Frontline (1983–…): Season 3, Episode 9 - A Class Divided - full transcript

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 little 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.

- This is a fact.

Blue-eyed people are better
than brown-eyed people.

It was a daring
experiment in prejudice.

- I watched wonderful,

thoughtful children turn
into nasty, vicious,

discriminating
little third graders.

Can one teacher

in one day change the lives
of her students forever?

Tonight,

A CLASS DIVIDED

- August 1984.

A high school reunion brings
some 50 former students



to Riceville, Iowa.

Eleven of them, some with
their spouses and children,

arrive early
for a special reunion

with their former third grade
teacher, Jane Elliott.

- Oh...

- And this is my husband.

This is my husband Tom.

- Tom... Brian?

- How are you?

- Oh, fine, I'm just...
Roy Wilson!

- I made it!

- You darling, oh, Roy!

- Haven't been here
in 14 years.

- I'm so glad to see you.

- How are you doing?
- Fine.

- Long time since
I've seen you.

- Yeah, it has been.

- Where are your little ones?

- They're at home with Mama.

- And this is your husband?

- Yeah, that's Greg.
Greg Rollins.

- Greg Rollins,
nice to meet you.

Fourteen
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.

- ♪ God bless America,
my home sweet home ♪

♪ God bless America,
my home sweet home. ♪

- This is a special week.

Does anybody know what it is?

- National Brotherhood Week.

- National Brotherhood Week.

What's brotherhood?

- Be kind to your brothers?

- Okay, be kind
to your brothers...

- like you would
like to be treated.

- Treat everyone the way
you would like to be treated.

Treat everyone
as though he was your...

- Brother...
- Brother.

And is there anyone
in this United States

that we do not treat
as our brothers?

- Yeah...
- Who?

- Black people.
- The black people.

Who else?
- Indians?

- 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 that... dumb people.

- Look at the dumb people.

What else do they
think sometimes?

What kind of things do they
say about black people?

- They call them Negroes,
niggers...

- In the city, many places
in the United States,

how are black people treated?

How are Indians treated?
How are people

who are of a different color
than we are treated?

- Like they're not
part of this world.

They don't get anything
in this world.

- Why is that?

- Because they're
a different color.

- Do you think you
know how it would feel

to be judged by the color
of your skin?

- Yeah...
- 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?

- Yeah!
- 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.

- And up here?

- I mean
the blue-eyed people are

the better people in this room.

- Huh-uh.

- Oh yes, they are...
blue-eyed people are smarter

than brown-eyed people.

- Huh-uh.

- My dad isn't that... stupid.

- Is your dad brown-eyed?
- Yeah.

- One day you came to school

and you told us
that he kicked you.

- He did.

- Do you think a blue-eyed
father would kick his son?

- My dad's blue-eyed,
he's never kicked me.

Ray's dad is blue-eyed,
he's never kicked him.

Rex's dad is blue-eyed,
he's never kicked him.

This is a fact.

Blue-eyed people are better
than brown-eyed people.

Are you brown-eyed or blue-eyed?
- Blue.

- Why are you
shaking your head?

- I don't know.

- Are you sure
that you're right?

Why? What makes you so sure
that you're right?

- I don't know.

- The blue-eyed people get
five extra minutes of recess,

while the brown-eyed
people have to stay in.

- Ooh.

- 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.

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...
one hundred twenty-seven.

Is everyone ready?

Everyone but Laurie.

Ready, Laurie?

- She's a brown-eye.

- She's
a brown-eye.

You'll begin to notice today
that we spend a great deal

of time waiting
for brown-eyed people.

The yardstick's gone,
well, okay.

I don't see the yardstick,
do you?

- It's probably over there.

- Hey, Mrs. Elliott,

you better keep that on your
desk so if the brown people,

the brown-eyed people
get out of hand...

- 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 eyes.

- 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.

- Why not the brown-eyes?

- Don't you know?
- They're not smart.

- Is that the only reason?

- afraid they'll
take too much.

- They might take too much.

Okay, quietly now...
not a sound.

- And it seemed like when we
were down on the bottom,

everything bad
was happening to us.

- The way they treated you,

you felt like you didn't even
want to try to do anything.

- It seemed like
Mrs. Elliott was taking

our best friends away from us.

- What happened at recess?

Were two of you boys fighting?

- Russell and John were.

- What happened, John?

- Russell called me names
and I hit him.

Hit him in the gut.

- What did he call you?

- Brown eyes.

- Did you call him brown eyes?

- They always call us that...
all the blue eyes call us that.

