

unreported. But for Jane at least, the

story of racial hatred would hit her

like a ton of bricks when a shot rang

out on the evening of the 4th of April

1968. That evening, Jane had been

preparing for a much anticipated module

in her curriculum. That was the study of

Native Americans. As always, the lesson

would be immersive. She planned to make

a teepee in which her students could sit

under and play and learn. However, as

she tackled the laborious task of sewing

the sheets together, she put on the TV

for some company. The calm evening was

suddenly struck with news reports on the

TV of the assassination of Martin Luther

King Jr. The murder happened at the

Lurorry Motel in Memphis whilst King was

standing at his second floor balcony.

The shock from the news whittleled away

Elliot's excitement for the Native

American lesson for the next day.

Instead, she thought she would change

course and talk to her third graders

about the just past world event. Whilst

the TV blared on, she began formulating

an idea of how to explain King's death.

Instead of just hammering them with the

facts, she thought maybe she could get

the children to see how the hatred

behind the murder worked. The plan she

formulated was to create a division in

her white Christian children. The

division would be something arbitrary

but all the same a differing feature and

that was of their eye color. Her

children had a minority in their number

and that was of the browneyed children.

Great. She had her dividing line to play

with. She was to take the browneyed

children and tell them that they were

genetically superior to their more

numerous blue-eyed compatriots. Now, any

student with green or gray eyes would be

lumped into the blue-eyed group, of

which included blue-eyed Jane herself.

She would give the browneyed children

extra praise and tell them not to

associate with the blue- eyes, also

informing them that they were no good

and not worthy of friendship. In

addition, she would give the browneyed

children carp lunch to keep the blue

eyes in their place. If they pushed or

got violent, as Elliot would explain, as

they were predisposed to do, then they

could be pushed and beaten back. She

would tell the blue eyes not to even

bother with studying or doing homework

because no matter how hard they could

try, they wouldn't be able to succeed.

She also would doctor to the children's

classwork so that the blue eyes would

get all their answers wrong. but at the

same time console the students that it

wasn't their fault. It was just how

blue-eyed are. What Jane was going to

create was an underclass of students in

her own classroom. She would on the next

school day reverse the roles, putting

the brown eyes in the blue-eyed shoes.

However, the experiment would start on a

Friday, leaving her blue-eyed children

downtrodden over the weekend. She

decided that permission from parents and

the school principal would hinder the

effectiveness of the deception. As such,

she decided to go ahead with her

roleplay on the next school day and thus

her experiment was planned.

The experiment day one as Elliot's 28

children filed into classroom 10 on the

5th of April 1969, the subject of the

previous night assassination came up.

One child asked, "Why did they kill that

king?" By 25 to9, her class had made

their way to their seats. She announced

today there will be a day of a new

activity. This news, I'm reckoning, was

probably met with excitement amongst

their students, a little bit of extra

seasoning to Mrs. Elliot's class day,

but they didn't know what was in store

for them. Elliot began her intro to her

exercise by asking what her students

knew about African-Ameans. Quickly, a

number of replies came back spouting the

usual stereotypes of the day. She then

asked if they would like to know how it

would feel to be discriminated against.

The class tacitedly answered yes. She

then asked the children if they would

like to judge people by the color of

their eyes. The children paired off and

looked into each other's eyes,

identifying their colors. Next, she

separated the children into two groups

of blue and browneyed. The odd colors of

gray, green, and hazel were told to go

into the blue group. The brown eyes, who

were the minority, were instructed to

move their tables to the front of the

class. She said, "You are the smarter

children. You deserve to be at the

front. For this age of children, the

class front is prime real estate. Hell,

even my 5-year-old is always trying to

be at the front of her classroom." So,

the classroom now required multiple bits

of furniture to be shifted around. best

friends were to be broken up and

mumbling amongst the students, probably

almost drowned out the sound of scraping

of chairs and tables across the floor.

Elliot shouted at the children to move

quicker. She next admonished the

blue-eyed children for having messy

desks, claiming it was typical of these

types of people. She time this for when

the brown eyes who had had a head start

of arranging their desks were nearing

completion of their relocation. Thus,

she had manufactured evidence of blue

eyes messiness and thus browneyed

superiority. As the morning crept on,

Elliot worked to further cement the

brown eyes as superior, hammering down

any discussion of the matter. She was

relying on her students belief in her

every word. The class's demeanor

gradually changed. Soon enough, the

browneyed children nodded in agreement

with Elliot's statements of Blue Eyes

messiness, laziness, and lower

intelligence. One of the ways Elliot

would hit the lowerass blue eyes was

that they would be required to use paper

cups to drink from the fountain so as to

not spread their diseases. This

eventually resulted in the brown eyes

beginning to verbally abuse their

classmates and berate them. Elliot

rather than stopping the hatred nurtured

it by backing up the brown eyes. Next,

during playtime, the blue eyes were

banned from the play equipment only

allowing the superior eyed group to

enjoy the fun time. As she continued on,

more rules came into play. More playtime

at recess, eating first at lunch, and

preferential choice of playmates were

given, all to the brown eyes. Elliot

noticed that the lowerass group were

beginning to show signs of helplessness,

almost as if they had accepted their new

rung on the equality ladder. Due to

Elliot's own blue eyes, she deliberately

made mistakes, which the students picked

up on. for example, failing to draw down

the rollup map properly and seemingly

being generally forgetful. Elliot

actively encouraged her students to take

things from their underclass

compatriots, egging the discrimination

on. By lunchtime, the roles had been

pretty well set with even the lower

performing brown eyes getting a new

lease of educational excitement filled

by their new superiority.

