00:00:14
[Music]
00:00:32
this is Sandra's and Raymond's
00:00:35
school this is Sandra at her
00:00:39
desk this is Raymond at his
00:00:42
desk Sandra has brown
00:00:46
eyes Raymond has blue
00:00:49
eyes this is what their teacher said
00:00:52
blueeyed people are smarter than
00:00:54
brown-eyed
00:00:56
people they are cleaner than brown-eyed
00:00:59
people
00:01:00
they are more civilized than brown-eyed
00:01:03
people Sandra and her brown-eyed friends
00:01:06
didn't like that day but Raymond did I
00:01:09
felt like I was a king like I Ruled them
00:01:14
brown eyes like I was better than them
00:01:20
[Music]
00:01:28
happy
00:01:30
now the American Adventure the people
00:01:34
and events shaping our lives and our
00:01:36
times
00:01:38
[Music]
00:01:41
now this week the eye of the storm an
00:01:45
experiment in teaching the anatomy of
00:01:47
prejudice with ABC News correspondent
00:01:50
bill
00:01:58
butell
00:02:00
rville Iowa with a population of a
00:02:03
little less than a thousand people sees
00:02:05
the turmoil and hears the angry voices
00:02:07
of the times only in television it has
00:02:10
no ghetto it has no campus no riots no
00:02:13
demonstrations no Negroes its people are
00:02:16
all white and all Christian it's a
00:02:19
relatively poor town surrounded by large
00:02:21
cornfields and it's so far removed from
00:02:23
the anguish of the cities that it was
00:02:25
often hard for the people here to
00:02:27
understand the forces that are dividing
00:02:29
the United States today until a teacher
00:02:31
at the Town School deliberately provoked
00:02:33
an incident of discrimination based on
00:02:35
color it happened at the community
00:02:37
Elementary School in rville the town's
00:02:39
finest building here nearly 600 Farm
00:02:42
children are educated by 55 teachers and
00:02:45
one of them Mrs Jane Elliot is
00:02:47
determined that along with reading and
00:02:48
writing in the new math her third grade
00:02:51
students will also learn about the
00:02:52
prejudice and discrimination that are
00:02:54
Facts of Life in this
00:02:58
country Goan K
00:03:03
Dam so keep your
00:03:06
high keep your
00:03:09
high keep your high apple pie in
00:03:14
the a problems just ay balloon they'll
00:03:17
be
00:03:22
soon problem Cur there goes another
00:03:26
problem C there go problem Cur
00:03:30
[Applause]
00:03:31
you almost didn't say it at the right
00:03:33
time didn't you okay I'd like to you
00:03:34
roll this right on Monday we had
00:03:36
business as usual we did a regular
00:03:39
school day 18 okay now what
00:03:42
multiplication fact that give
00:03:45
you 6 * 3
00:03:48
right okay how many
00:03:51
sets six six sets of three three okay
00:03:56
what are six sets of three tell me
00:04:00
again 18 right okay now let's put that
00:04:03
down here I'm sorry that the rest of you
00:04:05
have to wait but we wait for you so you
00:04:07
can wait for
00:04:09
him I think part of education is having
00:04:13
a child learn something about living
00:04:16
beyond the textbook good
00:04:18
job good job very
00:04:21
good keep telling you you're the best
00:04:23
there is these are very very
00:04:26
good good job the morning after Martin
00:04:29
Luther their King was killed I a child
00:04:31
came into the room and said um they shot
00:04:33
a king last night why did they shoot a
00:04:35
king and we had to discuss it we
00:04:38
discussed it and I had thought about
00:04:41
this all evening the night before
00:04:42
watching this horror on television and
00:04:45
at the time we were studying an Indian
00:04:46
unit and I was ironing the teepee as I
00:04:50
was listening to this thing and it
00:04:52
became so utterly ridiculous to me this
00:04:55
whole thing is so so senseless
00:05:00
and based on something so
00:05:03
illogical that I thought they had to
00:05:05
find out children have to find out
00:05:08
adults obviously don't care or if they
00:05:10
do care they don't care enough to do
00:05:11
anything or are incapable of doing
00:05:13
something I don't know I think children
