The new institutionalized racism

A well-known sociological experiments concerning racism was conducted by a Grade 3 teacher, Jane Elliott, in Iowa in the late 1960s. To demonstrate the negative effects of prejudice, Elliott divided her class according to eye colour. Those with blue eyes were given special privileges and praise while those with brown eyes were treated as inferiors. As may be expected, the children internalized the message their teacher was sending. The blue-eyed group came to see themselves as entitled to their privileges and spoke harshly of their brown-eyed classmates. The brown-eyed kids lost their passion and drive. Elliott’s experiment is criticized today. It would never pass a university research ethics review. How ironic it is, then, that universities are conducting a similar experiment — day in, and day out — as professors proselytize their students in the doctrine of white privilege. -- More...