The Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Lesson

The day after Martin Luther King was murdered, teacher Jane Elliott walked into her

classroom. She told the students: Blue-eyed people are better, smarter,

and superior to brown-eyed people. Within minutes — the blue-eyed students began to insult,

ignore, and humiliate the brown-eyed students. The brown-eyed students became quiet,

hurt, and even made more mistakes in their studies. The next day — the

teacher switched the rules. And unbelievably, the behavior flipped. Now the brown-eyed

students, even though they had suffered the day before, insulted and humiliated

the blue-eyed students. The conclusion: The experiment showed a painful truth: Racism is not born