00:05:15
have to be told that this is wrong and
00:05:17
telling them they can turn you off I
00:05:19
wanted them to be involved in finding
00:05:21
out what happened I wanted them to know
00:05:23
at least a little bit about how it feels
00:05:25
to be stepped
00:05:27
upon I pledge the Le to the flag of the
00:05:31
United States of America and to the
00:05:34
republ for which it stands one nation
00:05:37
under God indivisible with liberty and
00:05:40
justice for all God Bless
00:05:45
[Applause]
00:05:47
[Music]
00:05:48
[Applause]
00:05:52
America above from the mountain to the
00:05:57
pries to the
00:06:04
[Applause]
00:06:07
[Music]
00:06:09
America godess
00:06:12
America my home sweet
00:06:16
home this is a special week does anybody
00:06:18
know what it is National Brotherhood
00:06:21
National Brotherhood week what's
00:06:22
Brotherhood be kind to your brothers be
00:06:25
kind okay be kind to your brothers like
00:06:28
you would like to be seated treat
00:06:29
everyone the way you would like to be
00:06:31
treated treat everyone as though he was
00:06:34
your brother and is there anyone in this
00:06:37
United States that we do not treat as
00:06:40
our brothers yeah
00:06:42
who the black people who else inan
00:06:47
absolutely the Indians and when you see
00:06:49
when many people see a black person or a
00:06:51
yellow person or a red person what do
00:06:53
they
00:06:56
think
00:06:57
at dumb people and look at the dumb
00:07:00
people what else do they think sometimes
00:07:02
what kinds of things do they say about
00:07:03
black
00:07:04
people negro in the city many
00:07:09
places in the United States how are
00:07:12
black people treated how are Indians
00:07:14
treated how are people who are of a
00:07:16
different color than we are
00:07:18
treated part of this world they don't
00:07:21
get anything in this world why is that
00:07:24
because they're different colors you
00:07:26
think you know how that would feel to be
00:07:27
judged by the color of your skin yeah I
00:07:30
don't do you think you do no I don't
00:07:32
think you would know how that felt
00:07:34
unless you had been through it would
00:07:36
you no is there anything about you
00:07:39
people that is different from one
00:07:42
another that we could
00:07:44
use to make part of
00:07:48
you like the eyes what color the eyes
00:07:52
okay we could use the color of your eyes
00:07:53
how many in you here have blue
00:07:56
eyes okay how many in here have brown
00:07:59
eyes
00:08:01
it might be interesting to judge people
00:08:03
today by the color of their
00:08:06
eyes would you like to try this sounds
00:08:09
like fun doesn't it since I'm the
00:08:11
teacher and I have blue eyes I think
00:08:15
maybe the blue-eyed people should be on
00:08:17
top the first
00:08:20
day up here I mean the blue-eyed
00:08:24
people are the better people in this
00:08:28
room oh yes they
00:08:31
are blueeyed people are Smarter Than
00:08:34
browney
00:08:36
People my dad isn't that is your dad
00:08:40
Browne yeah one day you came to school
00:08:42
and you told us that he kicked you he
00:08:45
did do you think a blue-eyed father
00:08:47
would kick his
00:08:49
son my
00:08:51
dad my dad's blueeyed he's never kicked
00:08:54
me Greg's dad is blueeyed he's never
00:08:56
kicked him's dad is blueeyed he's never
00:08:59
kicked
00:09:01
him what color eyes did George
00:09:03
Washington have blue blue blue
00:09:11
blue this is a this is a fact blue-eyed
00:09:15
people are better than browney
00:09:20
people are you browney or blue-eyed blue
00:09:23
why are you shaking your
00:09:26
[Music]
00:09:28
head are you sure that you're
00:09:32
right why what makes you so sure that
00:09:35
you're
00:09:37
right the blue-eyed people get five
00:09:40
extra minutes of recess while the
00:09:43
browney people have to stay
00:09:46
[Music]
00:09:48
in the browney people do not get to use
00:09:51
the drinking fountain you'll have to use
00:09:53
the paper
00:09:55
cups you brown-eyed people are not to
00:09:59
play with the blue-eyed people on the