- They say:
"Come here, brown eyes"...

- They were calling us
blue eyes.

- I wasn't.

- Sandy and Donna were...
- Yeah.

- What's wrong with being
called brown eyes?

- It means that we're stupider
and... well, not that but...

- Oh, that's just the same way

as other people calling
black people niggers.

- Is that the reason
you hit him, John?

Did it help?

Did it stop him?

Did it make you
feel better inside?

Make you feel better inside?

Did it make you feel better
to call him brown eyes?

Why do you suppose you
called him brown eyes?

- Because he has brown eyes?

- Is that the only reason?

He didn't call him
brown eyes yesterday

and he had brown eyes yesterday.

Didn't he?
- We just started this...

- yeah, ever since you put
those blue things on.

- They kind of tease him.
- Oh, is this teasing?

- No... when he did it,
it was.

- Were you doing it for fun,
to be funny,

or were you doing it to be mean?

- Mean?

- I don't know, don't ask me.

Did anyone laugh at you...?

I watched
what had been marvelous,

cooperative, wonderful,

thoughtful children turn
into nasty,

vicious, discriminating,

little third graders
in a 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.

- Ooh boy, here we go again.

- The truth is that brown-eyed
people are better

than blue-eyed people.

- Russell,
where are your glasses?

- I forgot them.

- You forgot them.

And what color are your eyes?

Blue.

- Susan Ginder has brown eyes.

She didn't forget her glasses.

Russell Ring has blue eyes
and what about his glasses?

- He forgot them.
- He forgot them.

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?

- They're naughty... in fact,
they fight a lot...

- The brown-eyed people
may take off their collars.

And each of you may put your
collar on a blue-eyed person.

The brown-eyed people get
five extra minutes of recess.

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.

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 a chair?

Very sad. Very, very sad.

Who can tell me what contraction
should be in the first sentence?

Go to the board
and write it, John.

Come on, let's do it again,
loosen up.

Up, 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?
- Yes.

- Brown-eyed people learn fast,
don't they?

- Yeah.

- Boy, do brown-eyed people
learn fast.

Very good.

Greg, 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, want to be
timed this morning?

- Yeah.

- I use Orton Gillingham
phonics.

We use 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 through the card pack.

The second day it took them
two and a half minutes.

The only thing that had changed
was the fact that now

they were superior people.

- You went faster

than I ever had anyone go
through the card pack.

Why couldn't you
get them yesterday?

- We had those collars on.

- You think
the collars kept you...

- We kept thinking
about those collars.

- My eyes kept rolling around.

- Oh, and you couldn't think as
well with the collars on.

Four minutes and 18 seconds.

- I knew we weren't
going to make it.

- Neither did I.

- How long did it
take you yesterday?

- Three minutes.
- Three minutes.

How long did it take you today?

- Four minutes and 18 seconds.

- What happened?

- Went down.
- Why?

What were you thinking of?

- This.

- I hate today.

- You do?
I hate it too.

- Because I'm blue-eyed.

- See, I am too.

- 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?

- No.
- And it isn't.

It's a horrid day.

Okay, you ready?

What did you blue... people

who are wearing blue collars
now find out today?

- I know what they
felt like yesterday.

- I do too.
- How did they feel yesterday?

- Like a dog on a leash.

- Yeah... like you're chained
up in a prison

and they throw 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.

- By 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.

You'll say,
"No... Mrs. Elliott..."

- No...
- Every time

I ask that question.
- No, Mrs. Elliott.

- Then when you see a black man

or an Indian or someone walking
down the street,

are you going to say,

"Ha, ha, look
at that silly-looking thing"?

- No, Mrs. Elliott.

- Does it make any difference

whether their skin is black
or white?

- No.
- Or yellow?

Or red?
- No.

- Is that how you decide

whether people are good or bad?
- No.

- Is that what makes
people good or bad?

- No.
- Let's take these collars off.

- Here, Mrs. Elliott,
you can have it.

- What would you like
to do with them?

- Throw them away.

- Go ahead!

Now you know a little
bit more than you knew

at the beginning of this week.

- Yes... a lot...

- Do you know a little
bit more than you wanted to?

Yes, Mrs. Elliott.

- This isn't an easy way
to learn this, is it?

No, Mrs. Elliott.

Oh, will you stop that!

- Okay, now let's all
sit down here together,

blue eyes and brown eyes.

Does it make any difference
what color you are?

- No.
- Down, girl...

- Oh, you found your friend,
huh?

- Okay, ready to listen now?

Okay, now are you back?
- Yes!

