About this video

• Video Title: A Class Divided
• Channel: N'Zinga S. Shani
• Speakers: Jane Elliott (implied narrator and teacher), various students (adults and children)
• Duration: 00:53:01

Overview

This documentary explores Jane Elliott's groundbreaking classroom experiment in discrimination. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Elliott, a third-grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, implemented an exercise that divided her students based on eye color. This film documents the initial experiment, its lasting impact, and a reunion of Elliott's former students decades later, reflecting on the profound lessons learned about prejudice and racism.

Key takeaways

• Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise was a powerful, experiential method to teach children about prejudice and discrimination by temporarily assigning social hierarchy based on arbitrary physical traits.
• The exercise had a significant impact on the students, demonstrating how quickly societal biases can be internalized and how detrimental discrimination is to both the discriminator and the discriminated.
• Decades later, former students recall the profound and often painful lessons learned, highlighting the lasting effect of the experience on their understanding of racism and empathy.
• The film also shows the exercise being used with adults in various settings, including a correctional facility, to confront issues of prejudice and discrimination in a more mature context.
• Elliott's motivation stemmed from a desire to provide a concrete, visceral understanding of racism for her young students, especially after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

[00:00:00] 27 years ago when civil rights leader Martin Luther King jr. was assassinated grief and frustration erupted in America's cities and far away in Iowa one third-grade teacher knew she had to do something the shooting of Martin Luther King could not just be talked about and explained away there was no way to explain this to low third graders in Riceville Iowa I knew that it was time to deal with this in a concrete way not just talk about it because we had talked about racism since the first day of school it was a daring experiment in prejudice I watched wonderful thoughtful children turn into can one teacher in one day change the lives of her students forever tonight a class divided autist 1984 a high school reunion brings some 50 former students to Riceville Iowa 11 of them some with her spouses and children arrive early for a special reunion with their former third-grade teacher Jane Elliott

[00:01:59] 14 years earlier when they were students in her third-grade classroom ABC News filmed a two-day exercise for a documentary the eye of the storm now at their request they will see that film again and relive the experience of her unique lesson in discrimination

[00:02:38] This is a special week does anybody know what it is National Brotherhood week what's Brotherhood be kind to your brothers treat everyone the way you would like to be treated treat everyone as though he was your brother and is there anyone in this United States that we do not treat as our brothers yes black people who else in absolutely the Indians and when you see when many people see a black person or a yellow person or a red person what do they think look at the dumb people what else do they think sometimes what kinds of things do they say about black people in a city many places in the United States how are black people treated how are Indian Street is how are people who are of a different color than we are they don't get anything in this world why is that because they're different color you think you know how I would feel to be judged by the color of your skin I don't do you think you do no I don't think you'd know how that felt unless you had been through it would you it might be interesting to judge people today by the color of their eyes would you like to try this sounds like fun doesn't it since I'm the teacher and I have blue eyes I think maybe the blue-eyed people should be on top the first day I mean the blue-eyed people are the better people in this room oh oh yes they are mm-hmm why people are smarter than brown eyed people yeah one day you came to school and you told us that he kicked you he dude do you think a blue-eyed father would kick his son brings dad is blue-eyed he's never kicked him but Rex is dead blue-eyed he's never kicked him this is a this is a fact blue-eyed people are better than brown eyed people are you brown eyed or blood whoa why are you shaking your head are you sure that you're right quad what makes you so sure that you're right the blue-eyed people get 5 extra minutes of recess while the brown-eyed people have to stay in hmm the brown-eyed people do not get to use the drinking fountain you'll have to use the paper cups you brown-eyed people are not to play with the blue-eyed people on the playground because you are not as good as blue-eyed people well the brown-eyed people in this room today are going to wear collars so that we can tell from a distance what color your eyes are on page 127 127 everyone ready everyone but Laurie is ready Laurie she's a brown-eyed you'll begin to notice today that we spend a great deal of time waiting for brown-eyed people the yard sticks gone well okay I don't see the yardstick to you oh you think if the brown-eyed people get out of hand that would be the thing to use who goes first to lunch the blue-eyed people no brown-eyed people go back for seconds blue-eyed people may go back for seconds brown-eyed people do not run don't you know that deal reason might take too much

[00:07:14] and it seems like when we were down on the bottom everything's bad this happening to us the way they treated you you felt like you didn't even want to try to do anything seem like mrs. Ellie it was taking our best friends away from us

[00:07:42] what happened at recess for two of you boys fighting

[00:07:47] John what happened John Russell call me names and I hit him in the gut yeah

[00:08:21] what's wrong with being called Brian

[00:08:24] it means that we're stupid about that Oh

[00:08:30] same way as other people call black people [__] is that the reason you're here John

[00:08:37] did it help did it stop him they make you feel better inside mmm make you feel better inside it make you feel better to call him brown eyes why do you suppose you call him brown eyes

[00:08:59] Freddy 15

[00:09:01] Seth the only reason he didn't call him brown eyes yesterday he had brown eyes yesterday didn't we get some pinkies always this teasing no well he didn't

[00:09:17] what were you doing it for fun to be funny or are you doing it to be mean