00:10:00
playground because you are not as good
00:10:03
as blue-eyed people the brown-eyed
00:10:05
people in this room today are going to
00:10:07
work
00:10:07
collar so that we can tell from a
00:10:10
distance what color your eyes
00:10:13
are now the blueeyed people each of you
00:10:16
can pick out someone on whom to put a
00:10:18
collar so the blue-eyed people each come
00:10:20
up and get a collar you can choose
00:10:22
someone to put this collar
00:10:28
on
00:10:31
where are the most fun seats in the room
00:10:33
at the front or the back back front
00:10:36
front where should who should sit in the
00:10:38
front then the blue I think the bluee
00:10:41
people should
00:10:44
absolutely on
00:10:46
page
00:10:49
127 100
00:10:52
127 everyone
00:10:54
ready everyone but
00:10:56
lri ready lri
00:11:00
she's a
00:11:01
browney you'll begin to notice today
00:11:03
that we spend a great deal of time
00:11:05
waiting for brown-eyed
00:11:09
people the yard stick's gone well okay I
00:11:12
don't see the yard stick you over
00:11:16
there hey M you better keep that on your
00:11:18
desk so if the um brown people brown
00:11:21
people get out of
00:11:23
hand oh you think if the Browne people
00:11:26
get out of hand that would be the thing
00:11:27
to use
00:11:30
who goes first to lunch the blue-eyed
00:11:33
people no browney people go back for
00:11:37
seconds blueeyed people may go back for
00:11:39
seconds browney people do not Browne
00:11:41
don't you know they're not
00:11:44
smart that the only reason take too much
00:11:48
might take too much and tell the person
00:11:50
that goes back to um stay there because
00:11:54
the watch for these little colors so so
00:11:57
if they don't ask you they just might go
00:12:00
back oh you think I should alert the
00:12:03
lunchroom help to know that these people
00:12:05
should be yeah like the woman that you
00:12:09
go back for seconds tell her she'll
00:12:12
know tell her that's probably we should
00:12:15
do that shouldn't we
00:12:17
M okay quietly not a
00:12:24
[Music]
00:12:27
sound and the two black when we were
00:12:29
down on the bottom everything bad was
00:12:31
happening to
00:12:33
us the way they treated you you felt
00:12:35
like you didn't even want to try to do
00:12:38
anything seemed like Mrs Elliot was
00:12:41
taking our best friends away from
00:12:43
[Music]
00:12:51
us what happened at recess were two of
00:12:53
you boys
00:12:55
fighting John what happened John Russ
00:13:00
call me names and I hit him hit him in
00:13:04
the gut what did he call
00:13:07
you brown
00:13:10
eyes you call him brown
00:13:12
eyes they always call us that and all
00:13:16
the um eyes call Brown
00:13:20
Eyes come here brown eyes then they were
00:13:24
call us blue eyes I wasn't s Sandy and
00:13:28
Don were yeah yeah what's wrong with
00:13:30
being called brown
00:13:32
eyes it means that we're stupid we not
00:13:36
that oh that's just the same way as
00:13:40
other people call uh black people
00:13:43
ners yeah that the reason you hit him
00:13:47
John did it
00:13:49
help did it stop
00:13:52
him did it make you feel better
00:13:57
inside make you feel better
00:14:00
inside it make you feel better to call
00:14:02
him brown
00:14:03
eyes why do you suppose you call him
00:14:05
brown
00:14:07
eyes prob because he has brown eyes
00:14:10
that's the only reason he didn't call
00:14:11
him brown eyes yesterday and he had
00:14:13
brown eyes yesterday didn't he because
00:14:15
we get start yeah since you put those
00:14:17
blue things on there tease them tease
00:14:21
them oh is this teasing
00:14:24
no well he did it were you doing it for
00:14:26
fun to be funny or were you doing it to
00:14:29
be
00:14:32
[Applause]
00:14:35
mean I don't know don't ask me did
00:14:38
anyone laugh at you when you did I
00:14:40
watched what had been
00:14:42
marvelous Cooperative wonderful
00:14:45
thoughtful children turn
00:14:48
into nasty
00:14:52
vicious
00:14:54
discriminating little third graders in a
00:14:57
space of 15 minutes I think
00:14:59