- Does that feel better?
- Yes!

- Does the color of eyes that
you have make any difference

in the kind of person you are?

No, Mrs. Elliott.

- Does that feel
like being home again, girls?

Yes, Mrs. Elliott.

Oh, will you stop it?

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,

I... 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 talking 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 little 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'd
decorate it 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,

"O 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 it,

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 had 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 has 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.

- Okay, let's...
let's get in a circle.

- The reunion of her former
third graders was

Jane Elliott's first chance
to find out how much

of her lesson her
students had retained.

- All right, now, Raymond.

Why... I want to know
why you... were so eager

to discriminate
against the rest of these kids.

At the end of the day,
I thought,

"the miserable little Nazi."

- Really, I just... I couldn't
stand you.

- It felt tremendously evil.

You could... all
your inhibitions were gone.

And no matter if they
were my friends or not,

any pent-up hostilities
or aggressions

that these kids had ever
caused you,

you had a chance
to get it all out.

- Yeah, I felt
like I was... like a king,

like I ruled them brown-eyes,

like I was better than them,
happy.

- And you did it all day.
- Yeah.

- How did you feel when you
were the out-group?

- Boy, that day,
after we went home...

ooh,

you know, talk
about hating somebody.

- Yeah.
- It was there.

- You hated me.

- Yeah... of what you
were putting us through.

Nobody likes to be
looked down upon.

Nobody likes to be hated,
teased or discriminated against.

And it just boggles up inside of
you... you just get so mad.

- Were you just angry
or was there more than that?

- I felt demoralized,
humiliated.

- Is the learning
worth the agony?

- Yeah, it is.
- Yes.

- It made everything a lot
different than what it was.

We was... we was a lot better
family altogether,

even in our houses
we was probably,

because it... it
was hard on you;

when you have your
best friend one day

and then he's
your enemy the next,

it brings it out
real quick in you.

- Some of the remarks were
the kinds of things

I would have wished I could
have programmed into them,

if I had been able
to program them.

They are the things I would
have wanted them to say.

Some of the things were just
mind blowing.

- You know you hear these
people talking about, you know,

different people
and how they're, you know,

different and they'd like
to have me out of the country:

"I wish they'd go back
to Africa," you know an' stuff.

And sometimes I just wish I
had that collar in my pocket.

I could whip it out
and put it on and say,

"Wear this, and put you...
put yourself in their place."

I wish they would go what I, you
know, do what I went through.

- We was at a softball game

a couple weekends ago
and there was a black guy,

"Hi Verla," you know...

and we hugged each other
and everything,

and some people really
looked just like,

"What are you don’t with him?"
you know.

And you just get
this burning feeling...

sensation... in you that you
just want to let it out

and put them through what we
went through to find out;

they're not any different.

- I still find myself sometimes
when I see some people together

and I see how they
act... you know,

I think, "Well, that's black."

And then right
in the next second...

I won't even finish the thought,

I'm saying, "Well,
I've seen whites do it.

"I've seen other people do it.

It's not just the blacks."

It's...
everyone acts differently.

It's just a different
color is what hits you first.

And then later, as I said,

I don't even finish that thought
before I remember back

when I was like that and then
I remember not,

you know...
everyone acts the same way;

it's just your way
of thinking is the difference.

- Like when my grandparents
or somebody

and they start talking
about old times and they say,

"the Japs" and all
this an' that, and they start,

you know, holding
that against them.

I think, "How'd you like
to have been them?

"Japanese-Americans get
thrown into these camps

just because they happen
to be part Japanese."

You know, I... I just said,

"You, you calm down
and think about it,"

but when they get older
they're set in their ways

and they're not gonna change.

- When you get older?

- I'll be set in my ways

but they're different
than their ways.

- I was absolutely
enthralled.

Sandy Dohlman's statements
that "When my son comes home

"with the word 'nigger'
and the other things

"that he hears downtown,
I say to him, 'Listen,

"that isn't the way
we judge people.

"You don't judge people
by how they look.

"You judge them by what's
on their inside,

not their outside.'"

- I'm glad that she's teaching
them not to hate

because even though he does hear
this from the other people,

he... if he goes home
and he thinks,

"Well, Mom and Dad
like the black people;

I'm gonna like gem too,"

so I don't think he's gonna
pick nothing bad up out of it.

- You chose your husband well.

- He chose me.

- You chose her well.

- Little kids will take it...

you know, they'll listen to
a lot of other people too,

so they're gonna end up
kinda confused over it.

- But if she keeps
on telling him.

