Thought I'd start a new thread with this quote, as we seem to be off on a tangent anyway.Tracey said:Does anyone recall the 'experiment' seperating the brown eyed dark haired people from Blue eyed, blonde haired people?
I wonder in the future if there will still be Blonde haired, blue eyed persons???
With all the mixture of marriages & children nowadays, I think in many years to come, there will be so few blond haired, blue eyed persons... :?:
It was just a thought.... :idea:
Jane Elliot'ts original experiment in 1968 was quite radical for its time. It was interesting to note that after segregating the children into the blue eyed/brown eyed groups and announcing to the brown eyed group that they were now superior to the blue eyes, the brown eyed children very quickly began treating the blue-eyed children with contempt. As Ms Elliott quoted, "They already knew how to be racist because every one of them knew without my telling them how to treat those who were on the bottom."
Ms Elliott suggests that racism is learned behaviour and that what can be learned, can be unlearned. We can only hope!
:idea: Maybe the experiment could be implemented in every workplace for a week, so that those who've not experienced racism and prejudice learn firsthand how it feels. It may change their attitudes. :shock: :roll:
An editorial detailing Jane Elliott's experiment can be found here:
http://www.horizonmag.com/4/jane-elliott.asp
and more here:
http://www.magenta.nl/EyetoEye/contraste.html