[00:09:27] I don't know don't ask me did anyone laugh

[00:09:30] I watched what had been marvelous cooperative wonderful thoughtful children turn into nasty vicious discriminating little third graders in space of 15 minutes yesterday I told you that brown-eyed people aren't as good as blue-eyed people that wasn't true I lied to you yesterday the truth is that brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people Russell where are your glasses

[00:10:11] I forgot them

[00:10:12] you forgot them and what color are your eyes

[00:10:19] Susan ginder has brown eyes she didn't forget her glasses

[00:10:24] Russell ring has blue eyes and what about his glasses he forgot them

[00:10:33] yesterday we were visiting and Greg said boy I like to hit my little sister as hard as I can that's fun what does that tell you about blue-eyed people the brown-eyed people may take off their collars and each of you may put your collar on a blue-eyed person

[00:11:00] the brown-eyed people get five extra minutes of recess

[00:11:05] you blue-eyed people are not allowed to be on the playground equipment at any time you blue-eyed people are not to play with the brown-eyed people

[00:11:17] brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people they are smarter than blue-eyed people and if you don't believe it look at Brian do blue-eyed people know how to sit in chair very sad very very sad who can tell me what contraction should be in the first sentence both the board and right it

[00:11:40] John come on let's do the end loosen up up come on that's better now do you know how to make a W okay write the contraction for we are now that's beautiful writing is that better yeah brown-eyed people learn fast don't they boy I do brown-eyed people learn fast very good

[00:12:15] Gregg what did you do with that cup will you please go and get that cup and put your name on it and keep it at your desk blue eyed people are wasteful okay you might be time this morning hey I use orton-gillingham phonics we used the card pack and the children the brown-eyed children were in the low class the first day and it took them five and a half minutes to get to the card pack the second day it took them two and a half notice the only thing that had changed was the fact that now they were superior people couldn't you get them yesterday oh and you couldn't think as well with the collars on four minutes and 18 seconds I know how long did it take you yesterday three minutes how long did take you me

[00:13:35] what happened Linda why are you thinking of this I hate today because I'm good why there's nothing it's not funny it's not fun it's not pleasant this is a filthy nasty word called discrimination we're treating people a certain way because they are different from the rest of us is that fair no nothing fair about it we didn't say this was going to be a fair day did we and it isn't it's a horrid day already

[00:14:23] what did you do people who are wearing new colors now find out today prison make your channel not up in the prison you're throwing the key away should the color of some other person's eyes have anything to do with how you treat them no all right then should the color of their skin no should you judge people no no I the color of their skin no you're going to say that today and this week and probably all the time you're in this room he'll say no mrs. Ali

[00:15:16] every time I ask that question no then when you see a black man or an Indian or someone walking down the street are you gonna say does it make any difference whether their skin is black or white or red is that how you decide whether people are good or bad what makes people good or bad let's take these collars off

[00:15:54] what would you like to do with them now

[00:16:10] you know a little bit more than you knew at the beginning of this way

[00:16:13] do you know a little bit more than you wanted to yeah this isn't an easy way to learn this is it okay now let's all sit down here together blue eyes and brown eyes okay now we're back that you have make any difference in the kind of person you are does that feel like being home again girls

[00:17:17] this was the third time Jane Elliott had taught her lesson in discrimination the first two years earlier was in April of 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King was killed by one of my students came into the room and said they shot a king last night mrs. Elliott why'd they shoot that King I knew the night before that it was time to deal with this in a concrete way not just talk about it because we had talked about racism since the first day of school but the shooting of Martin Luther King who had been one of our heroes of the month in February could not just be talked about and explained away there was no way to explain this to low third graders in Riceville Iowa as I listened to the white male commentators on TV the night before I was hearing things like who's going to hold your people together as they interviewed black leaders what are they going to do who's going to control your people as though this was these people were subhuman and someone was going to have to step in there and control them they said things like when we lost our leader his widow helped to hold us together who's going to hold them together and the attitude was so arrogant and so condescending and so ungodly that I thought if white male adults react this way what are my third graders going to do how are they going to react to this thing I was ironing the teepee we studied an Indian unit we made a teepee every year the first year the students would make the teepee out of pieces of sheet we'd sew it together and the next year we decorated with Indian symbols I was ironing the previous year's teepee getting it ready to be decorated the next day and I thought of what we had done with the Indians we haven't made much progress in these 200-300 years and I thought this is the time now to teach them really what the Sioux Indian prayer that says oh great spirit keep me from ever judging a man until I have walked in his moccasins really means and for the next day I knew that my children were going to walk in someone else's moccasins for a day like it or lump but they were going to have to walk in someone else's moccasins I decided at that point that it was time to try the eye color thing which I had thought about many many times but never used so the next day I introduced an eye color exercise in my classroom and split the class according to eye color and immediately created a microcosm of society in a third grade classroom Riceville hasn't changed much in the 17 years since then it's still a small farming community surrounded by corn fields its population is still under a thousand and it's still all white and all Christian and though Jane Elliott has continued to teach her lesson in discrimination there's been little outward local reaction no objections from school authorities or the parents of the 300 odd students who have by now been through it the reunion of her former third graders was Jane Elliot's first chance to find out how much of her lessons her students had retained