- Yeah.
- Is he going to be

the kind of person you kids are?

Or is he going to be the kind
who judge people by the...

- Well, he'll know right...
somewhat right from wrong.

- He'll know that.
- He'll know that he will....

- but he'll have the,
the ideas.

He won't be judging gem by their
color but he won't know

what we know fully, having
been through it.

- He won't learn
the collar thing.

- The prejudice from us.

- He won't... he won't learn
prejudice first-handed.

- Yeah.
- He won't learn

to be prejudiced from us,
I mean,

they won't learn to discriminate
between people from us.

They may... he might hear it
from others but never from us.

- Okay, what's it like to be
married to somebody like that?

- When I was
gonna marry Sheila,

I knew I... for my future that
I was going into the military.

At first I thought,
"Is she gonna be able

to handle being with all the
different nationalities?"

And then I read
"The Storm"... read the book.

- "A Class Divided."

- "A Class Divided"
before we got married

and before I joined the Army,

and I said, "Hey, she's not
gonna have any problems."

- Should every...
should every child

have the exercise
or should every teacher?

- Everybody.

- Everybody, not just...
- Everybody who has...

- I think every school ought
to implement something

like this program in their
early stages of education.

If Jane Elliott's
lesson in discrimination

changed the way
these young people feel

about discrimination and racism,

it also had a totally
unexpected result.

- The second year
I did this exercise

I gave little spelling tests,

math tests, reading tests two
weeks before the exercise,

each day of the exercise
and two weeks later and,

almost without exception,

the students' scores go up on
the day they're on the top,

down on the day they're
on the bottom and then

maintain a higher level
for the rest of the year

after they've been
through the exercise.

We sent some of those
tests to Stanford University

to the Psychology
Department and they did

sort of an informal
review of them,

and they said that what's
happening here is kids'

academic ability is being
changed in a 24-hour period.

And that isn't possible
but it's happening.

Something very strange is
happening to these children

because suddenly they're
finding out

how really great they are
and they are responding

to what they know now
they are able to do.

And it has happened consistently
with third graders.

The film made
of Jane Elliott's third graders

in 1970 has been widely
used with students

and teachers...
and by government,

business, and labor
organizations

concerned about human relations.

Perhaps the most unusual
use of it is here,

at Green Haven
Correctional Facility,

a maximum security prison
in Stormville, New York.

Here,
in a sociology course taught

by Professor Duane W. Smith
of Duchess Community College,

his almost exclusively
black and Hispanic classes

have been seeing the film
for more than ten years.

- What I'd like to do
is introduce the subject

of prejudice and discrimination

through this film called
"The Eye of the Storm."

- Blue-eyed people are
smarter than brown-eyed people.

- Huh-uh.

- They are cleaner than
brown-eyed people.

- Huh-uh.

- They are more civilized
than brown-eyed people.

Sandra
and her brown-eyed friends

didn't like that day,
but Raymond did.

- I felt like I was a king,
like I ruled them...

- Do you think the children,

by this process, really learned
the meaning of discrimination?

- Most of the children,
before the film started,

they had played and lived
together in harmony

and a certain action coming from
the teacher and seeing

the teacher as an authoritarian
figure and someone to respect,

they accepted the views that
was being given to them.

But I think that at the end
of the lesson they could

clearly see that prejudices and
other forms of discrimination

are things that people
build within their minds.

They are not actual
physical barriers that say,

"You, you can't
cross the street."

- The one kid I could really
agree with was, at recess,

he was a brown-eyed kid.

He had this inner turmoil
against this feeling of being

divided or prejudiced against

where he would hit another kid
that he's known

for so many years in the gut.

Whether... he also stated that
it didn't help any,

so that automatically
should be a lesson

to every adult in the world.

Violence doesn't help any,
and, you know,

this is a film that I hope
my children get to see.

Unlike New York,
Iowa is 98% white Anglo-Saxon;

yet even here, minority groups

account for more than 20%
of the prison population.

To make sure its prison system
employees are sensitive

to the concerns of this large
minority,

the Iowa Department
of Corrections last fall

hired Jane Elliott to give
her lesson to some of them.

The group, which included prison
guards and parole officers,

was told only that it would be
attending a day-long workshop.

David Stokesbery.

- Most of our
training you go to,

people give you information
and you learn that way.

- Blue-eyed?

- When I first came

with the sign-up and such
and got put in the group,

I didn't know... when I started

seeing the signs
around, you know,

"brown-eyes only" and such,

I figured they were the better
group because they had a lot

of spaces available and there
were none for the blue-eyes.

