Blue-Eye Vs Brown Eye Experiment About About Racism & Discrimination

[HipChick]

Very interesting lady...

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

1. Doesn't surprise me that your post has zero recs or responses. Thanks for posting!!

[HipChick]

2. Every DU'er should view this video...she is a very interesting educator..

Those students could deal for a few mins with what folks have to deal with tenfold their entire lifetime...

[jwirr]

3. In the 70s a lot of schools used this method to teach children about racism. My children went

through it. We would have some trouble with my 3 great grand children. All are brown eyed except one. She would not take it very well.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. She's amazing! A brilliant researcher. This thread should have 1 million recs.

[marble falls]

18. I knoooooooww, blue eyed people can be sooooo dismisive.

[a2liberal]

19. Maybe because it's a 43 minute video with no summary or highlights? (n/t)

[TheDebbieDee]

4. I saw the Blue eyed/Brown eyed expriment on an episode of Sally Jesse Raphael

in the mid 80s.....Sally brought the guest out and the guest explained her theories and took a few questions. The guest was very confrontational with the questioners with the subject colored eyes and even told some of them to shut up and sit down.

Then the guest put together an experimental group of 10 blue eyed people and 10 brown eyed people - then the real fun begins....Interesting experiment, tho.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. Wow! Facinating!

[HipChick]

6. It certainly makes you think..

[Vattel]

8. What a jerk that "educator" is.

[HipChick]

9. What makes her a jerk?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Nothing. She's exposing truth and that scares people.

[Vattel]

13. Not treating people with good will and respect.

[gollygee]

15. That's the whole point of the exercise.

She treats people with a pre-conceived notion that they are bad, which is something people of color often face. It's to show how it feels, which isn't good.

[Vattel]

16. Treating people like shit to teach them what it is like to be treated like shit.

Seems messed up to me.

[gollygee]

17. Oh I think they'll survive

They leave the class and they swim in white privilege again. People of color don't ever get to just leave the class.

[Aerows]

23. Tell that to a gay white man or woman bashed on the streets

that they survive and don't understand. You missed the point. Tell that to the Hispanic men and women that are presumed "illegal". Tell ALL of them that whatever race or color that somehow are underprivileged that they should be delighted that they fall in the class of homosexual, and therefore aren't real people and not representative of their racial groups, social groups or religious groups.

[gollygee]

25. Huh?

There is white privilege, straight privilege, class privilege, and many other kinds of privilege. Many people have privilege in one area but lack in in another area. People absolutely become victims of violence in areas where they lack privilege and face discrimination.

[HipChick]

29. Exactly..

[Number23]

34. Some of the responses to this thread are head shakingly moronic

(Not the post you are responding to, but some of the ones that the poster you are responded to tried to respond to themselves)

I appreciate your attempt at trying to bridge the divide but as usual, it seemed to not go very far.

[HipChick]

38. Yes..Number23...its hopeless sometimes..

[Vattel]

40. Yeah, typically being a jerk is not fatal.

[Cali_Democrat]

28. Welcome to the world of blacks

where blacks are discriminated against and viewed as bad just because of the color of their skin.

Boom.

Let me guess, you're white?

[Aerows]

31. Welcome to the world of women

where you don't understand how women are discriminated against far more than skin color, but by gender.

[LittleBlue]

12. Agreed

Insult another group, they feel bad. derp

Like we didn't know racism feels bad.

[we can do it]

21. If you are white, you don't know how racism feels.

If not LGBT, you don't know how homophobia feels. Period.

[LittleBlue]

22. Insulting us for 10 minutes

won't give us an idea of how racism feels.

Everyone in that classroom knew it was an exercise and that it would end in a few minutes. That's not real racism.

Institutionalized racism isn't a white guy yelling at you and making you feel bad, it's not overt at all and far more complex than that.

This exercise is too simplistic and she's a bit looney.

[Aerows]

30. Agreed

If you are a male you have no idea what patriarchy really is.

[M0rpheus]

35. If you were going to try to help people understand the concept, in 2 hours or less...

What would you do?

Given the limited amount of time for the excercise, there's no room for subtlety and nuance.
Having seen all of these that I could find (there are quite a few), I can say the results are almost exactly the same in each.The people who are singled out are not used to being treated as "second class" and become quite angry about it. They say it's unfair what's being done to them. And in the end, they get to go home.

The minnesota professor who was sanctioned because 3 white students didn't appreciate the topic of privilege and racism from the perspective of a woman of color is the perfect example of why the blunt example can be better than a calm discussion. Many people don't understand unless they are shown.

You're right, institutional racism is far more complex than it's made out to be in the video... but she only had 2 hours to make a point.
How would you do it?

[we can do it]

14. Does the sound cut out half way?

I thought this was very good, but could not hear half of it.

[Control-Z]

36. It did for me.

I'm glad you posted because I was thinking my laptop speakers had failed. I was just about to go test them on another page with sound.

[we can do it]

39. I thought it was just me, too.

Thought the exercise was good.

[Aerows]

20. "Matthew Shepard"

"Had the misfortune to be born gay."

If that's what this woman got from his death and is teaching in our schools, she's a lunatic.

He didn't have the misfortune to be born gay, he was born into a world that was too violent, poisonous and intolerant that someone like him can thrive. Much like the same children she is trying to reach, but doing so with surrogates that will never understand ( people in a college setting).

Dumbest video I've ever seen, unless she meant it so. I had to shut it off after the Matthew Shepard comments.

[hunter]

24. Star Trek: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield

[liberal N proud]

27. It is used in many diversity seminars and training sessions.

[TxDemChem]

32. That was so hard to watch.

But I'm still going to recommend it to my daughter and her friends. I hope this will give them some perspective in case they ever start to think they are better than others.

[Behind the Aegis]

33. I didn't watch the video, but am familiar with the concept.

We used it and variations of it in many a diversity presentation. To change things up, sometimes I would choose something rather random and overly stupid as the basis of who were the "blue eyes" (non-discriminated against) and the "brown eyes" (the victims of discrimination). I chose things for which we had control (shoelaces or none, belts or none, earrings, and the like), or things which we had no control (left-handedness, attached earlobes, and such). It was always interesting to watch people try and to figure out why they were discriminating or being discriminated against.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Only two managed to miss the point. Nice. K&R