I learned more from the superior
00:15:01
children than I did from the children
00:15:03
who were considered Superior than I did
00:15:05
from the children who were considered
00:15:07
inferior because their personalities
00:15:09
changed even more than the others did
00:15:11
whether they are this whether this is
00:15:13
what they would like to be inside but uh
00:15:16
Society inhibits them I don't know but
00:15:18
for one day we removed their inhibitions
00:15:20
and they were
00:15:23
ghastly we didn't like one another very
00:15:25
well by the end of the day that first
00:15:27
time yester day I told you that
00:15:30
brown-eyed people aren't as good as
00:15:31
blue-eyed people that wasn't true I lied
00:15:35
to you
00:15:38
yesterday the truth
00:15:40
is that brown-eyed people are better
00:15:43
than blue-eyed
00:15:45
[Music]
00:15:47
people Russell where are your
00:15:50
glasses I forgot them you forgot them
00:15:53
and what color are your eyes
00:15:57
blue Susan G
00:16:00
has brown eyes she didn't forget her
00:16:04
glasses Russell ring has blue eyes and
00:16:06
what about his glasses he forgot them he
00:16:09
forgot them all these browney people are
00:16:12
listening to what we're saying look at
00:16:14
Brian are blue-eyed people good
00:16:17
listeners
00:16:18
no Brian will you put that down
00:16:22
please thank
00:16:24
you yesterday we were visiting and Greg
00:16:27
said boy I like to hit my little sister
00:16:30
as hard as I can that's
00:16:33
fun what does that tell you about
00:16:35
blue-eyed people they're nauy they F A
00:16:39
Lot the brown eyed people may take off
00:16:43
their
00:16:44
collars and each of you may put your
00:16:47
collar on a blue-eyed
00:16:50
person put your
00:16:54
[Music]
00:16:56
hand I'll wa for you day you
00:17:01
were the browney people get five extra
00:17:04
minutes of
00:17:05
recess you blue-eyed people are not
00:17:08
allowed to be on the playground
00:17:10
equipment at any
00:17:13
time you blue-eyed people are not to
00:17:16
play with the browney people blue-eyed
00:17:18
people go to the back the browney people
00:17:20
come to the
00:17:22
[Applause]
00:17:25
[Music]
00:17:27
front
00:17:29
[Music]
00:17:33
okay brown-eyed people are better than
00:17:37
blue-eyed people they're smarter than
00:17:39
blue-eyed people and if you don't
00:17:42
believe it look at
00:17:44
Brian do blue-eyed people know how to
00:17:47
sit in a
00:17:49
chair very sad very very
00:17:53
[Music]
00:17:55
sad who can tell me what contraction
00:17:57
should be in the first sentence let's go
00:17:59
to the board and write it John come on
00:18:01
loosen up here we
00:18:03
go that's better let's do it
00:18:06
again oh there's nothing like a double
00:18:10
thank heaven for the
00:18:14
blessing here we
00:18:19
go come on let's do it again loosen up
00:18:22
up up up come on that's better now do
00:18:26
you know how to make a w okay write the
00:18:28
contraction for we
00:18:32
are now that's beautiful
00:18:35
writing is that better yes browney
00:18:39
people learn fast don't they boy do
00:18:41
brown-eyed people learn fast very
00:18:45
[Music]
00:18:51
good Greg what did you do with that
00:18:55
cup will you please go
00:18:59
and get that cup and put your name on it
00:19:03
and keep it at your desk blue-eyed
00:19:05
people are
00:19:08
wasteful okay you want to be time this
00:19:10
morning
00:19:11
[Applause]
00:19:13
yeah now use ort gingham phonics we used
00:19:15
the card pack and the children the
00:19:18
browney children were in the low class
00:19:20
the first day and it took them 5 and A2
00:19:22
minutes to get through the card pack the
00:19:24
second day it took them 2 and 1/2
00:19:26
minutes the only thing that had changed
00:19:29
was the fact that now they were Superior
00:19:31
people I thought you going to you went
00:19:33
faster than I ever had anyone go through
00:19:36
the card
00:19:37
pack why why couldn't you get them
00:19:39
yesterday we were C on you think the CT
00:19:44
thinking about those
00:19:47
car my eyes get rolling
00:19:51