So when I got put
in the blue-eyes group

and put the collar on,

I knew then that
I was going to be

in the deprived group,
I guess.

- Okay, now you can
stay in this area...

- The workshop was
supposed to begin at 9:00.

They took the brown-eyes
in about 9:00

and left us standing
in the hall.

I literally stood because there
weren't enough chairs and I

didn't know whether I wanted
to fight to take a chair down,

I didn't know if somebody
would come and take

the chair away from me if I did.

While David
Stokesbery and the other

blue-eyed people waited,

inside the meeting room,
Jane Elliott prepared

the brown-eyed people for
what was going to happen.

- Now this is not
something I can do alone.

This exercise won't work
without your cooperation.

Blue-eyed people aren't
allowed to smoke,

blue-eyed people aren't allowed
to sit in these empty chairs.

Do not let a blue-eyed
person sit next to you.

You know you can't trust them

and besides which
they don't smell good.

Everybody knows that
about blue-eyed people.

You don't know what you can
catch from a blue-eyed person.

- By 9:20, I felt
some antagonism.

I'm stuck out here for 20
minutes standing, waiting.

- I still say we ought to
see what kind of a reaction

we'd get by everyone
just simply going in.

Anyone who wants to do it?

- Nobody seems to have courage
in their conviction.

They do a lot of talking
but nobody takes any action.

- Maybe we should oppose it
by all singing a song or doing

something really loud,
you know.

- "We shall overcome"?

- Yeah. All right.

- I need to have
you keep it down.

I don't know how many times I
need to give that instruction,

but you need to keep it
down so you don't bother

the people in the,
in the workshop.

- I was pretty
well ticked off

by the time we got taken
in there.

- purses and overcoats
in the corner.

I need to have you put your
purse and your coat

in the corner.

- It would be to your
advantage in the future, people,

if you'd get
to meetings on time.

It would also be
to your advantage

if you'd put your gum away.

- I'll leave.

- Put your gum away.
- I'll leave.

- Do you want
to get paid for today?

- Uh-huh.

- Well, then stay,
but put your gum away.

- I don't have a purse,

so I don't have any
place to put my gum.

- I'm sure that you
are inventive enough

to find a place for the gum.

Now I'd like for you to
notice where she put her gum.

You have this problem
with blue-eyed people.

You give them something decent,
and they just wreck it.

You'll also notice that
blue-eyed people spend

a lot of time playing
"Look at me,

"see how cute I am,
I can be funny.

"I can make a joke of this.

This is amusing,
I'm amused by this."

Another thing that is obvious
about blue-eyed people

is that they are poor listeners.

The first thing you have to
do when you get... when

you are teaching in a
segregated situation,

when you're working in
a segregated situation,

is teach the listening skills.

The listening skills are:

number one, good listeners have
quiet hands, feet and mouths.

Everyone needs to write these
down.

I'd like for you to

look at the man in the back,
in the black jacket.

The game we're playing is,
playing it cool.

This is a favorite
blue-eyed game, playing it cool.

"Nobody can bother me, man.

"I can handle this.
I don't have to do this.

I'm gonna ignore
this whole thing."

Number two, good listeners keep
their eyes on the person who

is speaking.

I take it
you don't have a pencil?

- No.
- Nor you?

- No.
- Perhaps you could borrow one

from one of your neighbors.

Sir, I realize that you feel

that you don't need
to write it down,

but whether or not
you write it down,

perhaps you could remember it.
- I'll borrow a pen.

- Good listeners
have quiet hands,

feet and mouths.

Do you know what that means?

- I'm not sure.

- I believe that.

Do you want me to
explain it to you?

- No, that's okay.
I'll get a pencil

and write this down directly.

- Look, blue-eyed people,
all... many of you have pencils.

Will one of you please
lend him a pencil?

Or don't you trust him?

Which I can understand.

From the last ten minutes,

what have you observed
about blue-eyed people?

- Blue-eyed people
are very stubborn,

very self-centered,

and wish to control as much of
their surrounding as possible,

people-wise I mean.

Very inconsiderate people.

I don't even know why you have
them here in the first place.

- We have them here
because we are required

to have them here.

- We, we have to, huh?

- This is one of the things
you have to put up with.

- Oh.
- Number three,

good listeners listen from
the beginning to the very end.

Okay, good listeners decide
to learn something.

And this is the thing
you'll have

the most difficulty with
with blue-eyed people.

They decide not to
learn something.

Some of you have had
trouble with blue-eyed people

in your home environment.

