Social Experiment on Racism and Thoughts on White Privilege

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Anthropology of "Race" is the name of my latest class. I know for a fact that this course will be one of the most important ones I ever take; not just because it's a degree requirement, but because it speaks the very truth that my fellow white students and I need to hear.

The class began with a brief introduction. My professor, who confirmed that she was a white, middle class woman and that, although spent much time living in African and Chinese communities, will never know what racism feels like. She is kind, honest, and genuine; her lectures serve to start discussions so the material really sinks in. After this brief introduction to the course, she showed us a film called The Angry Eye that really opened my eyes. It started out like a poorly edited, 1990's educational film but it turned into something very different. Teacher, Jane Elliott, a dedicated educator, anti-racism advocate decides to film a series of experiments with willing student volunteers. These experiments are dated, of course - Jane Elliott did not create them, but she did use them in a way that proved the existence of racism and white privilege in a way that really hit home. The experiment was created with the intention to separate groups of people - think of Hitler; he separated people into various categories as a way to justify hatred and discrimination.

Jane Elliott is not shy to admit that she used one of the same categories that Hitler used, but a major difference is that Elliott wants to abolish racism and prejudice while Hitler wanted to create more. The categorization that she used in this particular film is based on blue-eyed people and brown-eyed people. The blue-eyed volunteers are placed into a room with their blue-eyed peers, while Jane Elliott sits in a room with the brown-eyed students. Amongst the brown-eyed students are many non-white students. Elliott, who is not afraid to get angry, tells the brown-eyed students to treat the blue-eyed students as if they were not humans, to taunt them and call them "boy" or "chick, baby, hunny" instead of their names. She places eight or so chairs in the middle of the room while the brown-eyed group sits in chairs surrounding them - similar to a jury setting.                                                             

The blue-eyed students are ushered in, with green collars made of paper around their necks to signify that they are indeed "blueys", as Elliott stated. This was yet another way to illustrate a lack of power for the blue-eyed, white students. Jane hassles one of the white women about not bringing supplies to class and tries to get her to list out various words in order and recall them. She continues to badger her and asks the same questions over and over. The young woman starts to get angry and talks back. The teacher ignores this and so eventually the woman gets so upset that she began to cry. The non-white students look at the white woman as if they had known it all too well. There is not the same shock in their eyes as their white classmates, who look very defensive.

The woman remains in class as Elliott moves on with the experiment. A young blonde woman sits and stares as Elliott asks her to read text from a sign. The signs on the walls regurgitate old racial absurdities such as "Only Brown Eyes Need Apply", "I'm not prejudiced, I don't see color" and various others. Elliott begins to interrupt the woman, telling her to speak more clearly. Bitterly, Elliott tells the woman that she is failing the task and just as the other white woman; she tries to snap back at the teacher. Elliott continued anyway. Finally, the woman starts to cry and walks out of the room. Shortly after, the woman returns to the room and sits near the door. Elliott looks at the woman and says, "You exercised a freedom that many people can't." She advises her that she has to apologize to every person in the class or she will have to leave. The woman appears desperate, but stands up and states, "I'm sorry, but the racism in our society..."Elliot interrupts her, reminding her that her apology was not genuine at all. The woman leaves the class.

The white students look shocked. The non-white students start to say things that sound unbelievable. A black woman from the crowd says something along the lines of, "She just walked out of here, we don't have the power to do that, it's not like she was having things thrown at her, or having people call her names."  Another black woman says something like, "Now they see what I go through every day."

Immediately, my realization kicks in, all I can think is, "Teachers throw things at their students? Since when?!"

After the film, my brain could not comprehend the material right away. But then it hit me. I realized that I would have not handled the situation well either, I realized that I had a whole lot of white privilege that I hadn't even known about. By this I mean, if I had been one of the white women, and if this was when I was younger, I likely would have acted that way, too. I would have gotten all defensive, snobby and angry. In high school, I was oblivious to privilege and power in society; I was oblivious to a lot of things.

In my opinion, that experiment taught students the truth. The truth being that society is racist in so many ways. It's not just the school system - it's the prison systems, the government and other major institutions.  It illustrates what it may feel like to be treated like a non-human. Obviously an experiment where the people are in no real danger is not anywhere near similar to what non-white people have gone through because of racism. Nevertheless, I believe that if white people just took their heads out of their asses, they could make some changes.

This experiment is a perfect example with problems with power in our society. The white-students displayed such ease in "talking back" to the teacher. They knew they were physically safe, yet they stormed out of the class. They knew they were not in any real danger. That in itself reveals just how much privilege white people have, not to mention middle class, heterosexual white people.

Another view that I took away from this film was surrounding the idea that class and race play a central role in privilege and oppression in our society. For example, if you put a black male and a white male together in a room, who would you say has more privileges in our society?  You're right; the white male has more privilege. This can also pertain to women; we would state that a white, middle class feminist has far more privileges than a non-white woman, or even a white woman who is of the working class. There are far more examples, for instance: sexual orientation and gender identity. A lesbian woman has far less privileges than a homosexual male, for example. However, if you are intersex, transgender or two-spirited you will have much less privileges than a white heterosexual male or a white class-privileged homosexual male.

This is the multi-layered and multi-faceted system of oppression, which in my opinion, needs to be brought down.

Finally, I hope you all can check out Jane Elliott's experiments and other works. It was really an eye-opener to actually see this scenario play out in a real life situation, on purpose. If you would like to watch the video, I can provide some links to possible clips. I'm not 100% sure if they will work, or if they are in full, but it's worth a shot!

Here is a clip from the film