around oh and you couldn't think as well
00:19:53
with the collars on 4 minutes and 18
00:19:58
seconds
00:20:00
I knew we weren't going to make
00:20:02
it how long did it take you
00:20:05
yesterday minutes 3 minutes how long did
00:20:08
it take you today 4 minutes and 18
00:20:11
seconds what happened one
00:20:14
down
00:20:18
why what were you thinking of
00:20:22
this I hate
00:20:24
today how you do I hate
00:20:27
too
00:20:30
because I'm
00:20:31
blueeyed see I am
00:20:33
too there nothing it's not funny it's
00:20:36
not fun it's not pleasant this is a
00:20:40
filthy nasty word called discrimination
00:20:43
we're treating people a certain way
00:20:44
because they are different from the rest
00:20:46
of us is that fair no no nothing fair
00:20:50
about it we didn't say this was going to
00:20:52
be a fair day did we no and it isn't
00:20:55
it's a horrid
00:20:57
day
00:21:00
okay you ready what did you blue people
00:21:03
who are wearing blue collars Now find
00:21:04
out today oh you I know what they felt
00:21:08
like yesterday I did too how did they
00:21:12
feel
00:21:13
yesterday down like a dog on a Le yeah
00:21:17
it feels like where you go into prison
00:21:20
like you cheat them up into prison and
00:21:23
you're throwing the key away should the
00:21:26
color of some other person's eyes have
00:21:28
anything to do with how you treat them
00:21:30
no all right then should the color of
00:21:32
their skin
00:21:33
no should you judge people no by the
00:21:37
color of their skin
00:21:40
no you're going to say that
00:21:43
today and this week and probably all the
00:21:46
time you're in this
00:21:48
room you'll say no Mrs
00:21:53
ell every time I ask that question no
00:21:58
then
00:22:00
when you
00:22:02
see a black man or an Indian or someone
00:22:07
walking down the street are you going to
00:22:09
say look at that silly looking thing
00:22:13
no does it make any difference whether
00:22:17
their skin is black or white or
00:22:20
yellow or
00:22:22
red is that how you decide whether
00:22:24
people are good or bad is that what
00:22:27
makes people good or bad
00:22:36
[Applause]
00:22:50
[Music]
00:22:51
[Applause]
00:22:55
[Music]
00:22:59
[Applause]
00:23:00
[Music]
00:23:09
[Applause]
00:23:27
[Applause]
00:23:29
oh you bu your friend
00:23:32
huh
00:23:34
friend
00:23:36
get okay you ready to listen now okay
00:23:39
now are you
00:23:42
back that feel
00:23:45
better do a color of eyes that you have
00:23:48
make any difference in the kind of
00:23:49
person you
00:23:52
are does that feel like being home again
00:23:57
girls oh
00:23:58
[Applause]
00:24:03
stop okay who knows the song
00:24:07
Anybody okay who can sing what's the
00:24:09
matter
00:24:10
Sheila
00:24:12
cry Sheil I mean feel better now
00:24:17
miserable situation isn't it okay who
00:24:21
knows
00:24:23
[Music]
00:24:23
[Applause]
00:24:27
what
00:24:35
Jane Elliot's third graders have learned
00:24:37
something of what it is to be isolated
00:24:39
and separated from other people not
00:24:42
because of what you are but because of
00:24:44
the color of your eyes or the color of a
00:24:46
piece of cloth around your neck or the
00:24:49
color of your skin we don't know if
00:24:51
these children will remember what
00:24:52
they've learned but it's not likely that
00:24:55
they'll forget their courageous and
00:24:56
creative teacher who made their lives
00:24:59
wretched for one day and at the same
00:25:01
time gave them the Priceless
00:25:03
understanding of human
00:25:05
psychology this is Bill Bell in rville
00:25:12
[Music]
00:25:13
[Applause]
00:25:14
Iowa he had
00:25:17
high he had high apple pie in the sky
00:25:23
hope so anytime you're feeling sadad of
00:25:26
feeling bad just remember that
00:25:30
whoops billion
00:25:32
K billion K
00:25:36
whoops K
00:25:39
Dam so keep your high hes keep your High
00:25:45
Hopes your high p in
00:25:49
the hopes of problems just to balloon
00:25:53
they'll be
00:25:56
soon John speaking this has been a
00:26:00
presentation of ABC
00:26:03
[Applause]
00:26:16
News