Some of you have had trouble

with blue-eyed people
in your workplace.

Does anybody have
an example of that

that they'd like to talk about?

Anyone?

- Yeah. I have two nephews,
and one is blue-eyed,

and one's brown-eyed.

And the blue-eyed one, like,

he never cleans his room,
and he's real lazy.

And the brown, you know...
and he doesn't seem to

have a lot of energy,
the blue-eyed one.

But the brown-eyed one,
he's real outgoing,

and he plays in sports
and he's pretty good at it.

And, he just seems
like a better kid.

So if I have kids,
I hope they have brown eyes.

- You, are you married?
- No.

- Then it's a good thing you
don't have kids, isn't it?

- Right.

- Then you will
know what to do when,

when you choose a mate.
- Right.

- Would you like to read that
first listening skill to me?

- I haven't got
it on my paper yet.

- Oh, why is that?

- I haven't borrowed the
pencil to write it down as yet.

- And you think
it's unnecessary?

- Well, at this
particular point, yes, I do.

- Why?

- Well... I, I have it in
my head for the most part.

- There's a lot of space up
there for it,

isn't there, friend?

Do you suppose you could
tell me what it is?

- It has something
to do with keeping

your hands and feet still,
as I recall.

- Has something to do
with that.

I find it interesting
that you're amused

by our having to stand here
and wait for this man to do

something that everybody
else has already done.

I find that highly interesting.

Stupid, but interesting.

If, if you are in a situation
where someone is constantly,

constantly refusing
to do what the people

in authority ask them to do,
what do you know about them?

What do you know
about that person?

- Well, I think it's a
game with them.

Attention.

- Has it gained anything
for this gentleman?

- Disrespect from, I think,
the brown-eyed people.

- Has it proven anything
to brown-eyed people?

- Yes. It, this is a typical
trait of a blue-eyed person.

- Now read the second one.

- I don't have the second one.
Can I read it off hers?

- You don't have the
second one, either?

- No.

- You have, you were
keeping it in your head.

What happened to that plan?

- Just the, just the first one

I had in my head,
not the second one.

- Oh, the other three
aren't important?

- Well, they're
probably important.

- But not important enough
for you to write down, right?

- Well, they're important.

I should've written them down,
most probably.

- Most probably?

Does anybody back there know?

You don't have it
written down either?

I want you to take a look at
these two so-called gentlemen.

Now, we need to hear the good
listening skills from you.

I don't want you to think
that I'm badgering you boys.

But on the other hand...
- I don't think that.

- On the other hand,
you're here to learn something.

And if you learn
nothing else today,

it would be nice if you would
learn the listening skills.

What do you know now
about brown-eyed people

that you didn't know before...
about blue-eyed people

that you didn't know before
you came in here?

- I'm finding I'm gonna have to

explain things a bit more
explicitly to a blue-eyed person

than I would to
a brown-eyed person.

- How many times
did I have to repeat

the listening skills for Roger?

- Well, brother Roger is having
a rough time today, isn't he?

It was about six or
seven different times.

- You think that's amusing,
Roger?

- Apparently somewhat amusing.

As part of the lesson,

the Corrections Department
employees took a written test.

- All right, I need these
names and the scores.

- I have K.R., eleven.

- I'm sorry I can't hear you.

- K.R., just initials,
eleven.

- K.R., just an initial?

No last name?
- No names.

- How many?
- Eleven.

- And Churdin, or Charles,
I'm not sure.

- Thank you, sir.

- Tell me the name again.
- Uh... Churdin?

- You can't read the name?
- No, I can't.

- It's probably mine.

- What's your name?

- My name is Chambers.

- First name?
- Jeanine.

- And what was her score?

- Six.
- Next?

- E. Riley, with a five.

- E?
- E. Riley?

- Will E. Riley please stand?

- It's mine.

- You know, it's... what you
do to the image of blues

with your behavior
is unfortunate.

What you three people do
to the image of women,

with your behavior,
really makes me angry.

The fact that you do
this kind of thing

and this kind of sloppy work
reflects badly on women.

I resent that doubly.

Yes?

- Ma'am, I'd really appreciate
it if you'd call us by name.

When you say "you three people,"

we don't know who
you're speaking to.

It could be anyone here.

- My dear, if you wanted
me to call you by name,

you'd have put your
name on your paper.

- It's on my coat.
- It was to be on your paper.

- You didn't see my papers,
ma'am.

- I didn't get
your name either,

because it wasn't on your paper.

- That's right.
- All right.

Now how could one call you
by your name if you don't

care enough about your name
to put it on your paper?