In contrast, the Blue Eyes had lost all

confidence. Once happy and excited,

students were becoming more sheepish and

unwilling to answer questions. The

children had become submissive to their

new browneyed overlords. By the end of

the day, during the open and honest

magic circle part of the class, Elliot

gathered thoughts and feelings of the

students new place in the world.

Understandably, the blue eyes were

quiet, digesting the trauma that they

had been collectively experiencing. On

the other hand, the brown eyes were

noticeably happier. The children filed

off out of the classroom and went home

for the weekend.

Day two. So on Monday, Elliot planned to

turn the rolls around and make the brown

eyes the underclass. As the children

came in for morning register, they were

unaware of the 180° turn they would be

subjected to. Elliot ran off the same

speech she had on Friday, painting the

brown eyes as the thieves, lazy, and

feckless people. She then ordered the

Blue Eyes to push their desks to the

front of the class. However, today

Elliot noticed the children act

differently. She had thought that it

would be a rerun, albeit with greater

retributions and possibly more cruelty.

But what she saw was a lesser attack on

the subgroup. The Blue Eyes had gained a

sense of empathy. The Blue Eyes had not

matched the cruelty shown to them on the

Friday. Instead, they were kinder. By

the end of the day, after Elliot's

egging on for cruelty in the magic

circle, the children hugged each other

and cried, most likely thankful of the

turbulent few days being finally behind

them. She highlighted the reasons for

the experiment. This was due to the

tragic death of Martin Luther King Jr.

and the hatred that had caused it. She

set out a task for them to write a

letter as a group to King's Widow

expressing their sympathy and newfound

empathy that they had gained from the

experiment. She had made her point. The

class ended and the children once again

went home at the end of the day. The

next day, she set out another task for

the children. This was for each child to

write their own individual experiences

of the experiment. Parts of these essays

were published in the Riceful Recorder.

And this would be the beginning of

Elliot's rise to fame, arguably off the

misery of the children in her experiment

after the experiment. So the experiment

would garner some interest from the

wider world outside of Riceville. The

recorder article was picked up and

published by the Associated Press, which

in turn gained interest from a massive

show at the time, the Johnny Carson

Show. She would have her slot on the

Johnny Carson show in May 1969.

Almost as soon as her appearance had

ended, the show was flooded with calls

of complaints, many exposing the

prejudice of the day. One often quoted

statement was, "How dare you try this

cruel experiment on white children." She

would not receive such a good response

when she got back home to Riceville.

making herself somewhat of the town's

prior. She highlighted her town in the

eyes of the rest of America as a racist

place. For the era, it was no more worse

or better than any other small town

homogeneous area. Her neighbors saw her

as using the children to gain notoriety

for herself. Self ambition built on the

backs of the uninformed play things in

her experiment. But although now

disliked, it probably didn't last all

that long as Elliot continued to teach

at the school for another 8 years with

each year the exercise becoming part of

her personal curriculum. The experiment

would in 1970 become the stage for a

documentary on Elliot in the ABC

produced Eye of the Storm. It's a

fascinating documentary and well worth

watching. In the wake of the

documentary, Elliot would go from height

to height, even being invited to a

conference at the White House. But what

did she do at the end of her tenure as a

teacher? Well, she would take her

exercise on the road and commercialize

it in 1985 when she would show off her

exercise at highpaying business

conferences, military, prison, and even

at other schools under government

contracts. She would become one of the

most prominent diversity education

professionals of the 1980s and 1990s,

even making multiple appearances on

Oprah.

All of this would be proven to be rather

well-paying for her. But her classes

would show a darker side. Participants

would often report that after an Elliot

session, a feeling of being bullied

where Elliot herself would personally

throw insults and make fun at the

expenses of the people in the sessions.

I know it's kind of the point, but

Elliot seemingly created a career where

she would scold and insult people on a

daily basis. The insults were especially

pointed at blonde and blueeyed white

people.

Elliot would advertise the exercise as

an inoculation against racism, as said

by Steven G. Bloom in his article, A

Second Look at the blue-eyed, browneyed

experiment that taught third graders

about racism. This made it a bit of an

easy option for people to just do the

sessions and then not have to think

about the real causes of inequality. And

this probably is the biggest problem of

the experiment. And that a couple of

days of being cruel to people supposedly

could cure all prejudices. But of course

it didn't.

Final thoughts. Understandably, the

controversial experiment garnered its

critics. But one such was that of the

accusation of plagiarism. In 1970,

Elliot received a letter not long after

the documentary about her was released

from a teacher called Wilder Wood. It

made note that she had run a series of

experiments between 1965 and 1969,

which had been published in newspapers

across the country. Part of the series

was the segregation of two groups of

students via, you guessed it, their eye

colors. This eye color experiment had

been published 6 months before Elliot's

similar exercise. Now, I'm not saying

that she copied the idea. Coincidences

can happen. Just look at how the two

Dennis the Menaces came about. two

completely different characters created

by two different artists unknown to one

another released on the same day in the

USA and United Kingdom. So some

criticisms came from the fact that

Elliot didn't get informed consent as

noted by Ival F. Goodson and Pat Sykes,

both educational professionals from here

in the UK. But interestingly, I think

one of Elliot's promoters actually

should have been a concern in the sense

that her experiment was praised by a

Philip Zimardo, saying that it was

remarkable and his 1979 textbook

psychology and life. This was the same

Philip Zimardo of the Stamford prison

experiment fame.

You know, the old experiment that ended

in disaster in 1971 when his

participants started abusing each other.

So, with an endorsement from someone

like him, who really needs critics? Now,

what do you think of the experiment? Was

it ethical or not? Let me know in the

comments below.

This is a plain difficult production.

All videos on the channel are creative

common attribution shite licensed.

Playing difficult videos produced by me,

John, in a currently very cold corner of

southern London, UK. And all that's left

to say is thank you very much for

watching. And Mr. Music, play us out,

please.