Analysis Blue Eyes Brown eyes Experiment

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What was the purpose of Jane Elliot’s experiment?

Jane Elliot is an American female citizen. She conducted an experiment that revolved around the issues of racial injustices in America. This was particularly in reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King junior. The main purpose of the experiment was to fight racial prejudice by tackling it from the grassroots. The experiment targeted educating third graders on the effects of racial prejudice in society. She believed that if the young children grew and developed while knowing the damages caused by racial prejudice, the society would eradicate the vice in later years when the children grow old enough to take the wheel of the society. Jane Elliot was a human rights activist, and therefore the experience was motivated by some personal beliefs and interests to achieve a fair and free society. However, the experiment was purposed to impose the experiences of African-Americans on the white third graders. Elliot needed them to taste experience, hoping that it will enlighten them to avoid causing the same on others.

Why did she separate the green collared people from the rest of the people?

Jane Elliot organized her experience by creating two groups of third-grade students in the class. The categorizing was based on the color of the eyes. She had one group of students comprising of white students who had blue eyes. This group was made to wear a green band for distinction. The purpose of this separation was to create an environment where one group would be perceived to be superior over the other. In our case, the brown-eyed students were perceived to be superior to the blue-eyed students. This worked automatically where the brown-eyed students developed a notion to disregard the other group by believing than they knew nothing.

How did Jane Elliot simulate the effects of Racism/ White Supremacy in this experiment?

Jane Elliot provided a simulation of the racism of white supremacy based on a scientific trick/ reasoning. She applied the idea of the role of melanin in the human body. Elliot explained to the third graders that melanin is responsible for dark hair and eyes. More melanin in someone’s eyes makes the eyes darker. Elliot also made the students believe that the level of smartness or brilliance increases with an increase in the levels of melanin in a human body.

For this reason, the brown-eyed students believed that they had more melanin chemical than the blue-eyed student. The effect of this is that the brown-eyed individuals believed that they were better and of a higher class than the blue-eyed individuals. The differences justified the reason for the student to portray racism from the perspective of color in the eyes.

Why did two of the students wearing the green collars cry?

According to the blue eyes brown eyes experiment, it is not a nice feeling to belong to the inferior group in society. The brown-eyed third-grade students were provided with the opportunity to be the superior group in the classroom. On the contrary, the blue-eyed students played the role of the inferior group in the classroom. The green collars depicted the blue-eyed students who were inferior. The two students wearing the green collar could not stand the feelings and emotions of inferiority, and therefore, they had to cry.

At what point in the experiment did Ms. Elliot achieve success in exposing the effects of Racism/ White Supremacy?

The first instance of success in Jane Elliot’s experiment is witnessed when she takes the experiment to a higher level. She progresses to experiment with adults who were employees in a certain prison. The experiment came to a break-through when it delivered the same results as those received from the third-grade students. Since then, Jane Elliot has advanced her experiments. She has been invited to address various gatherings of people on many occasions concerning her experiments. Such gatherings include government agencies and other non-governmental agencies concerned with issues of racial injustices.

What was the purpose of having the students write down adjectives describing how they feel?

An adjective can be expounded as a word that talks more about a verb. In this context, the adjectives can be used to describe and outline the emotions and feelings of all the individuals who participated in the experiment. According to the experiment, racism is as a result of feelings and emotions developed due to an interpretation of a phenomenon in some orientation. In this way, asking every participating student to provide adjectives that described their feelings provided a way for Jane Elliot to conclude what emotions led to the superior group behaving how it behaved. It also provided a way to conclude what feelings led to the inferior group behaving how it behaved. In other words, the analysis of the adjectives provided enabled Jane Elliot to come up with a conclusion for her experiment.