Don't expect me to...
- You don't know how to read?

- Don't expect me
to worry about it

if you don't put it on your
paper.

Don't sit here and say
"My name is important to me"

after you have just deliberately
not put it on your paper.

- I don't remember saying
my name was important to me.

I remember saying, "I'd like to
know who you're speaking to,"

when you say "you three."
- Then what should you do?

- Ask you to use my name,
which I did.

- And where should
your name have been?

- Right where it is...
- On your paper?

- and on my
birth certificate.

- Is it on your paper?
- No, ma'am.

- Where'd you get
a birth certificate?

- Same place you got yours.

- Out of a slot machine,
same as you did, lady.

- I think you're probably
right about your own.

- At least I know who
my parents are, ma'am.

- Is she being rude?
- Yes.

- Is she being inconsiderate?
- Very.

- Is she being uncooperative?
- Very.

- Is she being insultive?
- Yes.

- Are all those the things

that we've accused blue-eyed
people of being?

- Yes.

- Is she proving
that we're right?

- Yes.

- Does anyone have any
comments to make at this point?

- Do you feel that there are
important blue-eyed people?

- There are exceptions
to every rule.

- And what are
those exceptions?

- There are a few
important blue-eyed people.

- Very few.

- You said that.

- Do you think that
you are one of them?

- No.
- That's good.

- Then why are
you up there then?

- I'm blue-eyed.

The difference
between you and me is,

I have a brown-eyed husband
and brown-eyed offspring,

and I've learned how to behave
in a brown-eyed society.

And when you can
act brown enough,

then you, too,
can be where I am.

- I wouldn't want
to be where you are.

- Are you certain?

- Absolutely positive.

- You like where you are?

- I love where I am.

- You like it so much
that you don't even

identify yourself on your paper.

- I don't need to, lady.

- Her using the term
"lady" where I'm concerned,

what do you think
she's trying to do?

Is it ignorance, or is it
deliberately insulting?

- I would say it was
deliberately insulting.

- If it's ignorance,

she needs to be taught
that to many of us,

the word "lady" is a pejorative.

I don't appreciate it.

It is, it's a put-down.

And it's used to keep
women in their place.

- I promise in the future to
call you by the correct name.

- I'm sorry.
- I will call you

by the correct name after this.
I won't be kind.

- That was kindness
on your part?

- Yes, I think to call
someone a lady is a kindness.

- Then your problem
is ignorance.

- You can call me "lady"
any time you like.

- I wouldn't do that to you.
- No, I know you wouldn't.

- I really wouldn't.

I, I think that, and that's
part of the problem.

Is a total lack of awareness

at what sexism amounts to
and how much you contribute

to the sexism that keeps
you where you are.

- I like where I am,
lady.

I did it again, didn't I.

- Yes.

- I'm getting kind
of fed up with this

whole bunch of garbage.
- Why?

- Brown-eyed peoples
are no different than we are.

I hate to tell them that.

They have these false
delusions and such.

- Are they being disruptive?

- No, you trained
them very well.

I think that's what
they did with the storm troopers

in Germany, also.

You guys do a real good
job sitting up there.

- You think that what's
happening here today

feels like it would have felt

to be in Nazi Germany?
- Yes.

- Where, where do you
think you are in that then?

- Where do I think I am?
- Who are you?

If you're in Nazi Germany,
who are you?

- Ah, the Jews?

After a break for
lunch, Jane Elliott helped

the Corrections Department
employees

analyze what had happened.

- Did you learn
anything this morning?

- I think I learned from
the experience a feeling

like I was in a glass
cage and I was powerless,

there was a sense
of hopelessness...

I was angry, I wanted to
speak up and yet I...

at times I knew if I spoke up,

I'd be back in a powerless
situation, I'd be attacked.

A sense of hopelessness.

Oppression.

- Had you experienced
that before?

- I realized this morning
that there were very few times

in my life that I've ever
been discriminated against.

Very few.

- And you were this
uncomfortable

in an hour and a half?

- I was amazed at
how uncomfortable

I was in the first 15 minutes.

- Can you empathize at
all then with blacks,

minority group members
in this country?

- I'm hoping
better than before.

- If we tried to argue with
you, you would use

just the mere argument as reason
for us being lesser than

the brown-eyed folks,
you know, you couldn't win.

- Yeah, but don't
we do that every day?

- I think some do, yeah,

but I would hope that I
never get so unreasonable.

I... you know, the
statements you were making

were groundless and such,

and yet we couldn't
argue with them because

if we argued then we were
argumentative and you know,

not listening and getting out of
our place and all that stuff.

And that was frustrating to me.

And then frustrating to
me was the other...

the little green tags who were
sitting on their hands.

My group here was...
I didn't think boisterous enough

in our opposition
to the whole thing.

- Why didn't you people
support one another?

Why didn't the blue-eyed
people... the blue-eyed people

on this side just sat there.

And let's face it,
you covered your asses.

Right?

Why did you just sit there?

- I think that's symptomatic
of the problem as a whole.

We see that, you know,
in society in general.

We see a few people who are
making a lot of noise

and the rest of the people
sitting back waiting

to see what they're going to do.

- Okay, as long as I was
picking on him,

I was leaving you alone, right?
- Right.

- I'd say a lot of
people accept that.

They let... have a few people
do their fighting for them

and they stand back and if
this person's going to win,

then they'll get on this side.

But if that person's
not going to win,

they'll stay back over here,
you know.

That's just how it works.

- If you were in
a real situation

where you had to do
something about racism,

would you stand up
and be counted?

- What I would do I don't know.

It would depend on...
- But you would do something.

- I would have to do something.

I couldn't go home tonight
and face my kids if I didn't.

- How did you brown-eyed people
feel while this was going on?

- A sense of relief that I
wasn't a blue-eyed person.

- Sense of relief that you
had the right color eyes.

- Right.
- Absolutely.

- I really understood,
at least I felt

that I understood what it was
like to be in the minority.

- Why were you angry?

- First of all, because
it was unreasonable.

Secondly, because I felt
discriminated against.

Thirdly, I think that all of us,

everyone in this
room has dealt

with discrimination
on both sides.

You don't have to be black
or Jewish or Mexican

or anything else to have felt
discrimination in your life,

and as you become an adult
you learn to deal

with those feelings
within yourself

and you learn to handle those.

And when you feel yourself

in a situation that you
can't get out of,

which we couldn't... we were
a captive audience and it was

not a normal situation because
normally you aren't badgered.

- What if you had to spend
the rest of your life this way?

- I don't know
how to answer that.

- You don't wake
up every morning

knowing that you're different.

You wake up as a white woman
who is going to her job

at 8:00 or whatever.

Where a black person is going to
wake up knowing from the minute

they get up out of the bed
and look in the mirror,

they're black
and they have to deal

with the problems
they've had to deal with

ever since they
were young and realize that

I am different and I have to
deal with life differently.

Things are different for me.

And I don't think you can
really say that you have felt...

maybe you have felt
some sort of discrimination,

but you haven't felt
what it is like

for a black woman to go through
the daily experiences

of arguing
and saying, "Listen to me,

my point of view is good,"
you know,

"what I have to
offer here is good."

And no one wants to listen
because white is right,

that's the way things are.

- I think the necessity
for this exercise is a crime.

No, I don't want to
see it used more widely,

I want to see it... the
necessity for it wiped out.

And I think if educators were
determined that we could be

very instrumental in wiping out
the necessity for this exercise.

But I want to see
something used.

I'd like to see this exercise
used with all teachers.

All administrators.

But certainly not with
all students unless,

unless it's done by
people who are doing it

for the right reasons
and in the right way.

I think you could damage a
child with this exercise

very, very easily,
and I would never suggest

that everybody should use it.

I think you could have training
classes for teachers,

bring them in,
put them through the thing,

explain what happened,
do the de-briefing

and then practice doing
this until teachers...

until a group of teachers
were able to do it on their own.

And I... teachers are
not disabled learners.

They could learn
to do this obviously.

If I can do it,
most anyone can do it.

It doesn't take a super
teacher to do this exercise.

What began in a
third-grade classroom has spread

from students to teachers
to corrections officers.

At the center is still
a single teacher

determined to
inoculate her students,

both young and old,
against the virus of bigotry.

- After you do this exercise,
when the de-briefing starts,

when the pain is over and you're
all back together

and you're all one again, you
find out how society could be

if we really believed all
this stuff that we preach.

If we really acted that way,

you could feel as good about one
another as those kids feel

about one another
after this exercise is over.

You create instant cousins.

I thought maybe that
lasted just while they were

in my classroom because
of my superior influence,

but indeed, these kids still
feel that way about one another.

They said yesterday... over
and over the remark was made,

"We're kind of
like a family now."

They found out how to hurt
one another and they found out

how it feels to be hurt
in that way

and they refuse to hurt
one another that way again.

And they said, "We're
kind of like a family now,"

and indeed, we were.